Cerro Castillo.

December 19th 2018. Approach to Cerro Castillo, Aysen, Chile.

In 2018/19 we walked a linear, 1000 mile route through Chilean Patagonia. We broke it down into sections which used horse trails and drover’s routes in some of the most remote areas of the country. We carried all our equipment and food for up to 9 days at a time, meeting few people between settlements.

We are sheltered from the stiff breeze that comes in across the lake, by a tall band of reeds. Last year’s pale and dried out foliage supporting this year’s fresh growth, the brown flower heads bobbing at the tallest points of all the stems. A slice of clear blue lake can be glimpsed through the boundary, beyond this a thick stand of mature lenga trees, and in the far distance, Cerro Castillo, the mighty mountain, cloudless and patient, it’s snow fields bright in the passing sun.

The food chain plays out around us. Thousands of knats whizz about just above the waters surface, seemingly haphazard and possibly frenzied as their one day draws to a close. The sun illuminates a million tiny wings, gaining height between gusts, then disappearing again into the grass. Petals, grass tips, wings: all are dropped with sunlight on this fine afternoon. An iridescent dragonfly and its impossible delicacy. The gentle electric hum of hover and bob, chase and drop.

And then of course the swallows. Their daily afternoon acrobatics, cutting the air with bladed wings.