A Day on the Beagle Channel and then Heading Home

March 15 – March 16

March 15 – The Beagle Channel and Harberton Penguin Reserve

On Sunday, March 15, Kevin, Jane and I booked a boat ride out to the Harberton Penguin Reserve, which is east out of Ushuaia down the Beagle Channel towards the open Atlantic. The Beagle Channel is one of two interior passageways that allow ships to avoid the extreme weather and waves in the Drake Passage between Antarctica and Cape Horn on South America. Technically the water on the north side of the Channel is the Atlantic and the south the Pacific, and in the section we travelled, Argentina is on the north and Chile the south.

We were again very fortunate that it was a clear, sunny day with almost no winds…another great day for photos.

As we were pulling out of port, there were three or four ships getting ready to depart for Antarctica. One of which is the three masted sailboat below. The crew of our boat said it was a Danish boat with about 100 people attempting to recreate one of Ernest Shakelton’s expeditions to Antarctica.

Below is a view of Ushuaia as we were leaving port.

Our first stop was a rock in the middle of the channel populated by sea lions, cormorants and a few penguins.

Below are a series of pics of the occupants of the island. My favorite was the male lion on the far left of the above photo. Below are a couple close ups and several additional photos. He held this pose for the 30 minutes or so we were in the boat viewing the island.

Next stop was a beautiful, rustic light house.

Below are an eastward and westward view of the Channel.

Along the way, we passed Puerto Williams, which is in Chile and only accessible via boat. Supposedly, there is great remote camping and climbing just outside the village in the mountains behind it.

Last stop was the Harberton Estancia, which is the red marker on the map above. The Estancia was established in 1886, has been run by one family since then and today is a nature preserve and a museum with its principal purpose being tourism.

An American biologist, Rae Natalie Prosser de Goodall married one of the family members and created a museum on the grounds to preserve the many marine carcasses that wash up on the shores of Tierra del Fuego. It contains the worlds largest collection of marine skeletons with many species that are not found anywhere else in the world. Further, through the efforts of Goodall, they have identified numerous previously unknown species that have never been observed except for when their carcasses are found.

Above is a map of this region of the world, which explains why the carcasses collect on Tierra del Fuego. The ocean currents circulate clockwise around Antarctica. Tierra del Fuego and the surrounding archipelago happen to jut into the current stream. As a result, it is the only solid land masses that the carcasses can land upon.

Finally, we headed out in an inflatable boat to the penguin reserve, which sits isolated on a nearby island. We were allowed to exit the boat and walk among the penguins. We spent an hour with the penguins observing and photographing them.

There are two types of penguins on the reserve: the larger gentoo penguins with the orange beaks and feet and the smaller Magellanic penguins. All in, there are 10,000-15,000 penguins on the island. They arrive on the island early in October to start their annual breeding season, raise their chicks and molt their feathers. Around late March, the penguins leave to begin their usual migration northward, and will feed at sea for more than 6 months, until the winter is over and spring calls them again to breed on land.

The Magellanic penguins dig holes in the earth and hatch their chicks there.

The Magellanic penguins are much more numerous than the gentoo penguins and their nests extend up and into the hills pictured in the distance.

March 16 – Running for the Argentina Chile Boarder on Tierra del Fuego and Dropping the Motorcycle off in Punta Arenas

We had received reports on 3/15 that Argentina, and maybe Chile, were going to close their borders on 3/16. As a result, JD and I got out early to ensure we got across the border before a potential issue arose. Further, we needed the extra time to make the long drive to Punta Arenas. We made it to the boarder and the folks in the office said they were waiting for the call to close operations down, so it could be anytime. We made it and that is all that matters.

Today is the first day we encountered the winds of Patagonia. Our estimate is that they were blowing at greater than 50 mph. When we were on the ferry across the Strait of Magellan, the ferry took four tries to get to the ramp on the other side of the Strait and had to do a 360 in the process.

JD and I then headed out and made a left turn, which is circled in the map. The winds were at 90 degrees to the road. As soon as I made the turn, I was blown from the right side of the right lane to the left side of the left lane (the oncoming traffic lane). It was all I could do to hang onto the bike and not go spinning off into the gravel on the opposite side of the road. Because the winds were so strong, I literally had all my weight on the right side peg and handle and I couldn’t turn it to the right. This was the scariest moment of the trip. Luckily, there wasn’t any oncoming traffic for about five minutes. I eventually was able to get my foot and hand on the left gear shift and clutch, downshift from sixth to third, increase the rpms on the engine thereby increasing the centrifugal force generated by the engine, bring the bike to a cant into the wind, gain control and move over to the right lane. JD had explained this maneuver to me after we went through the Death Zone a few days ago. He saved my butt today as a result of doing so.

I dropped the bike off and it had 20,318 kilometers on it versus what I started out with on 3/1 of 15,850, so 4,468 kilometers or 2,775 miles. Adding that to the 3,956 miles I put on the BMW, I rode about 6,700 miles on the journey, which is about 2.5x the distance from NYC to LA…that is a lot of traveling!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the final installment in the blog…getting back to Chicago!

Adios!