Sat
31 Mar
2018

Good to be in shel­te­red coas­tal waters again! The surf on the outer coast was very impres­si­ve, not a good place to run aground, as count­less ships did trough the cen­tu­ries. We had our bea­rings right and ente­red Bahía Anna Pink (one of tho­se love­ly pla­cen­a­mes again), the ent­rance to a sys­tem of chan­nels through the Archi­pe­la­go de los Cho­nos. The sea got com­ple­te­ly calm during the mor­ning, the water was like a mir­ror again mid-day.

Green trees cove­ring the moun­ta­ins in the Archi­pe­la­go de los Cho­nos

The sun was shi­ning warm­ly and T-shirts and shorts were seen on the sun deck. May­be it was just the impres­si­on under the coin­ci­dence of today’s wea­ther, but ever­y­thing seems to be mil­der than south of the Gol­fo de Penas: the air is warm, the forests are cove­ring the hills up to hig­her alti­tu­des, the land appears green, lush and mild. Nevert­hel­ess, pen­gu­ins are swim­ming around in con­sidera­ble num­bers and fur­ther inland, the­re is one of the big­gest non-polar ice-caps of the Earth. May­be it is real­ly just the wea­ther of today …

Sun­rays hit the water, Canal Chaca­bu­co

Sai­ling in the late evening and during the night, across calm waters and in moon­light, is very atmo­sphe­ric!

Gal­lery – Archi­pe­la­go de los Cho­nos – 31 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Fri
30 Mar
2018

After the sun­ny hikes on the Isla Jung­frau­en, we had to wait out yet ano­ther day while the storm was raging out the­re on open sea.

It was pou­ring rain for most of the day, so the on-board cine­ma was by far the best thing to do.

Wind, waves and Alba­tros­ses: sai­ling at open sea around the Pen­in­su­la de Tai­tao.

Yes­ter­day, we could final­ly set sail again. We have to get this next leg done, across the Gol­fo de Penas and around the Pen­in­su­la de Ta Ito. We still have 500 nau­ti­cal miles ahead of us to Puer­to Montt, and the days are going quick­ly.

Alba­tros­ses have an enorm­ous wingspan of more than three meters!

The open sea is always some­thing peo­p­le see with mixed fee­lings: some have to retre­at to their cab­ins while others are enjoy­ing wind and waves. Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of both groups are pre­sent on board. But the sail­ors and pho­to­graph­ers among­st us had a lot to enjoy! We made good speed with up to more than 8 knots, wind and waves in con­stant­ly chan­ging light con­di­ti­ons and many, many sea­birds. From the small pet­rels to the Grea Alba­tros­ses (Wan­de­ring, Nor­t­hern and Sou­thern Roy­al Alba­tross) and a lot in bet­ween.

Gal­lery – Pen­in­su­la de Tai­tao – 30 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Wed
28 Mar
2018

We have got the Gol­fo de Penas ahead of us and thus an open sea pas­sa­ge which will take about one and a half days wit­hout the pro­tec­tion of the coas­tal waters that we have enjoy­ed so far. It is obvious­ly important to have a good wea­ther win­dow for that, which we were sup­po­sed to have now, but rea­li­ty was dif­fe­rent. The wind and sea were quite rough alre­a­dy in the chan­nels, and the latest fore­cast spo­ke a quite dif­fe­rent but very clear lan­guage.

Wai­ting for the wind to calm down, Isla Jung­frau­en

So the­re is not much to do but to wait for bet­ter times regar­ding the open sea pas­sa­ge. Some­thing that is gre­at at the time being (later, we will have to catch up again, though), as we have got the Isla Jung­frau­en near­by, which has the beau­tiful Cale­ta Vir­gin. The name of the island („Island of vir­gins“) is inte­res­t­ing, but it does not keep the pro­mi­se, as we have found out by now. But the island has got the beau­tiful Cale­ta Vir­gen, which tur­ned out to be a gre­at place to stay safe­ly with a ship and bey­ond that, it is a gre­at place for hiking! Once you have got bey­ond the usu­al few met­res of den­se coas­tal forest, the land­scape opens up and offers many gre­at hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties over hills and smal­ler moun­ta­ins with stun­ning pan­o­r­amic views, some lakes, wind-bea­ten trees and a lot of ama­zing places to dis­co­ver. An unbe­lie­v­a­b­ly beau­tiful hid­den cor­ner of the pla­net! We were all a bit tired after the last night, but that was quick­ly for­got­ten in the beau­ty of the sce­n­ery. And in here, the wea­ther is gre­at! The Cale­ta is well shel­te­red, so hard­ly noti­ce any­thing of the strong winds and hea­vy seas out­side (on the moun­ta­ins, you can hard­ly stand at times) and the sun is with us most of the day. Love­ly!

Gal­lery – Isla Jung­frau­en – 28/29 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

As men­tio­ned, we will have to catch up again time-wise, the days are going and they are not coming back. But we could not have found a bet­ter place to wait for bet­ter con­di­ti­ons, and when you see the pho­tos, I guess you don’t belie­ve that we are stuck here for wea­ther reasons.

What you can’t see in this pic­tu­re: Due to strong winds you can hard­ly stand on some of the hig­her spots.

There’s defi­ni­te­ly no bet­ter place for a day of wai­ting.

Tue
27 Mar
2018

Sud­den­ly the wea­ther is on our side again and Cale­ta Coli­bri lets us go. The advan­ta­ge of the quick wea­ther chan­ges is that the wea­ther chan­ges quick­ly.

After a night and many miles we reach Puer­to Edén, which real­ly looks like a bit of a gar­den Eden on a day like this, under a blue sky and with mir­ror images on the water. We haven’t had too many days like this!

Simp­le but colourful huts in Puer­to Edén

Puer­to Edén is a small vil­la­ge with a few hundred inha­bi­tants, most of them des­cen­dants of the indi­ge­neous popu­la­ti­on of this area. The usu­al, tra­gic histo­ry of colo­ni­al mur­der and dise­a­ses has not left many of them ali­ve, and prac­ti­cal­ly not­hing of their cul­tu­re. Ins­tead, the­re is Puer­to Edén, which star­ted its exis­tance as a small air­force base and still has a mili­ta­ry pre­sence. Bey­ond that, it has a num­ber of simp­le but colourful huts near the shore, which looks beau­tiful. It is love­ly to walk around and enjoy all the views and colours and the wea­ther which feels real­ly medi­ter­ra­ne­an on a rare day like this. Unfort­u­nat­ly, my Colo­bri pho­to from yes­ter­day (or the day befo­re? Time is fly­ing, it is ama­zing!) has lost a lot of value as a rari­ty today, as the­re are a lot of Coli­bris around here and the dedi­ca­ted pho­to­graph­ers got reward­ed for their pati­ence.

Gal­lery – Puer­to Edén – 27 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

The­re are even two shops, but both of them fit into a small room. But the­re are fisher­men who come direct­ly to the boat to offer their fresh catch. Deli­cious!

In the after­noon and during the night, we make sure that we get fur­ther north. We have to, the­re are still many miles to go and the wea­ther is per­fect and of rare beau­ty.

Sun
25 Mar
2018

Cale­ta Coli­bri is not a place for long hikes. The forest is so den­se that it is sim­ply impos­si­ble to get any­whe­re. I have tried it. It does not work.

But the­re are seve­ral inte­res­t­ing places. In one place, peo­p­le obvious­ly spent a lot of time eating mus­sels. The­re is a big pile of them. Who and when? That’s some­thing we’d also love to know.

Whe­re do all the­se mus­sels come from? Unsol­ved ques­ti­ons in the Cale­ta Coli­bri

You can climb up a tree and it does hard­ly look dif­fe­rent from stan­ding on the ground. Many of them are so den­se­ly cover­ed with mos­ses and all sorts of plants that it looks like the ground. It is all green, ever­y­whe­re.

And, yes, Cale­ta Coli­bri lived up to its name! A small group of dedi­ca­ted pho­to­graph­ers wai­ted pati­ent­ly to get a chan­ce, and we were reward­ed. I would guess it was a Green-backed fire­crown (Sepha­no­ides sepha­no­ides), accor­ding to our book „Bird of Chi­le“.

Gal­lery – Cale­ta Coli­bri – 25 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Now the wind has to calm down a bit so we can con­ti­nue towards Puer­to Edén. That is the next place we are hea­ding for and the first place sin­ce Puer­to Wil­liams whe­re peo­p­le are living. We have to go shop­ping, we are run­ning out of cho­co­la­te and beer.

Nomen est omen: Cale­ta Coli­bri

Sun
25 Mar
2018

After a real Sun­day mor­ning break­fast (scram­bled eggs and fresh rolls!) it was time to move nor­thwards again. Wind and rain in Canal Pitt, stun­ning light later, sun and blue sky alter­na­ting with some light clouds.

The wind is sup­po­sed to pick up again stron­gly tonight, so we deci­de to hide in Cale­ta Coli­bri. A love­ly place for a calm night. And may­be the name keeps the pro­mi­se ..?

A love­ly bay with a pro­mi­sing name: Cale­ta Coli­bri, Canal Tres Cor­res

Gal­lery – Canal Tres Cor­res – 25 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Sat
24 Mar
2018

After a long day out and a fore­cast with a lot of wind for the night, what we nee­ded was a good Cale­ta to pro­vi­de a shel­te­red ancho­ra­ge for a night.

Cale­ta Vil­la­ri­ca can be recom­men­ded for that pur­po­se. It starts a bit like Decep­ti­on Island: you approach a steep coast, a nar­row ent­rance with rocks in the water, steep cliffs on both sides (a bit gree­ner here than on Decep­ti­on Island), ever­y­bo­dy starts pla­cing bets if the ship will actual­ly fit through it – of cour­se, it works, the skip­per knows what he is doing. Then, a love­ly bay opens, a real pira­te hidea­way. A love­ly place to make a ship storm­pro­of for the night.

Will it fit? It will! Cale­ta Vil­la­ri­ca

Wal­king in the­se forests is not for the faint-hear­ted. We could have used a chain­saw, ropes and a lad­der for that litt­le walk which in open ter­rain would have taken may­be 10 minu­tes. India­na Jones would have been ama­zed by the den­si­ty of this rain forest.

As always, the view was worth it!

India­na Jones would have enjoy­ed this: Den­se forest in the Cale­ta Vil­la­ri­ca

The ama­zing view over Cale­ta Vil­la­ri­ca was worth the strugg­le through the bush

Gal­lery – Cale­ta Vil­la­ri­ca – 24 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Sat
24 Mar
2018

Puer­to Bue­no lived up to its name and gave us a beau­tiful and calm night. Very plea­sant. Which was fol­lo­wed by a stun­ning sun­ri­se and a new wea­ther fore­cast, which gave us some more time befo­re the next peri­od of strong wind is sup­po­sed to come. So we could set cour­se for the Ama­lia Gla­cier, which was gre­at, becau­se we had all been loo­king for­ward to it. We went under sail and suns­hi­ne with the view of the Cam­po de hie­lo, the inland ice of Pata­go­nia, in the distance. Gre­at sai­ling.

Sun­ri­se in the “Good Har­bour”, Puer­to Bue­no

We were fol­lo­wed by dol­phins on the last miles to the famous Ama­lia Gla­cier, a stun­ning blue ice cliff lea­ding up the the snow- and ice-cover­ed moun­ta­ins in the area of the inland ice. Again, we were lucky with the wea­ther and had gre­at views; often the who­le moun­tain sce­n­ery is hid­den low clouds. Ano­ther gre­at day!

So, tonight it is sup­po­sed to be win­dy. We have set cour­se for a small bay whe­re the wind should not bother us too much. All the­se gre­at ancho­ra­ges here in coas­tal Pata­go­nia are real­ly a tre­asu­re. A gre­at con­ve­ni­ence and always a scenic plea­su­re.

The cliffs of the Ama­lia gla­cier

Gal­lery – Ama­lia Gla­cier – 24 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Fri
23 Mar
2018

The wind should have cal­med down over night, and so it did inde­ed. Not that it was real­ly com­fy, stan­ding out­side and stee­ring the ship. Still 30 knots of wind on the nose of ship and helms­man, plus a bit of rain and the occa­sio­nal bit of hail. Pata­go­nia.

But then came dif­fe­rent times! Blue ski­es and sun! We fol­lo­wed various water­ways for many miles to the north, enjoy­ing wea­ther and sce­n­ery on deck. Paso Vic­to­ria, the long Canal Sar­mi­en­to and other big, beau­tiful chan­nels most peo­p­le will hard­ly ever have heard of.

Blue Sky over Canal Sar­mi­en­to

Bro­ken land. Many the­se chan­nels are drawn like with a ruler, a straight line. They fol­low huge faults, that is geo­lo­gi­cal cracks, in geo­me­tri­cal pat­terns; sets of fault lines fol­low cer­tain direc­tions and then the­re are seve­ral of the­se main direc­tions. Altog­e­ther forming pat­terns that you can cle­ar­ly see on the hills­i­des and on the map. The vege­ta­ti­on is a bit more spar­se here, espe­ci­al­ly on some light-grey moun­ta­ins with roun­ded tops, which appear to con­sist of gra­ni­te or some simi­lar crystal­li­ne rock.

The latest wea­ther fore­cast cau­ses mixed thoughts regar­ding tomor­row. Our plan is to visit the famous Ama­lia gla­cier, which is said to be beau­tiful. But the new fore­cast pro­mi­ses a lot of wind alre­a­dy tomor­row. We will have to see how that all fits tog­e­ther. We will see. In the end, natu­re rules.

For the moment, we deci­de to drop the anchor in a litt­le, silent bay cal­led „Puer­to Bue­no“, hoping that the name does not pro­mi­se too much.

Gal­lery – Canal Sar­mi­en­to – 23 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Thu
22 Mar
2018

After seve­ral hours sai­ling nor­thwards in Canal Smyth, the wind picked up bey­ond 50 knots, straight on the nose, of cour­se. After criss-crossing a few miles and gai­ning not­hing but cha­os on the gal­ley, we gave up and went rather into a love­ly bay to anchor. A small pod of dol­phins (Dus­ky, pro­ba­b­ly) accom­pa­nied us on the way into the bay, and once the­re, we were wel­co­med by a curious Mari­ne otter. A very fri­end­ly place!

A Mari­ne otter wel­co­mes us near the Pen­in­su­la Zach

And it did pro­vi­de the shel­ter that we wan­ted. Calm waters and no wind, except from some occa­sio­nal gus­ting. We wai­ted for a strong rain show­er to pass through and then we went out to explo­re the area a bit. The name is pro­mi­sing: Pen­in­su­la Zach is named after Wolf­gang Zach, the mas­ter car­pen­ter in Lon­gye­ar­by­en who is buil­ding tho­se gre­at pic­tu­re frames from Spits­ber­gen drift­wood of which we had a few on offer last year (and we will have some more again later this year … ) so, a pro­mi­sing place! We were curious what Pen­in­su­la Zach would have to offer, but it had to be good any­way.

We were not to be dis­ap­poin­ted. Pen­in­su­la Zach is almost an island. Our anchor bay is sepa­ra­ted from the bay on the other side by just 200 meters of dry land (it was actual­ly pret­ty wet). It is a walk of ten minu­tes befo­re you reach a litt­le hill from which you have a view towards a bay in two oppo­si­te direc­tions. The remai­ning direc­tions are occup­pied by moun­ta­ins. A stun­ning pan­ora­ma!

The pan­ora­ma over the Pen­in­su­la Zach was worth the short but wet walk

The coas­tal low­lands were love­ly with its low forest – less den­se than else­whe­re – and wet­lands, but we went a bit fur­ther. From an ele­va­ted per­spec­ti­ve, the views were even bet­ter. The view to the sou­the­ast was towards a wide-open val­ley with a river, lakes and a lot of wet­land are­as. The sun sent a bright beam down onto this land­scape of water.

Stun­ning!

Gal­lery – Pen­in­su­la Zach – 22 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Then it star­ted to rain again, and we made sure we were back on board in time for the Piet-show (the dai­ly mas­ter­pie­ces of Piet, our cook).

… by the way: Pen­in­su­la Zach was named after Franz von Zach, a Hun­ga­ri­an astro­no­mer who joi­n­ed the famous Bea­gle with Cap­tain Fitz­roy on the first expe­di­ti­on, from 1831 to 1836 (Dar­win was on the second expe­di­ti­on).

Dol­phins accom­pa­nied us on our way into the bay of Pen­in­su­la Zach

Wed
21 Mar
2018

Calm night, well shel­te­red? For­get about it … that works well as long as the anchor is hol­ding, but once the wind starts blo­wing stron­gly from the wrong direc­tion and the anchor is drag­ging, you sud­den­ly find yours­elf at ungod­ly ear­ly times undo­ing shore­li­nes from trees on steep, slip­pery shores in the dark­ness and so on. Well, some time later the anchor – both of them, to be pre­cise – went down in the midd­le of the lar­ger bay, and ever­y­thing was fine again. Back to bed for ano­ther litt­le while.

View from Isla Hose over the Pata­go­ni­an archi­pe­la­go

A win­dy day, which kept us insi­de the bay in Isla Hose, enjoy­ing life on board and later making some walk on the island. For some of us who had an uncon­trol­led out­break of moti­va­ti­on for hiking it tur­ned out to be a good bit of a walk, fol­lo­wing a cou­ple of hill­tops, crossing small wet­lands, very den­se forests and steep slo­pes. Good fun!

A walk through den­se forests on Isla Hose

Gal­lery – Isla Hose – 21 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Tue
20 Mar
2018

Magel­lan dis­co­ver­ed the strait that he got named after him in 1520 during the famous voya­ge that was to beco­me the very first cir­cum­na­vi­ga­ti­on of the glo­be. A gre­at advan­ta­ge for us: we know that the Strait of Magel­lan exists and whe­re it is, so we can easi­ly enjoy the pas­sa­ge of the eas­tern part, which we do hap­pi­ly while the wea­ther is good for this long chan­nel.

Ano­ther beau­tiful quiet and remo­te bay and after all: the Sun!

After a pas­sa­ge of 30 hours, we ente­red Canal Smyth north of the Strait of Magel­lan, lea­ving Tier­ra del Fue­go behind us now. The anchor went down in a love­ly Cale­ta, one of the­se sweet, litt­le bays made by the gla­ciers just for sai­ling boats. It takes always a bit of clim­bing on the steep, slip­pery shores to get the shore­li­nes fixed, which is good fun, and once it is done, you have an almost bombpro­of place for the night, in most cases (still, we usual­ly keep an anchor­watch).

We still had time to explo­re the sur­roun­dings in the mor­ning, and we even had suns­hi­ne on top of it! Can you belie­ve it? It had been a while, the­se waters are not exact­ly suns­hi­ne coun­try. Still, it is beau­tiful here in almost any kind of wea­ther, but of cour­se it is so much more enjoya­ble when the sun is out. All the­se colours! All the­se shades of green in the lush coas­tal forests! The water, the sky, the clouds, the land … breath­ta­kin­gly beau­tiful on a day like this. Bay, nar­row chan­nels … A Rin­ged king­fi­sher was sit­ting on a branch as if it was get­ting paid for it.

Pho­to­shoo­ting with a Rin­ged king­fi­sher

Later, we had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stretch legs a bit on Isla Hose, kree­ping through the den­se­ly vege­ta­ted forests while try­ing to get up a hill to enjoy some gre­at views. Now we are enjoy­ing a calm night in ano­ther well-shel­te­red Cale­ta while some hea­vy wea­ther is said to come up out­side. Shouldn’t real­ly bother us in here.

Gal­lery – Cale­ta Pro­fun­do – Isla Hose: 20 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Sun
18 Mar
2018

We rea­ched Puer­to King yes­ter­day after many wet an win­dy miles. The name see­med to sug­gest a har­bour of roy­al qua­li­ties, at least a fishing vil­la­ge, may­be with a cosy pub at the har­bour … but no, it is much bet­ter: a love­ly natu­ral har­bour, exact­ly our size. Par­king kind of in the midd­le of the rain forest, we fix shore lines on three sides, secu­ring the boat per­fect­ly safe. No anchor watch! Good thing, as we all easi­ly agree.

Wet and fun­ny: A walk through den­se rain­fo­rest

It con­ti­nues to rain the next day, which does not keep us from going out to explo­re a bit. After all the rain, the land­scape is wet. Water ever­y­whe­re, it is splas­hing with every step you take, whe­re­ver you put your hand. One should not be afraid of get­ting wet here, it is much bet­ter to re-dis­co­ver the plea­su­re that we had as child­ren when we play­ed in the water, then it is fun! The­re is very den­se Pata­go­ni­an rain forest almost ever­y­whe­re near the shore, a cha­os of trees, stems and bran­ches stan­ding and lying ever­y­whe­re, den­se­ly cover­ed with mos­ses and lichens. A green cha­os, almost impos­si­ble to pene­tra­te.

A few met­res fur­ther up, the rain­fo­rest is giving way to a more open kind of land­scape, wet­lands with litt­le streams and rocky hills. The lat­ter are part­ly steep and slip­pery, the fur­ther have grown to be real obs­ta­cles after all the rain. So you have to find your way through this land­scape somehow, which is not always easy.

Curious and signi­fi­cant­ly lar­ger than the Euro­pean Red fox

Back at the shore, a Pata­go­ni­an Grey fox fol­lows us curious­ly for a few met­res. They are sur­pri­sin­gly lar­ge, much lar­ger than the Euro­pean Red fox, not to men­ti­on the Arc­tic fox far up north. For a moment the inex­pe­ri­en­ced obser­ver might think to see a she­p­herd dog! And the Grey fox is only the smal­ler one of two spe­ci­es that you may find here.

Gal­lery – Puer­to King – 18 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Fri
16 Mar
2018

Canal Bal­le­n­e­ro, Wha­lers’ Strait, was just one of many chan­nels that we are pas­sing the­se days. Canal O’Brien, Bahia Deso­la­da … you name it. Unknown places, names that sound like adven­ture.

We have to make some miles now. We have got 25 days altog­e­ther, a lot of time, but also a total of more than 2000 miles. Stun­ning sce­n­ery all the way around us. The wea­ther lives up to its Pata­go­ni­an repu­ta­ti­on of being wet and win­dy, but still, we get our love­ly moments of sun and patches of blue sky, stun­ning light sur­roun­ded by a sce­n­ery that might remind one of Green­land or Nor­way, but wit­hout losing its very own cha­rac­ter.

Sun­rays play­ing on Pata­go­ni­as fjords

The anchor goes down in yet ano­ther beau­tiful Cale­ta, one of the­se litt­le natu­ral har­bours which were obvious­ly made for ships like hours. The shore­li­nes are fas­ten­ed to wind-bea­ten trees, giving us a calm night despi­te the strong wind.

Shel­ter from the wind in one of many “cale­tas” (Caleta=natural har­bour)

Gal­lery – Canal Bal­le­n­e­ro to Cale­ta Maci­as – 16 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Thu
15 Mar
2018

It had cle­ared up a bit during the night, so it was nice and calm in the mor­ning. Per­fect reflec­tions of the sce­n­ery around us on the water were the first thing we saw in the mor­ning. The clouds had lifted a bit and now we had a free view of the Cor­dil­lera Dar­win: a rug­ged, high-alpi­ne moun­tain sce­n­ery, stron­gly ice-cover­ed with a migh­ty gla­cier coming down to the fjord.

And that was the thing for today.

As clo­se as pos­si­ble: Gla­cier, Cor­dil­lera Dar­win

A lon­gish Zodiac ride took us to the rocky shore west of the gla­cier. Even wit­hout the gla­cier, the place would be worth a visit. Gla­cier-polished gneiss with amphi­boli­te len­ses, beau­tiful to see no mat­ter if you under­stand the back­ground or not.

And then the­re was the gla­cier its­elf. A migh­ty cal­ving cliff of ice and behind that a cha­os of crev­as­ses and ice towers. The hig­her parts framed by a wild alpi­ne pan­ora­ma and the lower part by – forest! That is quite unu­su­al for me: eit­her gla­cier or forest, but both of them tog­e­ther, that is quite unu­su­al for an Arc­tic fox like me. Actual­ly, the gla­cier has obvious­ly advan­ced into the forest quite recent­ly: bro­ken trees are lying under bould­ers on the steep edge of the gla­cier. Yes, an advan­cing gla­cier! The­re are not to many of them any­mo­re, but still a few. A shame we don’t have more of them.

Eit­her gla­cier or forest? Both!

You don’t have to do much at a place like that, just find a nice spot – the­re were ple­nty of them any­whe­re – and keep an eye on the gla­cier (and the rest of it, for that sake). A per­ma­nent rumbling and thun­de­ring, the gla­cier was very acti­ve and pie­ces were con­stant­ly brea­king off and fal­ling into the water. Ama­zing!

Obvious­ly, the hours were going by quick­ly.

After a litt­le rest on board, we went once again for yesterday’s litt­le walk up the moun­tain. Doing it wit­hout rain did not do any harm.

crev­as­ses and towers of ice and stone

Gal­lery – Cale­ta Beau­lieu – 15 March 2018

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.