Apologies for not updating the blog to cover the last couple of days of the last trip, but apart from more rain there wasn’t much to report. I had intended to post a summary on arrival at Puerto Williams but once there I was stuck down Read more ›
Apologies for not updating the blog to cover the last couple of days of the last trip, but apart from more rain there wasn’t much to report. I had intended to post a summary on arrival at Puerto Williams but once there I was stuck down Read more ›
Today we are moored in what can best be described as a damp crack, otherwise know as Fiordo Pasqui. A small fjord about 500m long and only about 15m wide at the point we are moored, about half way in. Read more ›
Today’s photo is not from today but from one of our hikes near Caleta Olla, the guanaco was checking us out from the ridge above. Well as we move west in this part of the world we expect it to get wetter and yesterday was certainly wet! Read more ›
Saturday morning saw us motoring out of Caleta Olla bound for Estero Fouque; which is a long fjord stretching south from the SW arm of the Beagle Channel deep into Isla Hoste. Read more ›
Wednesday 23rd was rained off. It rained pretty heavily most of the day so we pottered about on the boat, downloaded GPS tracks, sewed holes in gloves, made bread etc.. Marcel from ‘Iorana’ came over and invited us over for an aperitif a p.m. – we had a “few” aperitifs and a very late diner when we got back to ‘Morgane’. Thursday was another wet and windy day but not enough to stop us going for a hike up to the area where some groups put in a high camp for attempts on Mount Italia. The area is near a minor summit at around 1000m that would normally have a great view of the south face of Mt Frances but we couldn’t see much. The rain turned to snow for the last 300m or so of altitude which was nice as at least it was dry. The route took us along the beach on the north side of the Beagle channel, across a small river, then a change out of rubber boots and into hiking boots, through some very thick bush, then along a guanaco path up an old lateral moraine about 300m high at it’s high point, followed but various levels of scrambling up the remainder of the climb. It’s quite incredible to see these old moraines and imagine the valley below full of ice 300m thick! The climb took us about three and a half hours, but that was in fast and light mode, it would take a lot longer with a pack full of camping and climbing kit. After we returned Steve and I went ashore to take an icy wash in one of the streams. We were near a point that has been used for this for thousands of years as there are some middens and signs of a Yamana indian camp site there. I’m not sure what the Yamana, who wore no clothes, would have thought of two very pale bodied men rushing to wash as quickly as possible and to get back into warm clothes on what they probably considered a pleasant summer evening. Last night was windy, as forecast, with 30+ knots in the channel but tucked in under the trees here we only got hit by a few gusts, nothing that even put tension on the mooring lines stretched from the stern of ‘Morgane’ to some stout canelo trees behind the beach. Today, Friday, was a maintenance day for me on the boat – I cleaned out the anchor chain locker while the anchor is down, yuk!!, among other things. Steve and Marcela went for a hike a picked Chaura and Diddle Dee berries and now ‘Morgane’ is home to a production line of jam and cakes, yum! Tomorrow we’ll probably move to Estero Fouque over in the SW arm of the Beagle ready for some exploring in Isla Hoste.
Some cooker maintenance was the order of the day first thing this morning. The oven is a bit slow and it was time to investigate, we stripped it down and while Steve cleaned years of gunk off the bottom cover I changed the oven’s thermocouple but all was in vain and the oven is still slow it seems that something in the control valve is sticking and I don’t fancy stripping that and risking totally breaking it; so a slow oven it will be. We can cook bread and pies so we are OK; it just takes almost twice as long as in a normal oven and the bread ends up a little dry and crumbly. After the attempted cooker repairs we hiked up to Simon Yates’ base camp where we stopped for tea and biscuits before continuing up to just below the glacier on Mount Frances. We were just below where most groups put in a high camp on the glacier if they are attempting to climb Frances or Bove so now we know the way. The weather is quite warm, about 15 degrees C during the day at sea level, so there is a lot of melt-water flowing making the river high and the ground very wet under foot. We had to wear our rubber boots to a point well above the base camp. It was a good day for animal spotting; we saw Guanaco, Fox, Beaver and Condors as well as several species of small birds. The beavers have caused a lot of damage in the valley we were in today with two massive dams flooding a large area. One small flock of ‘Thorn-tailed Rayaditos’ were very noisy and seemed particularly happy with a feast of spiders that they had found.
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