Flyfishing Patagonia....hermosa!

A terrific day of Patagonian flyfishing yesterday.  Birthday present from my gorgeous wife saw me finding a guide, which not only opened up the chance to find a river that was exactly what I wanted to fish, but also came with a 4x4 to get there and some advice on flies and tactics.
So we headed out of town at 8 and were at the river fishing by 11 after an hours hike to get up to the stream...calling it a stream would also be a bit of an exaggeration as you could step over it in most places and it was seldom more than half a meter deep, but had some undercut banks and was full of insect life and although you couldn´t see the fish, they were hiding under the banks and a little bit hungry too!
The scenery was spectacular, we were on a part of a huge estancia that stretched all the way to the Argentine border and so had a few horses around and the odd sheep, but it was wild.  There were a few Nandu (the large flightless birds a bit smaller than ostrich), condors, geese and some Flamingos in the adjacent wetlands.
The stream had a good population of Brown Trout and I had a really memorable 5 hours of fishing through the day.  It was all about short casts to water that looked good, the wind was pumping all day and a bit overcast, so it made sight fishing difficult but if you could get the fly in the right spot, and there was a fish there, it was game on.
I took my first fish on my first cast and the fun carried on.
They were all between 16" and 22" and all got a kiss before being returned to fight another day.  Being a small water, they also spent a lot of time in the air after being hooked and the fights were good.
In total I landed 7 and lost a few others, all on the dry fly and the takes were the best part of it, aggressive and on a few times I got to see the fish come up and inspect the fly before slamming it.
Some pic´s below of a couple of the fish, and in the one if you look closely you can see the fish jumping..Am now planning on heading south for a few days of hiking in Cerro Castillo, but the weather has packed it in, so it might be a wet trip....

Tierra del fuego and Ushuaia

Suitably re-fuelled we hit Ushuaia this morning to confirm flights and see a bit of town and get an ‘end of the world’ sticker for our bikes which made the trip without a single problem, not even a puncture!

Funnily enough we also discovered the chocolate shops give you free tasters just for going in…we visited a few!

Interesting town Ushuaia, a bit like Cape Town or Vancouver Island combined with a ski resort, circled by mountains but with yachts in the bay.  We are camping at a great spot below the old chair lift with cracking views across the bay.

Our trip across Tierra del Fuego was a treat, with the highlight possibly the afternoon and night we spent at the colony of King Penguins just north of a settlement called Cameron on the east coast of the island on Chilean turf.  These Penguins are normally only on the subantarctic islands, but 91 of them have started breeding on this patch of desolate coast on the local farmers land and they have just run a fence around them to keep people from getting too close and hired a ranger to take people in to see them.  He was a great guide and as we were the only ones there, we spent the evening with him and shared dinner in his cabin after a great few hours watching the birds incubate their eggs, court and generally do what King Penguins do on a windy beach.  We camped there too, it being our first night out of Porvenir.

Between Porvenir and Tolhuin, we had 4 days of biking with no shops which was good fun as we ended up eating as vegetarians and bumming bread from the local farms, which was good for Simon’s Spanish! 

As we had taken the less followed route to Ushuaia through southern Chilean Tierra del Fuego, we hardly saw anyone and also had to be careful with water, filtering a few times to get by and getting some from local farms and fishing lodges.  This route also took us through the mountains instead of the ‘pure pampas’ of the usual route and we had a nights wild camping in a huge wind but found a spot so sheltered by the local Lenga (nothofagus) that we could cook….

Just before the border crossing, which we had to ford on foot through a river carrying bikes, we stopped for lunch at a Chilean Carabinero (police) outpost to get out of the wind and they offered us their kitchen to eat in….and then proceeded to offer us homemade bread that the cops had made.  Wonders never cease, Simon was so impressed by it he declared it the best yet in Chile and asked for more!  At the Argentinian border post they were having a Asado (Roast Lamb) for lunch and were about to ask us to join them, but Lucy was too quick to tell them we had already had lunch with the Chileans and had more km’s to bike that day.  This was possibly a good thing as true to form the road turned to custard as soon as we had the Argentinian stamp in our passports and we bounced our way through flat hot country for the rest of the day on a road that resembled a river bed.  A friendly estancia gaucho crew let us pitch our tent next to their stables for the nights and pancakes (our new found cycling breakfast of choice) renewed our spirits for another long days biking to Tolhuin where we arrived at 5pm and found a cool little grill shop selling ‘chori pan’ sausage rolls and they were delicious.  The stancia we stayed at the night before had 39 dogs and all the old school saddles and bridles for their horses.  We decided to then split the last 105kms from Tolhuin to Ushuaia into two easier days and so it was that we arrived here yesterday and now looking to do a few day walks in this southern part of the Andes….

The night stop at the estancia

Downhill run to Ushuaia

Arriving into Ushuaia and the view from the port back up to where we are camping ....

El fin de mundo

Just a quick update as there is a queue behind me for the one terminal at camp...so will add more tmr.
We have arrived in Ushuaia, 6 days and 530odd kms from Porvenir and some good riding, a healthy amount of headwinds, bouldery argentinian roads, superb wild camping in the Tierra del Fuego wilderness and estancias, homemade bread, approaching mountains of the Beagle Channel and now the southern tip of the America´s.
Day in town tomorrow exploring and checking out what it has to offer as this afternoon was spent sourcing food and eating and having an afternoon nap and a shower....only had one in the last 6 days!

Back from Torres and heading south...

                                                       Below friendly police on the trail.

The Torres

                                        Pancakes for breakfast to fuel a 30km walk out to the bus.

Have just had an amazing 6 days in the park. We were one of the first people let back in since the fire started. They think it was started by a group of Israelis camping off the track and burning toilet paper, it was then very quickly a big problem with 100km winds fuelling the flames and in one case the fire jumped a kilometer across a lake and started burning on the other side. There is not much they can do in such strong winds but have been lucky to have some rain. It seems they have it sort of under control now. But it keeps re-igniting whenever there is more wind.

                                           Si pointing the way to "his glacier" glacier Dixon

                                                                    Glacier Los  Perros

So we were confined to the path up to the torres and the back of the park. This is not such a bad thing as the back is beautiful. Also as were were one of the first back into the park we had it all to ourselves, this was lovely and we had about three nights camping basically alone in campsites before the hordes returned. Unfortunatly we were not able to go to Lago Grey which is where Lucy was living when she was in the park so we will have to leave that for another trip...(a great reason to come back).
We had a fabulous time and Simon loved the glaciers and the extreme geology of the place with shear granite peaks contrasting with dark sedimentary layers all twisted and folded. There were also lots of interesting birds and we have booked in some time today to steal a look at the bird book in the book shop to try and idenitfy what they were.  We had a good sighting of a falcon yesterday in the back of the park as she hunted a mouse and then ate it on a dead tree while we snacked on crackers, she then took off and we got to watch her hover motionless above us.  No woodpeckers, but a possibility for further south.  It has been really special for me to see the Park and even theough we didn´`t get to Lucy's favourite places, I have been able to appreciate what a beautiful place it is and how much it means to her.
Today we are headed by bus to Punta Arenas where we will take the ferry across the Magellan strait to Porvenir and begin cycling again to Ushuaia, hopefully with a tail wind!  Looking forward to a good week or so on the bikes again as we pack away the tramping gear after a solid 102kms of hiking in 5 days. 

                                                               Si walking out of Dixon

Torres reopens!!!

The president of Chile announced today that parts of the park would open tomorrow. So we are booked on a bus at 7:30 tomorrow morning and looking forward to seeing where we will be able to walk. We have food for 10 days and hope that once in the park more routes will open up.

We have spent the last few days eating and sleeping and exploring Puerto Natales. It is pretty little town situated on the ultima esperanza inlet with views across the water to the mountains.

Photos are taking ages to upload so will try again when we get out of the park.

Patagonia Burning

Its been a few emotional days, hearing the news on the 30th that Torres was burning and would be closed for a month.  With Lucy´s love for the Park and it being our main goal behind the trip, it was looking to be a very sad turn of events.  Although still a bad fire, it appears the authorities are getting it under control and word in Peurto Natales is that the Park may reopen in 48 hours with limited access.  So we wait and hope, both that the park opens and that the damage is not as bad as some have been speculating.

Up until hearing of the fires, all was going to plan.  We left Villa O´Higgins on the 8am ferry across the lake meeting some great people on board and seeing glaciers before the tough climb past the Chilean border post up to the official border south of the lake before the steep and rugged single track descent to the Argentinian border post on Lago Desierto.  Our plan to take backpacks and carry all our stuff on our backs and push our empty bikes worked well and we made it all the way in one trip, getting the ferry across the lake that evening and then biking into Chalten the next morning.  · hours bumping on another rough Argentinian road got us to town after lunch and we hit one of the best pannideria´s (bakeries) yet for rolls and bakery treats before finding a spot at a climbers campsite in town and having a magnificent argentinian steak for dinner. 

Ellie and Lucy cross to Chile...

Heading south towards Chalten and Lago Desierto with Mnt Fitzroy behind us...

We had some cracking views of Mount Fitzroy and Torres coming into Chalten from Lago Desierto and so decided to head straight up into the hills to spend a night at Laguna Torres or Fitzroy and had a super two days up in the mountains, the weather was closing in a bit so we didn´t get to see the massifs from close up, but just being up there among the glaciers, peaks and ice was good and we had windy night campping below Fitz.  It was that morning we found out about the fire at Torres and decided it was best to head straight for Peurto Natalaes to save us a bit of time in case we had to wait to get into the park or juggle plans a bit and so far this is proving to have been a good call, as amongst all the speculation, no one really knew what was happening.  So a New Year dinner in El Calafate and then onto Natales and now hopefully we are poised for a week of hiking in the Park...
After which we will be back on the bikes for the last 600odd kms to Ushuaia before Lucy flies home.....

Will add some more pic´s later tonight, heading to town on a mission.