Babsi & Conrad

Only about one week to go and we'll be back in Europe - so before we are getting busy back home we like to share a few more pictures of our time in Chile and Argentina with you:

We spent a few more days in Ushuaia, Argentina's main tourist destination in Tierra del Fuego, before we had a fabulous journey on a Belgian sailboat across the Beagle Channel to Puerto Williams (Chile).

End-Of-The-World feeling in Ushuaia

Ushuaia

Ushuaia

Very happy to finally be on our way to Puerto Willams

Sailing across the Beagle Channel

Colony of Condors

Curious Condors

We arrived in Puerto Willams in the evening, but had to stay on the boat for another three hours or so - waiting for the coast guard, food inspector, navy and immigration officers to do their job.
The next morning we started the multi-day "Los Dientes Circuit" on Isla Navarino - a trek we were long looking forward to.
Due to our onward travel plans (and our delayed arrival in Puerto Williams) we had to 'compress' this five day hike into three days. We spent long days trekking through sub-antarcitc terrain and were finally exposed to what so many people refer to as the unpredictable 'Patagonian Weather: four seasons in one day', or even in little more than half and hour. It was cold, rainy, sunny (with no clouds), stormy AND it snowed. But - we had a wonderful time!

One of the highlights on the circuit: view of the islands of Cape Horn in the far background

Peacefull campspot at the foot of 'Los Dientes' - and just south of 55° southern latitude

It wouldn't be Easter without the traditonal egg hunt for kids

Isla Navarino: most lakes being created by beavers!

Animals at work: beavers cut down vast areas of forest

Beagle Channel - the land on the other (northern) side is Argentina

Snowstorm on our last day

Along the shore of Isla Navarino on our way back to Puerto Williams

Exhausted and happy we returned to Puerto Williams and did a bit of sightseeing around this tiny settlement.

Puerto Williams - Chilean naval base patrolling the territory (including Antarctica)

Puerto Williams

We only had a few more days to spend in Patagonia before we wanted to be in Buenos Aires, but it was just about enough time to pay tribute to a few more Patagonian highlights in Argentina: Mount Fitzroy, Cerro Torre and Perito Moreno glacier.
From Puerto Williams we returned to the mainland on board a 20-seater Twin Otter aircraft with fantastic views of the glacier-covered Darwin Range. From Punta Arenas we continued travelling by bus towards El Calafate and El Chalten in Argentina, where we did our last hike on this trip: getting close-up views of Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre, two of the world's most difficult summits.

Fantastic flight along the remote Darwin Range back to Punta Arenas

Clear message (on a not so clear issue) as you enter Argentina: 'The Falklands are Argentinian' (?!)

Mount Fitzroy at sunrise

Mount Fitzroy

Mount Fitzroy

Cerro Torre

Cerro Torre and Mount Fitzroy just after sunset

Travelling across Patagonia

Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate

Instead of flying from Patagonia to Buenos Aries, we decided to experience the vast distances a bit better by taking the long-distance bus along the Atlantic coast and across 'La Pampa'. Not much there (as the name may suggest) but not as bad and painful as one might think: we took the front seats on the first floor and had panoramic views of this sheer endless and flat terrain.

Halfway on our 38 hrs (or 2570km) bus trip to Buenos Aires: 'La Pampa' nonstop

Arriving in Buenos Aires we soon figured out that three days would not be enough to capture everything this fascinating city has to offer. We tried our best and walked across a few very diverse neighbourhoods, visited a tango show and even did a trip to the near delta of the Rio Plata, with its network of islands and interconnecting canals.

View from our hostel in Buenos Aires

That's how happy birthdays begin!

La Boca neighbourhood in Buenos Aires

Obelisk in central Buenos Aires

Floating supermarket on the Rio Plata delta near Tigre just outside Buenos Aires

Calatrava's footbridge, Buenos Aires

Casa Rosada - seat of government, Buenos Aires

From Buenos Aires we flew to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil where we were welcomed by Bruno, who we met several years ago in Canada.
Although our first days here were rainy, with Bruno's help we managed to get a good overview of this impressive city.

Lagoa and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro

Copacabana and Sugarloaf

Party with Bruno (and a Caipirinha) overlooking Rio

We now left Rio for a few days on Illha Grande, a gorgeous tropical island not far away - trying to refresh our tan to impress people when we get home ;-)
On Friday, 11 April, we will return to - hopefully sunny - Rio and are looking forward to watching the local semi-finals at Maracanã football stadium.
It's not easy for us to realise that we'll be back in Europe in less than a week but we are also looking forward to what is ahead of us there.

Stay tuned!

¡Hola a todos!

It´s been another month or so. Trying to capture the beauty of Patagonia meant a lot of criss-crossing between Chile and Argentina. But let´s start from where we were last time: Santiago de Chile.


Market in Santiago

Following a couple of days in Chile´s capital we spend almost a week in Valparaiso, a colourful old harbour town.

Back to school was the motto here, as we tried to learn as much Spanish (or 'Castellano' as the Chileans prefer to say) as possible. We had very good classes in the heart of town but obviously it takes a bit more (time) to become confident in a new language.

Homework time - late at night in our hostel room

After a week - with a little more Spanish in our brains - we were ready to see what Patagonia is all about. We took an overnight bus down south to Pucon, a resort town beautifully situated between Lake Villarica and the active (steaming) but glacier- covered Volcán Villarica.

Pucon / Chile

We decided to spend a few days trekking the so-called "Travesía Villarica", which leads around Volcán Villarica and then towards another iconic peak of Patagonia, Volcán Lanín, marking the border between Chile and Argentina.

Nothing big but beautiful wildlife on the Villarica Traverse

With perfectly sunny weather we enjoyed five amazing days far away from civilasation. Most of the days we didn´t see anybody and had peacefully situated camping spots along the trail.

Sunset at the foot of Volcán Villarica

Volcán Villarica - steaming landmark of the Araucaria region

Trekking towards Volcán Lanin in the distance

Waking up at sunrise is well worth it here!

Another day, another lake, another sunrise, different but not less spectacular

From Pucon we crossed the boarder to Argentina. Not much of an highway but after a couple of hours on very rough gravel road we reached the boarder post - literally in the middle of nowhere.

Boarder betwenn Chile and Argentina near Pucon

San Martín de los Andes and San Carlos the Bariloche were our first stops in Argentinian Patagonia.

Trekking near Bariloche

Unfortunately bad weather meant that we had to finish our trekking trail near Bariloche earlier.

Waiting for better weather in the mountain 'refugio' [but we didn´t wait long enough...]

We used the extra day in town to plan our remaining time in Patagonia and figured out that we somehow have to speed up in order to get all the way down south and up to Buenos Aires again and still be able to do all the things we wanted to do. This brought a 5 day boat trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales back on the agenda which we previously ruled out as we intended to take the overland route.
Looking back now, we are very glad that we took the ferry down south along the Chilean coast. Not only near to perfect weather but also the remoteness of these waterways and watching dolphins, seals and even whales was well worth it and we also enjoyed the carefree and delicious dining services on board.

Puerto Montt - fishing town

Puerto Montt - ready to board the ferry

Local supply chain for the outer islands - our Navimag ferry in the background

The only way to get to Chile´s southern Provinces without leaving Chile´s territory: Navimag ferry

Sunrise on board of the 'Evangelistas'

Captain Barbara in charge of the navigation

Being a fairly low key cruise-ship with lots of travellers, the atmosphere on board was very relaxed and friendly: passengers were allowed on the command bridge at any time and we spent a lot of time there following the captain's manoeuvres.

Lazy days on board: spotting wildlife, enjoying the scenery and simply hanging loose

A group of whales passing by

As if the journey wasn´t fascinating enough for the first three days, we actually did a little detour into one of the fjords and visited the giant Glacier Pius XI. calving into the water.

Enourmous Glacier Pius XI.

After 4 days on board we finally arrived in Puerto Natales. This town is almost dominated by travellers who all get ready to head into Chile´s most celebrated National Park: Torres del Paine. We weren´t any different and - after spending one day trying to get ride of minor fever and also recovering our sense of balance, which got a bit confused after spending a few wobbly days on the boat - we headed off to the Park.
We spend seven days hiking around and in-between the Torres del Paine massive - and although we didn´t see much sun, we were glad it didn´t rain much either.
These are a few of the pictures we took along the trek:

Grey Glacier from Paso John Gardener

Grey Glacier

Grey Glacier - calving into Lake Grey

Cuernos del Paine

Big backpacks - but they did get lighter every day!

Torres del Paine National Park

Dinner time before it gets too dark (and we too tired)

The Torres del Paine up close at sunset - unfortunately the famous sunrise the next morning wasn´t very famous (cloudy)

It´s just a step to your right ...

Torres del Paine National Park

Punta Arenas, the only major settlement along the Strait of Magellan, was our next destination. Perhaps our expectations were too high, but the town wasn´t really that interesting nor impressive. Bad luck, as there wasn´t even an onward bus and we were stuck there for another day, on which we actually did discover some beauty.


Punta Arenas and the Magellan Strait

Chilean navy flag hoisting ceremony at noon

"Easy access" cementary in Punta Arenas

Trash littering the suburbs - luxury cruise liners visiting downtown

No surprise we didn´t get tickets for the bus on "yesterday" ;-) ...

From Punta Areanas (Chile) we eventually took a bus to Ushuaia (Argentina) - which also meant we left mainland South America and entered what locals here refer to as the end of the world: Tierra del Fuego.

Crossing the Magellan strait

On the short but rough crossing of the Magellan Strait we were patroned by dolphins surfing the boat´s bow wave - and some people got soaking wet when looking for the dolphins:

We are now, 20 March 08, in Ushuaia, which - for Argentinians and most tourists - is the southernmost city in the world as well as the 'fin del mundo' (end of the world) altogether. However, just a short distance South of here and across the Beagle channel sits the little naval base town of Puerto Williams, which Chileans claim to be the southernmost settlement with permanent residents. Superlatives aside, we want to go there for yet another trek (Los Dientes de Navarino), on which we´ll cross 55º southern latitude (southernmost ... haha). Lacking any market competition (corrupt authorities?) the only boat company offering the short boat trip across the channel (and border) is ridiculously expensive. We were lucky and met a french sailing crew who offered us a ride across to Puerto Williams on Saturday, which is their first stop on a 2-month journey back to Europe. We will be quicker than them - arriving in Europe in less than a month ...

Stay tuned!

Here we are in the land of the kiwis

Although one of the long-awaited highlights on our trip, we didn´t spend much time preparing our stay in New Zealand. With a couple of guide books and countless recommendations (which triggered expectations) in our pockets we left Christchurch southbound. No doubt our well travelled rental car (190.000 km) knew its way around and started a clockwise tour around the South Island.

Travelling - it´s more than just sight seeing and sun bathing: planning, accounting, controlling - it´s all part of it. No question who´s the boss here.

The south-eastern coast offered incredibly close encounters with penguins and sealions.

Baby penguins up close

We mostly stayed at basic but fantastically located campgrounds mangaged by the Department of Conservation (DOC) - either near the coast, along riverbanks or next to pristine lakes.

Camping in New Zealand

We got almost annoyed by saying "I´ve never been so far south in my entire life" during the last three months. We have pushed our geographical boundaries so many times on this trip - but visting Slope Point as the southernmost point of the South Island marked a - however temporary - end of this. Not much there but you feel like you could almost see Antarctica.

Slope Point

Beautiful and lonely beaches everywhere

Arriving at the Fjordlands National Park in the south-west corner of the South Island, we also paid the world-famous Milford Sound a brief visit.

What a camp spot! (along Milford Sound road)

Especially a short but steep hike up into a mountain saddle was worthwhile as we not only felt some snow under our feet but also witnessed an amazing sunset overlooking Milford Sound and the surrounding mountains.

Afternoon hike through patches of snow

We couldn´t come to New Zealand but not go 'tramping'. We decided to do the Dusky Track, which doesn´t get the attention as most other tracks. It is not only a bit more demanding but also harder to get to. After an hour of gravel road and 32 kilometers on a charted boat across Lake Hauroko (with about 460m the deepest lake in New Zealand) we were dropped off at the trailhead and right away eaten by sandflies, tiny little beasts, the bites of which do hurt for days. The next days we spend crawling up and down and across tree roots and through dense and misty native forest (and lots of mud, too) but also had amazing views across the mountains and towards Doubtful Sound. Similar to the campgrounds mentioned before, the DOC provides basic huts along the way, so we 'only' had to carry our food for six to eight days but no tent. We were lucky on our first night, when we were welcomed by a group of local farmers who invited us to a delicious and unexpected steak dinner and chocolate cake. No wonder they could enjoy all this luxury: they were flown in by helicopter the day before. Luckily, they even left some supplies behind when they left, so we decided to stay another day at the hut and bake some bread - only using flour, water and cheese.

Our water taxi across Lake Hauroko

Delicous! Cheese filled 'bread'

Kea - beautiful but always suspicious to steal your belongings

The 'Pleasant Ridge' with views across to Doubtful Sound and the sea

'Walkwires' made some of the river crossings easy and enjoyable

Lush and overgrown forest - making it hard to find the track

Another lake crossing at the end of the track (Lake Manapouri) and we were back in civilisation - only to realise that not just we but also our car had an empty battery.
Eventually we made our way up North along the west coast with a few sightseeing stops along the mighty Mount Cook, highest peak of New Zealand.

On the beach with Mount Cook in the back - towering above the clouds

Cicadas - often heard, seldom seen

Always worth stopping: unusal roadsigns for us

Our northernmost stop on the South Island was the Pelorus Sound (part of Marlborough Sound), where we spend a day kayaking the quiet and not so quiet waters.

A giant stingray amongst countless jellyfish

Jetty at Elaine Bay

Sea-kayaking near Elaine Bay

Lunchtime on a lonely beach

We crossed the Cook Strait by ferry and arrived in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. There we spend two lovely days with distant relatives, who moved from Austria to Wellington in the 1960s. It´s been great to see this Austrian-Kiwi mix, especially when having a conversation in German.

Our Christmas present was due on our next stop: In Taupo - the centre of the North Island surrounded by an unique landscape shaped by volcanos - we went on a small plane and disembarked at a height of 3600m. Although our 'tandem-masters' pushed us out of the plane rather than us jumping bravely, we had a mind-blowing 45 seconds of freefall, followed by a wonderful, peaceful and much slower descent with the parachute open.

Let´s go skydiving!

Landing approach into Taupo airport

Another hiking trail, the Tongariro crossing, normally a more or less easy family day walk across some picturesque volcanos was nothing but a fight through stormy clouds. So, although we´ve 'done it', we only know from postcards what it would look like.

Mount Tongariro in stormy clouds

The Bay of Islands, north of Auckland, attracted us with its superb conditions for a day of sailing. Although we didn´t have the best wind, we had a very relaxing day on the boat and some remote beaches in the Bay of Island.

Early morning in the Bay of Islands

Skipper Conrad - pretending to be in control of the 40ft yacht

Mermaid Babsi - looking for dolphins, penguins and stingrays

Islands in the Bay of Islands

A brief stop in Auckland - including another visit to family (second cousin once removed ?) - finished off our excellent time in New Zealand, a land too vast to capture in four weeks.

Auckland seen across the crater of Mount Eden

Thanks to time difference and international dateline we arrived in Santiago de Chile on Sunday, 10 February, a few hours before we left Auckland.

Our first day in Chile´s capital was full of gathering information at various offices (tourism, national parks, language schools etc).
Next, we´ll be heading to Valparaiso, 120km northwest of Santiago on the coast, for a crash course of the Spanish language.

¡Adiós y hasta luego!

Stay tuned!

It's been a long time since we last posted some pictures - and it will be hard, in fact impossible, to now capture all we have seen, felt and done in the last couple of weeks. But let's try and start from where we stopped last time: Western Australia.

This is Australia ... and seeing the actual animal is even better!

Western Australia was a perfect start to our five weeks stay in Australia. Having had our base at Katharina and Wolfgang's welcoming house in Perth we first discovered the South Western regions of WA on our own and then met up with them again for a weekend in Margaret River.

Wildfire lookouts around Pemberton: a ladder of simple reinforcement bars [we reckon it was T19s for the engineers amoungst you] arranged around the tree trunk take you (and took us!) 70 meter up to the lookout platform

Too cool for swimming? No waves for surfing? - No worries! Let's go wine tasting in Margaret River!

The view in the other direction wasn't very different ...

Sandstone pillars at sunrise, The Pinnacles National Park

Back in Perth we also met Richard, a friend of ours who used to work with Babsi in London and now has returned home to Perth. He not only gave us a private and very profound tour through Perth's Botanic Gardens followed by a visit to his (and now - of course - our) favourite pub in town, but also organised a barbeque with some of his friends at the banks of the Swan River with great views to the skyline of Perth.

Living the Australian way of life: public BBQs everywhere!

A few days before Christmas we left Perth for Sydney where our friends Rachael and Daniel expected us at the airport - having driven all the way from Melbourne to Sydney on their way home for Christmas. Together we drove the last bit up the coast to Newcastle - not without driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge overlooking the Opera House to give us a first glance of this magnificent city.

Rachael and Daniel with us in front of one of the many beaches in Newcastle

Rachael and Daniel together with their parents were phenomenal hosts and made us feel very much part of their families as we joined them for many family activities and reunions around Christmas. An one-in-a-lifetime-experience for us was the fact that we went straight from the beach to church on Chrismas Eve. Singing 'Silent Night - Holy Night' while wearing shorts, T-shirts, sunglasses and flip-flops was somewhat special to us.

Christmas day in Newcastle with Daniel's parents and lots of presents under the Christmas tree

When we arrived in Sydney a few days before New Year's we didn't really know what to expect. However, it didn't take long for us to be absolutley overwhelmed by this city and its superb setting around the natural harbour. We loved the views and athmosphere- in particular around the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House - and very much enjoyed numours ferry rides across the harbour.

This is Sydney!

We almost assembled a complete team for a game of ultimate frisbee when meeting our former Ovathrow teammates from London: Faustine, Liz, Mat and Mike. They all moved to Sydney since and we are jealous about them taking the ferry across Sydney Harbour to work every morning.

Reunion of ex-Ovathrow frisbee players - having a picnic on the shore of Port Jackson, Sydney

Sydney is famous for its big fireworks on New Year's Eve and we certainly wanted to stay in town to witness this spectacular show. Together with Rachael and Daniel we took position in one of the best spots in the early afternoon and joined the crowds in waiting patiently for the sun to set and the fireworks to rise at midnight. It paid off eventually as we were all overwhelmed like little kids by the biggest, longest and most beautiful display of fireworks we've ever seen in our lives.

The Sydney Opera House at sunset

Rachael and Daniel kindly offered to return to Melbourne via air and let us drive their car down to Melbourne. So, we left Sydney and - now having our camping gear on board, too - had unforgetable two weeks in New South Whales and Victoria, with a short detour to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.

Friendly kangoroos at Pebbly Beach

Having seen not many mountains on our trip so far, we couldn't resist the temptation to climb Mount Kosciuszko - with 2228m the highest point in Australia.

Picnic and our last drop of Austrian 'Marillenschnaps' on the top of Australia: Mount Kosciuszko

Although the ascent is rather inspectular and you'll be joined by flip-flop wearing tourist coming up by cable car - we managed to escape the crowds with a beautiful camp spot at neighbouring Mount Townsend (2210m).

Beautiful terrain covered with beautiful - mostly endemic - wildflowers

Heading back towards the coastline further down south, our next destination was Wilsons Promontory National Park at the southern most tip of the Australian mainland. We spent three days hiking along the coast and through beautiful forest and are glad that the beautiful but poisonous black Tiger snake didn't have a go at us.

Waterloo Bay, Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria

Although another slight detour on our way to Melbourne, we followed many recommendations and travelled along the Great Ocean Road on Victoria's south coast. Many and very close encounters with Koalas and a beautifully secluded camp spot near Point Franklin at Cape Otway made this trip along the coast well worth it.

Although mostly asleep, almost blind and making sounds like pigs - Koalas are cute, aren't they?!

No sight of the many other travellers on the Great Ocean Raod - our campspot just above the cliffs at Point Franklin

Sit back, relax and watch the show of the wild ocean (Bass Strait) at sunset

Sunset above the wind driven waves at Point Franklin

Trying to catch the moment

The Twelve Apostels - Great Ocean Road

Arriving in Melbourne we were warmly welcomed by Deb and Martin, who Conrad worked with in London. We discovered the city of Melbourne by bus, foot and tram and enjoyed its multicultural flair, food and nightlife.
Having had five phenomenal and very intense weeks in Australia it wasn't easy to finally say 'Good-Bye' to this amazing part of the world and especially to our friends.

Farewell dinner on our last night in Melbourne

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, last Monday, 14 January 2008, and spend the last two days exploring the city and stocking up our supplies for more romote areas in the backcountry. We are not quite sure yet about what to see next and which track/tramp we want to do, but we'll head out today, spending the next couple of weeks here on the South Island before taking the ferry to the North Island.

We hope you're all doing well and had a good time over Christmas and New Year! We'd love to send a lot more emails etc - but then again there's so much so see and do out here ...
Stay tuned!

This year's Christmas greetings come from 'The Pinnacles' desert, a few hours north of Perth, Western Australia.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a good start into the New Year!

Having had a great time in Western Australia we'll be heading over to the East Coast for Christmas and New Year.

Stay tuned