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Adventuring to the southernmost tip of Patagonia on an Australis cruise, Adam Coulter has a close encounter with some of the region’s most spectacular sights.
In my early 20s a friend of mine, Ed, introduced me to an exciting young author called Bruce Chatwin who had written a book – part travelogue, part fiction, mainly a journey of self-discovery – called In Patagonia.
In the book (40 years old this year), the author heads to Patagonia (“the uttermost ends of the earth”) in search of a prehistoric creature called a milodon, the skin of which, ancient and yellowing, he comes across in a display cabinet at his grandmother’s house as a young boy.
He travels all across the region (part Chile, part Argentina), heading south to the town of Punta Arenas, the former home of his great uncle, Charles Millward, who discovered the milodon skeleton.
This is where I find myself, some 20 or so years after first reading his book. The town has little going for it, it’s a dusty, unprepossessing sort of place with a frontier-like feel. There’s an empty, almost washed out atmosphere, as if everyone’s waiting for something to happen – or to leave.
But it is the gateway to the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, a series of islands, bays, fjords and glaciers, which end at the legendary Cape Horn, site of countless shipwrecks, myths and legends. Punta Arenas is also where Australis Expedition Cruises departs from weekly on the line’s sole ship, Stella Australis (a second ship, Ventus Australis will launch in January next year), to discover this spectacular landscape.
The 200-passenger ship wends its way over four nights and days through this maze of waterways, offering the chance to see penguins, elephant seals, dolphins and whales, as well as the opportunity to step ashore at (almost) the most southerly point in the world – Cape Horn.
There are 16 different nationalities on our cruise, with around two thirds from North America and the rest from South America, Asia and Europe, including a handful of Brits. The average age hovers around the 65 mark, but on my trip there are a number of couples, and the ship will also cater to families with young children.
The small number of Brits is likely to increase, according to Nicolas Coram, Australis’s marketing director – largely thanks to Chile recently becoming a lot easier to reach: “We believe the launch of direct British Airways flights to Santiago – and the publicity around the launch – will be a big boost to the number of UK arrivals,” he says.
BA began the four-times-weekly flights to the Chilean capital on January 3 from London Heathrow, which at 14 hours 40 minutes is the airline’s longest direct flight. It means you can leave London at 10pm and be onboard Stella Australis by the following evening, making this trip doable in a week, should your clients so wish.
For an expedition ship, Stella Australis operates at a luxury level with top-notch cuisine and large cabins with huge picture windows, as well as all those things you would expect – knowledgeable guides, lots of lectures and information, and three observation lounges. Also, everything is in English and Spanish (announcements, lectures and guides), making the ship ideal for British passengers.
It may be a short trip, but the days are packed – with one or two shore excursions a day, lectures, documentaries and meals – always against the backdrop of jaw-dropping scenery. I cruise in high summer (late January/early February), which has the advantage of glacier melt, adding to the drama. It’s a primetime for calving, when chunks of ice crack off, echoing around the valley as they fall into the sea forming instant icebergs.
On one memorable stretch – the aptly named Glacier Alley – we navigate between a steep sided valley, either side of which glaciers touch the sea or overhang the cliff edges. Flowing down these cliff sides are countless waterfalls, like silver ribbons sparkling in the sunlight as they tumble to the sea.
One of the stand-out shore excursions allows you to get up close and personal with one of these glaciers, Pia. After a Zodiac ride from the ship, which involves navigating carefully through mini-bergs, we land on the rock beside the glacier. It is mesmerising; all shades of freezing blue, almost glowing from inside. I opt for the “challenging” excursion, which involves a short hike up a muddy hill to get a better view of Pia and the bay.
Part way up our guide Javier pauses, signalling us to wait. I’m not sure whether it is experience or instinct, but he somehow knows the glacier is about to break and at that moment we hear a cracking sound and see one side of the glacier vanishing into the sea. But what follows is even more extraordinary: a wave, like a mini-tsunami, forming at the base of the glacier, spreading fast towards where we have just landed and where another Zodiac is about to land. It goes right underneath the small boat, lifting it up, and then down, before washing over the rock and dissolving into the sea.
We miss the actual moment of calving, but some of us manage to film the wave and replay it at dinner that evening – to audible gasps.
The entire trip feels like a build-up to the Cape Horn landing, which we don’t even know will happen until 7am that morning. It’s all down to the weather – and the Captain’s decision. Australis manages it 8 times out of 10, we are informed. And today is our lucky day.
Joy Jones from Hampshire, travelling with her husband Martin, describes it perfectly: “The whole trip is a fantastic experience, but landing on Cape Horn is truly memorable.
“The fact that we didn’t know if we could land on Cape Horn until the morning, and that the Australis is the only ship to land here, makes it a real privilege.
“Climbing the steep steps up the cliff face from the landing, and being met by the naval officer in charge of the rock, being battered by the wind and rain, and actually climbing the lighthouse is amazing.”
On the final evening everyone gathers in the Darwin Lounge to watch a slideshow of pictures from the cruise taken by passengers, to find out who’s won the raffle for “the jack” – the flag flown throughout the cruise – and to take part in an auction for the navigation chart used on this voyage, complete with Captain’s notes. We take pictures and swap emails. It’s been a short but unforgettable few days.
I finish In Patagonia as we arrive at Ushuaia, Argentina. Out of many memorable lines, one stands out for me: “Travel doesn’t merely broaden the mind. It makes the mind.”
Book it: Cox & Kings can add the Australis cruise to its 12-night Splendours of Chile group tour. The tour starts from £3,595pp and the cruise extension from £1,795pp. The cruise extension includes four nights’ full-board on the ship, one night’s B&B accommodation in Puerto Arenas and two nights’ B&B in Buenos Aires.
