ENGLISH NARROWS PASSAGE
Today, we continued on our journey north, through the winding waterways of the English Narrows Passage.
It’s been a long day of standing and watching the world go by. And what a world…
The mountains have been spectacular, the landscape has been varied and interesting, and to top it all, we’ve seen lots of wildlife; seals, dolphins, penguins and a condor or two. I keep having to pinch myself as a reminder that this is Chile, and the high mountains to our starboard side, in the East, are the Southern Andes.
We’ve been so lucky with the weather so far, it’s incredible. Someone told me of an identical trip taken this way a couple of years ago, when the weather was murky and damp, and much of the scenery was hidden in mist. So far, the conditions for us have been pretty perfect… fingers crossed they will continue.
The best moments are when the waterways become narrow, and the scenery either side of us draws closer. At one point, it opened up into a large basin, and the captain slowed the ship down to a snail’s pace. The remains of a rusty old wreck of a ship, sitting on the riverbed helped to illustrate just how shallow the water was at that point. It wouldn’t do for us to run aground here, many miles from anywhere. Although much of the scenery is vaguely reminiscent of the Lake District, I think it would be fair to say that what we’ve seen today has been on a different scale entirely. This is true wilderness.
One more day of this bliss tomorrow…
