South Wind Blow
Title inspired by this view and E. Fudd, from ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’, which is some of Chuck Jones’s finest work, in my humble opinion. After an eery calm the day before, the south winds finally did blow, and the force of the wind was something of a spectacle to behold. The strength of the moving air drove into the surface of Lago Nordenskjöld and created a frothing seiche. As I opened the door to take this photo, for a split second I neglected to make a firm grip on the handle, and the door was wrenched from my hand. The hinges were lucky to escape bending.
In the initial planning phases of this trip, I had very much wanted to drive north up the secondary, gravel roads from Puerto Natales, and approach the Cordillera Paine from the South/Southwest. There are a number of famed, beautiful viewpoints along this route, and I was greedy to take them in, in person. However, those plans were abandoned when it required too much time in Puerto Natales to figure out the permits we needed to secure in order to complete the 75 mile circuit that had been the object of my affections for many months previous. It turned out that a final permit for one of the campsites we wanted could have been reserved ahead, had we known how to do that, and that a small number were dispensed each day at the entrance station to the Park near the Lago Sarmiento. We therefore made our way as quickly as we could to try for one of the theoretically remaining permits in person (ultimately failing). This meant we would try our luck along the secondary roads on our return trip from the Park to Puerto Natales.
As is obvious here, once the clouds and rain rolled in, the famed viewpoints were somewhat reduced in grandeur, and we didn’t bother hiking in the driving rain and howling wind just to end up staring into the clouds. This is the last moment of striking light before the grey, fast moving mists enveloped us, and we were all feeling quite blessed to be back in a warm vehicle, rather than slogging uphill to a wet and windy campsite. On the drive south, we outpaced the clouds, but the wind did not abate, and the muddy shores of lakes appeared as if they were transformed into desert flash floods, driven into a frothing maelstrom by the blunt force of the seething air mass. One of the more forlorn things we witnessed was a group of flamingos huddled in shallow, choppy water, heads all tucked and oriented identically, toes no doubt frantically gripping the muddy substrate below, waiting out the gale as they have likely done many times before. Though daft and brightly colored, they are a hardy breed in these parts.
In terms of the chronology of the trip, this is the last semi-decent image in the Patagonia Torres del Paine series. I’ll post a few more here and there to fill in the gaps, but for the most part, that’s all folks!
South Wind Blow
Title inspired by this view and E. Fudd, from ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’, which is some of Chuck Jones’s finest work, in my humble opinion. After an eery calm the day before, the south winds finally did blow, and the force of the wind was something of a spectacle to behold. The strength of the moving air drove into the surface of Lago Nordenskjöld and created a frothing seiche. As I opened the door to take this photo, for a split second I neglected to make a firm grip on the handle, and the door was wrenched from my hand. The hinges were lucky to escape bending.
In the initial planning phases of this trip, I had very much wanted to drive north up the secondary, gravel roads from Puerto Natales, and approach the Cordillera Paine from the South/Southwest. There are a number of famed, beautiful viewpoints along this route, and I was greedy to take them in, in person. However, those plans were abandoned when it required too much time in Puerto Natales to figure out the permits we needed to secure in order to complete the 75 mile circuit that had been the object of my affections for many months previous. It turned out that a final permit for one of the campsites we wanted could have been reserved ahead, had we known how to do that, and that a small number were dispensed each day at the entrance station to the Park near the Lago Sarmiento. We therefore made our way as quickly as we could to try for one of the theoretically remaining permits in person (ultimately failing). This meant we would try our luck along the secondary roads on our return trip from the Park to Puerto Natales.
As is obvious here, once the clouds and rain rolled in, the famed viewpoints were somewhat reduced in grandeur, and we didn’t bother hiking in the driving rain and howling wind just to end up staring into the clouds. This is the last moment of striking light before the grey, fast moving mists enveloped us, and we were all feeling quite blessed to be back in a warm vehicle, rather than slogging uphill to a wet and windy campsite. On the drive south, we outpaced the clouds, but the wind did not abate, and the muddy shores of lakes appeared as if they were transformed into desert flash floods, driven into a frothing maelstrom by the blunt force of the seething air mass. One of the more forlorn things we witnessed was a group of flamingos huddled in shallow, choppy water, heads all tucked and oriented identically, toes no doubt frantically gripping the muddy substrate below, waiting out the gale as they have likely done many times before. Though daft and brightly colored, they are a hardy breed in these parts.
In terms of the chronology of the trip, this is the last semi-decent image in the Patagonia Torres del Paine series. I’ll post a few more here and there to fill in the gaps, but for the most part, that’s all folks!