Remotest Patagonia: Alone with the wildlife in the Chacabuco Valley

Published in The Independent on Sunday on October 11, 2015

The sunlight ripples over sheets of long grass, sun-bleached to a pale gold; dark red-brown ridges of glacial moraines loom above, alongside forests of miniature beech, where tiny leaves are beginning to turn their autumnal hues, a scattering of ochre and scarlet among the green. Around it all, as if keen to contain the wide beauty of the landscape, are vast, dramatic mountain ranges. Continue reading “Remotest Patagonia: Alone with the wildlife in the Chacabuco Valley”

150: recounting the story of how one area of South America became ‘Wales away from Wales’

Published in The Independent on Sunday on June 7, 2015

It may be on the other side of the world, but one corner of Argentina is surprisingly, decidedly Welsh: in the Chubut Province in Patagonia, you’re as likely to hear “bore da” as “buenos dias”. Continue reading “150: recounting the story of how one area of South America became ‘Wales away from Wales’”