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Where were those darn elephant seals hiding??! 45mins of bumping and skidding along the cliff top at Punta Ninfas in our poor little silver hire car, stopping to peer gingerly over the edge whilst trying not to be swept over by the wind and we were still none the wiser. OK so you might argue that a seal is a seal and I'd already seen plenty in Antarctica, but those weren't Elephant seals, the largest of seals with their distinctive noses. Here at Punta Ninfas, some 90 km southwest of Puerto Madryn, they were apparently (almost!!) guaranteed to be found, but with the exception of a few playing out in the surf we'd yet to see any. In the end we decided to park up, brave the winds and clamber down. We'd been warned about unattended cars being stolen or vandalised so we took it in turns, the French couple going down first whilst I cooked in the car with the other Brits I'd met on the bus from El Chalten - although sunny outside the wind was evil and being scoured by the sand it whipped up wasn't much fun, so we opted to fry instead. An hour passed and
we weren't overly hopeful that they'd find any, but then when they did come back - good news!!!! A group was lazing at the base of the cliff almost directly below where we were parked. Obscured by the cliff overhang and lying in the shade the others had only spotted them because they looked like large rocks... that moved.
Minutes later the 3 of us started the scramble down. The cliffs were made of soft stuff, crumbling away beneath our feet and we fairly slid our way to the bottom.... not so bad on the way down but it made the climb back up quite interesting, something like 3 steps forward, two steps back. Sure enough snoozing below was a group of 20 or more Elephant seals. They take their name from the large nose of the adult males (bulls) which resembles an elephant's trunk. The bulls grow up to 5 m long, weighing up to 6,000 lb and are much larger than the females. A few opened an eye to peer at us as we waited, cameras ready, for the bull to yawn (that's when you see the distinctive shape of its nose) but they didn't seem all
that interested in us - either they're used to being photographed, or couldn't be bothered to chase us away (which would have worked quite effectively because they were hugeee!)
Next morning I was out early with another group from the hostel. The hostel owner used to guide whale watching tours and apparently today was the day to see Orcas! At least, the conditions were more favourable than tomorrow which was the alternative - something to do with wind speed, direction and temperature. So a group of us hired a car and set off to stake out the Orca viewing platform at Peninsular Valdes. To be honest we probably got the best view when we first arrived, just in time to see a huge black dorsal fin cruise by not far from shore. This was a male orca known locally as
Mel, its dorsal fin 2m high and triangular in shape. Male Orcas are much larger than females, growing up to @9.8 m long and weighing in at 9 - 10,000 kg. Females in comparison grow to about 8.5m and 6,500 to 7,500 kg. Both sexes have the distinctive black and white colouring though.
The special thing about the
Orcas at Peninsular Valdez, and the reason we were here, is that they intentionally launch themselves up the beach to feed on young sealions playing in the surf. Not all do it, there's only a short season when they do - and this was it! Five colonies of sealions were spread out along the beach here, four infront of the public viewing area and another a few hundred meters further up on the headland. The only way to get a good view of the latter is to be a professional photographer or film crew paying hundreds of dollars for the privilege and unfortunately for us plebs in the public area this is where Mel likes to hunt. The professionals had an amazing view as Mel launched himself up the beach and feasted on sealion pups - we saw him circling, circling, circling, a sudden push forward and a fierce shake side to side, I imagine when he grabbed a pup then headed back out to sea. Personally, given that I'd once spent a week kayaking to see Orcas and didn't see a single blimming one, I was happy with that!
Another day, another overnight bus and the next morning
saw me arrive in Bariloche. Until now in South America we'd always booked hostels in advance, mostly because there'd been 4 of us and trying to turn up and get a room was risky. Now on my own I decided it was time to be a proper backpacker and wing it. So having navigated my way by public bus to the town centre (it always makes you popular when you get onto a packed bus with a big backpack, knocking people out of the way with it as you go) I went in search of a hostel... and proceeded to spend the next hour or so lugging my rucksack up and down streets as each one I went to was either full, too club 18-21 party, dirty or.... Really I'm not that fussy. Grrr.
Bariloche is a funny place - with a stunning location on the edge of a large lake and mountains in the background the buildings in the town centre are all wooden and Swiss chalet style and every other shop makes Swiss chocolates! Heaven! Although I had 4 days here I didn't really spend much time in the town itself. First up was the Los Arrayanes
National Park, a trip that involved a bus to the nearby town of Villa la Angostura (more Swiss chalets, more chocolates), then a boat out to the tip of the Quetrihué Peninsula on Lake Nahuel Huapi - perhaps rather a lot of effort for some trees (even ones that are 300-600 years old) if you're not into that kind of thing but the views from the boat were stunning with calm waters, trees right down to the shore line and blue sky. Arrayan trees are small, rare and distinctive, with trunks that appear contorted and are covered in a smooth orangey-brown bark which peels as the tree grows.
After a relaxed day tree watching I was in need of some exercise and a Dutch guy I'd met at the hostel recommended the 30km bike ride he'd done the day before - with hindsight the fact he was 6ft tall, fit and comes from a country where everyone cycles (even if it is flat) should have been a warning! The last time I used a bike for any reason other than to get between vineyards or ruins was 10 years ago so its perhaps not surprising that by the end
of the day I'd decided that as a cyclist, I make a great walker. A group of us arrived at the cycle hire place together and as we got the low down on the route one of the others asked whether there was much uphill involved. 'Oh the way up to the view point is steep' he said 'but that's about all'. And true enough there was a steep climb up to the viewpoint with a nice descent afterwards.... except what he forgot to mention was that the road then went up again and down and up again and down and up and up and grrr. These weren't little bits of up hill either, they were mountains! OK slight exaggeration maybe but I was pleased that everyone I passed or stopped to collapse with exchanged the same 'oh my god' look! Seriously I think I could have walked it faster than it took me to cycle. The scenery was beautiful though!
So thinking that it might be a while before I got much more exercise I decided to completely kill my body and go on a hike up to the Refugio on Mt Tronador. That's one day of up
and up and up and a few hours of rolling back down again the next day. Most of the way up I had a choice between the 'road' (i.e. a muddy track that zig zagged up the hill on a more gentle gradient) or the straight up hob goblin route which was a short cut between the zig zags along narrow paths over hung by low branches with occasional glimpses of the mountain peaks in the distance. To start with I mixed it up a bit, alternating between the wimpy road option and the hard core hiking path. Then the nice easy road ended and it was steep zig zags up all the way to the top. From there it was good news, kind off... a few kms of flattish terrain lay ahead except now I was above the tree line, the path was a sandy dust-bowl lined by low bushes and the sun was blazing overhead. For the first time though I had clear and spectacular views of Mount Tronador, the ice and glaciers that cover its top down to a cliff edge where waterfalls pour over to the valley floor way below. And all around were forest covered
hills and valleys. After the sandy track the terrain changed again to black spiky volcanic rock, probably the hardest part of the trek simply because I was exhausted yet now had the added challenge of finding the path - spotting white dots painted onto rocks 20m or so ahead can be quite tough when you're being blinded by the sun! Named for the avalanches that are loud enough to be heard miles away Mount Tronador is 3491m high and the highest in this area. And after 18km and an ascent of 1200m I finally reached Refugio Otto Meiling, home for the night and collapsed to take in the views - situated between two huge glaciers on the bare rock before the snow line it really was quite stunning.
The next day I headed off to Santiago, a trip most memorable for the drive between the Argentinian and Chilean Immigration posts - the drive across the Andes was beautiful but the hilarious part was that there was almost enough time between posts to watch a whole movie!
Next up, big heads on Easter Island
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Those are great photos Wendy. :)