To take nothing but photographs, and leave nothing but footprints.
Travels of a Lifetime VBlog Series: Southern Patagonia, Chile
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Series #5: Torres Del Paine National Park, Southern Patagonia
I caught my first glimpse of the distinct peaks (Torres) from Lake Sarmiento, an interesting lake that looked as if it had a ring around it. Leading up to Lake Sarmiento, we passed the Deciduous Magellan Forest with poplar and conifer trees but mostly dominated by Lenga trees. Then on to Patagonian plains and plateau covered in pampas and walled by rocky hills: a landscape said to be lower than sea level and created by glacial movement. And of course, the famous symbol of anything Patagonia, the horn-shaped towers (the jagged mountain peaks) dominated the horizon and could be seen from all directions. With the changeable weather, the snow-capped mountains suddenly appeared with glorious blue light or buried under a shroud of dense, gray clouds. The sky was vast and dominating. Milky aqua waters of Rio Paine and lakes were part of the surreal landscape. While I expected to see glaciers near the mountain, I was surprised to see some vegetation, flora (yellow lupines, Calafate/blueberry) and fauna (wild turkey, geese, and neandus). Guanacos dominated the animal landscape.
Torres Del Paine National Park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is a massif, a mountain system independent of the Andes mountain range in Patagonia. It centers on an alpine massif of three imposing granite towers (Torres) reaching more than 10,000 feet, together with several lesser horns, or cuernos, formed of black shale, and a variety of glaciers, lakes, and wild rivers.
Here's a video of my Patagonian adventure (long version). Click HERE to watch it on YouTube or click the thumbnail below.
Press play to watch a short preview of Torres Del Paine.
Part 6: Melbourne We stopped in Colac on the way to Melbourne to checkout some tourist sites. First, we drove to the Botanical Garden over-looking the Colac Lake to have lunch. There was a cafe in the Botanical Garden, but we had some takeout food from the Bakery in Apollo Bay: bread, cheeses, scallop pies and other meat pies (Australians love their meat pies). After lunch, we headed to the Red Rock. It's described as a Quaternary volcano complex - an inactive volcano in the most recent period in the Cenozoic era. We climbed the steps to the lookout to see some volcanic rocks and a 360-degree view of grassy craters, hills, expansive valleys and lakes. It was overcast and the traffic was moderately heavy as we approached Melbourne. We arrived in Melbourne at around five-thirty in the afternoon. Our Airbnb was a high-rise apartment in an upscale neighborhood with parking. We picked up the key to our accommodation from a convenience store where we also picked up something to eat.
Part 7: Cradle Mountain There is no road to Tasmania, the largest island state of Australia. So, we had to take the ferry to continue our road-trip. I’ve sailed and crossed oceans enough times but never experienced such a rough sail as we had on the ten-hour ferry ride to Tasmania. We got so seasick that we stayed in our cabin throughout the whole ride. We arrived in Devonport at 6:30pm, rushed to our hotel, had dinner and hit the sack. Ron and Lenny visited Tasmania a year ago and had the same itinerary as we had except that we took the reverse route and visited Cradle Mountain first. The Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park is one of the most visited parks in Australia. It has many walking and hiking tracks including the Overland Track, one of the most famous hikes in the world. Overland Track stretches 80 kilometers between Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair National Park. We set out early so we could have a hearty breakfast in Sheffield. We drove North, which Ron thought
Part 8: From Launceston to Freycinet “I don’t exactly know where I’m going but I’m going.” I live by these words when it comes to travel. And it could not be truer than being on a road trip with Ron and Lenny. I could have done some research or quick google search about Tasmania before our trip but no. I left all the travel planning and guiding to Lenny and trusted the driving to Ron since they had been to Tasmania before. My first impression of Tasmania was that of a sparsely populated place and mostly wilderness. And Ron helped enlarge that image of wilderness when he told me that the cabin where they stayed in before was surrounded by wombats and that I should be able to take a picture of kangaroos crossing the road as they're plentiful in Tasmania. I did not know about the other cities in Tasmania other than Hobart. So, I was a bit surprised when we arrived in Launceston where our accommodation for the night was located. I found Launceston to be a relatively big city. It has
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