A conversation........ 24.03.13

A conversation between the gods of Awe and Splendour.

"Ok, listen up. We have this couple who have been biking north to south through the Americas. They are beginning to think they have seen it all; mountains, snow, salt plains, rivers, deserts, extreme weather, seas, lakes, canyons, forests, high plateaus, lowlands, etc., etc. What do we have next for them?

"Well, they are heading toward Torres del Paine".

"True. But as good as that is it is just more of the same. No, we need something they haven't seen before. Something....spectacular....beautiful.....grand...."

"Ah. It's going to be just fine. Look where they are going next."

"Where?"

"They are off to.... the Perito Merino Glacier....."

 

 

I was beginning to wonder where this journey could go next. Not geographically, but in the sense of what could produce the sense of wonder that I had been experiencing on an almost daily basis for some weeks now. The Perito Moreno glacier is where we went; it did not dissapoint.

The gods were correct. It was spectacular, beautiful and grand.

An ice sheet 170m thick, measuring 250 square kilometers, 30k long, and 100m high, 5k wide at the lake end. Blocks the size of several houses crack away - called calving - with loud retorts into the water causing large waves to spread out. There are constant creaks, groans, cracks and retorts as the weight of the ice relentlessly pushes from the rear towards the front. One of the few glaciers worldwide to still be advancing.

Remember, that is a wall of ice over 250' tall.

For scale....see below.

It's only the hairs on a gooseberry, that stops it from being a grape.