21 Upsala and horse-riding

Holidays and short breaks
Argentina (2001)
Chile (2002)
India (2003)
World trip (2005-2006)
Libya (2008)

Pictures
1 Croydon to Paris
2 Paris to Iguazú
3 Yacutinga
4 Yacutinga
5 Yacutinga
6 Iguazú
7 Salta
8 Purmamarca
9 Bariloche
10 Bariloche
11 Puerto Blest
12 The long walk
13 Pesca a la trucha
14 Paragliding
15 Ushuaia
16 The end of the road
17 Tierra del Fuego NP
18 Beagle Channel
19 Tren del fin del mundo
20 Perito Moreno glacier
21 Upsala and horse-riding
22 4x4 adventure
23 Hot air balloon
24 Tango
25 Oh no, the trip home!
26 Home, via Paris
27 Back to normality

Argentina

El Calafate

Friday 6 April 2001

5.30am wake up call, our earliest start of the holiday so far and we’re regretting not organising a transfer so we could go back to sleep on the coach! Stef’s functioning but not awake. We need to leave at 6.15. It’s 6.15 and I’ve come back from putting boots etc. in the car to find Stef comfortably settled at the breakfast table stuffing his face. No concept of time and the need to leave.

It’s pitch black and we’ve got to go pretty much along the same route as we took yesterday. It’s not going to be fun but our boat leaves at 8am, about the time it starts to get light. At least the Gol car is better suited to these roads. It holds much better and you can get up to 80km/h rather than 40 in the other car. Sadly it’s not robust enough to swerve or to do emergency stops and I hit and killed a rabbit that ran out in front of us. Not nice.

At Puerto Banderas we joined our excursion, the Upsala Explorer. This will take us up across Lago Argentina to the Upsala glacier, four times bigger than the Perito Moreno, and then on to Estancia Cristina where we’re going horse-riding!

I thought it was a shame we couldn’t go out on deck on the catamaran but soon found out why. It cruises at 17knots (25km/h) and the spray totally covered the boat. Feeling very tired from the early start and the drive I had a bit of a nap, waking up to be faced by a couple of icebergs.

These were huge chunks of ice and again were rippled with different shades of blue. Apparently the darker the blue the older the ice. We were able to go outside by this time and as with yesterday warm winds were mixed with very icy and glacial breezes. The boat took us to within 400m of the glacier. This is 80m high above the level of the lake. Whilst bigger than the Perito Moreno it doesn’t have the same character and isn’t as interesting to look at. Around the edge of the lake the mountains had a clearly visible line between bare rock and the edge of the forest. Where the rock is bare used to be glacier. In length the glacier must have retreated at least 1km and a couple of hundred metres in height.

The boat then headed on to Estancia Cristina. This was founded by an English family from Leamington Spa. To reach the estancia you can either come by boat or drive as far as the road goes and do the rest on horseback (1½ days). Not surprisingly it closes down for the winter.

For our time on the estancia we chose to go horse riding. I haven’t been on a horse since the few lessons I had when I was about fifteen. Stef has never been on a horse (apart from a wooden rocking horse). I knew I would be ok once I was on it but had memories of how difficult a horse is to mount. My memory was right and Stef has taken a beautiful picture of my efforts.

Our guide was John Keith Steele, an Argentine whose grandfather came from the Falklands. Once we were all mounted he said “come on then, let’s go”. My first thought was “fine, but how do I get the thing to start to move?” It’s been a very windy day today and my horse just didn’t want to go. We eventually set off at a slow walk but my horse, called Lightning, just kept refusing to go. In the end John had to take the reins and lead it on to make it move.

Our trek took us through the estancia and up the mountains at the back. The horses obviously know the route and plodded along quite happily. They are amazingly sure-footed, walking along paths you would think twice about walking on, very narrow, with a steep drop to one side and very stony in places.

We gradually wound our way up and up until we stopped for lunch about 800m up. We met up with two others by a small brook. Martín, from the estancia, and Adriana, the park ranger. They stayed with us for the remainder of the ride. Our picnic was in a small clearing with stunning views across the valley and onto the Upsala glacier. Onion tart, beef, chicken and vegetable Milanese, lamb with pimiento, jamon, queso, tomatoes, salad, bread, vino, fruit pie for pudding, there was enough food for about ten people!

On the way back down my horse finally decided it wanted to walk after all but also decided it was hungry and kept stopping to munch on chunks of grass. This was ok except on the steep downhill bits. I thought I might go over the top a couple of times. Nearing the ranch Stef’s horse got a spurt on and I could see him trotting off into the distance, very comical! Mine kept plodding and about fifteen minutes after Stef I finally made it back!

In the ranch house we had a much needed drink and gave back the leather leg protectors we had been wearing. It was then back onto the boat for the trip back to Puerto Banderas and the drive to El Calafate. As we got on the boat all the Upsala Explorer staff lined up to say goodbye and waved us off as the boat left, how nice.

At El Calafate we stopped at a traditional parillada or grill house. Argentineans are big meat eaters and no part of the animal goes to waste. We ordered a mixed grill which had lamb, steak, kidney, chorizo, black pudding, tripe and something which was meant to be chicken but turned out to be neck (of what I’m not sure).

Stef was in red meat eaters heaven. Enough meat for four people arrived and we started to work our way through it. Stef enjoyed the meal but I didn’t really. It was too meat intensive, mainly lamb, and reminded me why I don’t really enjoy lamb – too much fat!

Absolutely knackered we headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 10.30.

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