In Patagonia

As a young kayaker I dreamt of visiting Patagonia for the outrageous rivers and waterfalls, but never made the pilgrimage. Late last year, though, through work, I had the chance to go. So, with my partner, we grabbed the opportunity and traded Northern Hemisphere winter days for the southern summer.

The place, as you probably know, is notorious for its weather – especially the winds. Nonetheless, in certain parts, there are small but well-established paragliding groups, which have grown in recent years.

Given that Fluff, my gracefully long-suffering partner, does not fly, we planned to spend our time climbing together, kayaking some of my younger self’s dream rivers, and paragliding on the best flying days.

Southern Chile and Argentina make up the impressively lanky strip of land that is Patagonia. To keep costs down, we committed to mainly using buses. But travelling through the mountainous, water-filled land eats up time, so we decided against heading all the way south to the famed Fitz Roy area and instead explored the more northern regions, which also benefit from a warmer and more stable climate – better suited to what we hoped to do. 

The Futaleufú Valley

The Futaleufú Valley was our first stop. The river that flows here is one of the top three rafting sections in the world – only perhaps bested by the White Nile (now dammed) and the mighty Zambezi (due to be dammed). The landscape it flows through is...