On Sunday we hoped for better weather than we’d had on our glacial trek. We were told that the weather is unpredictable over here. Further more there is no ‘weather service’ (bureau of meteorology) offering a forecast or even a random weather prediction. However we were assured that:1. Weather could change in 5 minutes.
2. The average annual rainfall in the Glacial National Park was 6 meters – i.e. it rains more often than not. With that dire weather news we were picked up again at 7am, but this time for a boat cruise of ‘Lago Argentino’ and several other glaciers.
The grey clouds overhead and thick fog looked ominous. We wondered if we were even going to be able to see the glaciers. Thankfully the clouds were low so we could see the tops of the mountains. The crummy weather even seemed to lend a mystical feel to the experience and although we didn’t see the icebergs sparkling in sunshine with clear blue skies overhead, they did look amazing.
The boat cruise aims to visit 3 glaciers: The Upsala Glacier, the Onelli Bay Glacier (convergence of 3 glaciers Onelly, Bolado and Agassiz) and the Spegazzini (not spaghetti) Glacier. We were told that due to some icebergs in Onelli Bay it was unlikely our boat could get close enough to see the Onelli Bay and Upsala Glaciers. I fantasized that with a little Aussie-inspired initiative, the captain (with my expert guidance of course) should be able to nudge the bergs out-of-the-way or perhaps sink them with a little TNT. Before generously offering my assistance I thought it prudent to examine the said icebergs myself. When we finally came on Onelli Bay and viewed the rascal bergs it occurred to me it would require several megatons of TNT to remove the fugitive icebergs. Stretching from one side of the bay to the other, and (according to the captain) extending most of the 18km to the face of the glacier, were back-to-back house sized icebergs. In wonder and disappointment we sailed from one end of the berg-block to the other until all 200 passengers were sadly convinced there was no way through.
Missing the three glaciers of Onelli Bay we sailed to our final destination, the Spegazzini Glacier. Spegazzini has a surface area of 66km2, is 25km long and has a width of 1.5km at its face. It’s the highest glacier in the national park with a face height of 80-125meters. Several large chunks of ice fell from Spegazzini while we were waiting and watching, the resulting waves causing several of the largest round iceburges near the boat to destabilize and start rolling in the water. They turned five or six times before finding their centre and returning to a state of rest. Every time there was an ‘ice-incident’ (even one as mundane and yet extraordinary as an iceberg turning) I would race 199 other eager tourists (every single one of us armed with our weapon of choice - a digital camera/camcorder) to the appropriate rail all vying for the best position to take our precious shots. The ship captain (who obviously understood this tourist mentality), continually turned the ship around, no doubt enjoying watching us having to continually readjust our position on the boat and scramble to yet another rail.
The glaciers and icebergs were all a sight to behold and well worth visiting despite the fact that we could only do half the tour.
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