PATAGONIA
& TIERRA DEL FUEGO Trekking, Grade 3 As the Andes approach the straits of Magellan, they become spectacle of towering mountains, huge rivers, beautiful forests, and complicated fiord and lake systems, a vast untouched wilderness still largely unexplored. Pacific storms range with tremendous forse against the monolithic fanglike peaks. As a result, zones of continental ice sheet, up to 85km wide, accumulate and spawn glaciers of incredible size. This holiday readily allows the trekker and photographer to penetrate a wild and daunting area of exceptional beauty without it being too strenuous or committing. Our adventure begins in Bariloche, the main town of Argentinas Lake District. From Bariloche we participate in a one day trek up to Cerro Lopez. From the crest of the ridge one has a view of the whole of the Nahuel Huapi National Park, with its craggy mountains, lakes, snow-fed streams, soaring condors we fly to Ushuaia, the capital border. From Bariloche we fly to Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra Del Fuego and the most souther town in the world. The town overlooks the Beagle Channel and it's ice capped islands. We spend four days walking up remote valleys, over passes, through beautifull beech forests and skirting around tarns and lakes. There is opportunity to see guanacoc, the giant Fuegian red foxes and the introduced beavers. We farwell the extreme south of the continent and fly north to Rio Gallegos. From ther we travel by bus to the Chilean fishing village of Puerto Natales. A whole day is devoted to cruising the fiord, followed by a seven day trek in the spectacular Torres del Paine National Park. After two days walking up a remote valley through forests of gigantic trees, we arrrive at a lake fed by ice from the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap. Pieces of ice, some the size of a 2-story building, break off and float down the lake and are beached on the forested shoreline where we camp. For those who are fit, and weather permitting, a high vantage point can be climbed to observe first hand a vast area of the Antartic-style ice cap. This area contains the greatest concentration of condors in all of South America. Before our transpolar flight back to Australia, we visit the spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier. ITINERARY: Day 1 Sydney
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