We live on a crowded planet.
But there are still vast areas
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS ..where nature has
the upper hand.
It looks like another planet.
I'm heading to the last great
wildernesses.
I'll try to cross four of these rugged
landscapes
Oh, my God!
..on my toughest journeys yet.
I have to be honest, things are not
going brilliantly.
A bit of a medical situation.
Help is a long way away.
- Well done.
- Well done.
- SIMON LAUGHS
I want to meet the people for whom the
wilderness is home
Testicles for breakfast, lunch and
dinner!
..to see how they live alongside
nature.
Whoa!
I can stay down there for a minute or
so.
He's still down there now walking
around.
And in this critical time for our
world
Huge carcasses of great trees.
..seek out the rare and majestic
creatures that still survive
My heart is racing.
THUNDER
..in some of the most hostile
environments
Are you OK, Jonathan?
- Yeah, yeah.
- ..and the remotest regions Bloody
hell!
..of our wild planet.
Big cats roaming free.
This surely is the absolute definition
of a real wilderness.
I'm in Argentina, travelling through
Patagonia,
a region so vast it covers the lower
third
of the continent of South America.
It's a land of myth and mystery,
of grasslands and forests surrounding
mountains and ice.
Nature is still in charge here,
in one of the wildest places left on
Earth.
Oh, my God.
I mean, it is breathtakingly
beautiful, isn't it?
Our plan is to head that way -
the end of the valley and then up,
because up there, beyond the
mountains,
is a vast store of ice.
The South Patagonian Ice Field.
The ice field is the cold heart at the
centre of Patagonia.
It's a colossal critical bank of
frozen water.
I don't think we know enough about it.
I hope to reach it, then track it
right down to its southern edge.
On the journey I'll try to meet up
with some of the rugged souls
who survive in wild Patagonia.
Across the huge grassland steppe of
Eastern Chile,
I'll search for pumas - the mountain
lions of South America.
Ultimately, I hope to reach the Grey
Glacier
in the south of the ice field.
The first challenge is getting to the
South Patagonian Ice Field,
high above us.
It's hard to reach.
- Yes, it's dangerous.
If you will see the blue sky now, it's
perfect,
but we have to see what happens at the
end
because we are going in that direction
and we have to see
what's happening with the clouds
coming from the Pacific Ocean.
- So, fingers crossed, we won't get
stopped by the weather.
Ceci Vedelago is an Argentinian guide.
She has more than 20 years of
experience climbing
the Andes Mountains that run north to
south down through Patagonia.
- You see there, the glacier?
- Yeah.
- We're through that valley,
and we're going there to get to the
middle of the ice field.
We need three days to get there.
In some parts it will be a rocky area
- that will be a challenge.
In some parts we have to cross the
river - a challenge.
We cross crevasse - that will be a
challenge.
- You've used the word "challenge"
several times, Ceci.
- Yes, exactly, you're right.
- Flippin' 'eck.
Our journey to the ice field will
involve climbing, hiking
and freezing wading.
Oh, my God!
- Oh, it's not that bad.
- Oh, yes, it is.
Oh, my God!
Along with Ceci and me on the
expedition,
there's a small TV crew and climbers
guiding us up to the ice field,
including mountain rescue experts with
advanced medical training
in case of emergencies.
It can be so brutally cold up here.
The best time of the year to be here,
trekking,
is December to March. It's now May.
There are no resupply options here.
There is no mobile phone service.
If one of us gets injured, a rescue
would be a bit tricky, in truth.
This is a remote and rarely visited
corner of the Andes Mountains.
Day one of our expedition is a long
trek with heavy packs.
Eventually, we reach a site where we
can camp for the night
as temperatures start dropping towards
minus ten.
So we've set up camp and the priority
now
is to get warm, get some food inside
us and get to bed.
I've got to switch boots now from
trekking boots
..to class B2 mountaineering boots
becausewe're going up.
Ahead, I start to catch glimpses of
the mountains
which guard the great ice field that
sprawls beyond.
- Stay by yourself, especially the
first 15 minutes.
- We're following a jagged, barren
valley
carved by the force of enormous
ancient glaciers.
Their crushing ice crawling and
grinding down the mountains.
Above us, silent and brooding, sits
the South Patagonian Ice Field.
It's a vast geographical feature of
the planet,
helping to regulate the entire
ecosystem of the continent.
I'm really hoping we can get up there
to get a sense of how the ice field
still fares in our warming world.
So, we need to get across this.
Lucas Jacobson is our expedition
leader.
He's securing a line to get us across
the gully.
A true mountain man,
Lucas has scaled some of the highest
peaks of the Andes.
- Hey, Simon, we have the zipline here
to cross.
Basically, you, Simon, need to pull
yourself.
- OK.
- We should have contact all the time.
- Right.
- Perfect.
- I hate heights.
- OK?
- Yeah.
- Your hands behind your head and pull
it slowly.
- OK.
Oh, my God.
Thank you.
OK?
So this torrent of water is all coming
off
the ice field that is above us.
This mass of ice up there.
Above is the largest expanse of ice in
the Southern Hemisphere
outside Antarctica.
These melt waters sustain life across
the Patagonian wilderness
and beyond.
And now I can start to see the ice
field above.
Up there.
That is what we're heading towards.
It's still a bit of a distance.
We think it'll still take at least
another full day's climb
to get up to the ice field, but the
weather is closing in on us.
The wind is
It's so powerful here.
Sometimes I take the classic two steps
forward
and get blown one step back.
- Simon, welcome to Patagonia!
- THEY LAUGH
Rain alternating with sub-zero blasts
of wind
makes the bare rock surfaces icy and
treacherous.
It's not long before we have our first
casualty.
It's our cameraman Piers.
- I just twisted my ankle.
- Piers, you all right?
- Yeah, yeah.
Just give me a minute.
- I'm quite worried about Piers, our
cameraman.
I don't know if he's going to be able
to go on.
We find a sheltered area among
boulders
where we can camp and discuss options.
How is it feeling, mate?
- It feels a bit swollen.
- Right.
- The problem is, there's still a lot
more up to do
and the up is, ermis the problem.
- To be honest, as you see today, the
rain, it's getting more
and more technical every every
metre we're moving.
If anyone needs to be rescued,
it involves, like, in between 30 and
40 people.
- What, to evacuate a person?
- Yeah.
So, because you're still in a
condition to walk by yourself,
I decide that tomorrow is a good day
for you to return
to the last camp and start to make
your return all the way back.
- All right, mate. Well, it's crap,
but it's better you go out safely.
- Yeah. I'll have to show Chris how to
use a camera!
- Look, we've got the badger out.
- We'll get some audio, at least!
- CHRIS LAUGHS
Fingers crossed.
The glaciers here very kindly left a
whole load of
stones lying around as they retreated.
Hopefully now, I will not be taking
off in the night.
WIND HOWLS
I'm just blowing up my mattress.
You need an inflatable mattress here
because you've got to get your body
off the cold stony ground.
I have to be honest, things are not
going brilliantly.
We've had an injury and we've just
heard that there's a storm coming.
And the storm might mean that we will
not make it to the ice field.
We're going to have to see what the
weather is like in the morning
and we'll make a decision on whether
we go up
..or whether we go down.
WIND HOWLS, TENTS FLUTTER
For hour after hour, we're lashed by a
Patagonian storm.
The wind is really going for it now.
It's a little bit scary, to be honest.
I'm not entirely convinced this tent
is going to hold.
Clear skies.
A huge relief.
But another, bigger storm is forecast.
So if we're going to make it to the
ice field, we need to go now.
We're up at first light to make the
final and most challenging ascent.
- We're very close to the Patagonian
Ice Field.
With a blue sky, some cloud is
passing.
Perfect timing.
- As we climb up the valley, we map
out various routes ahead.
But several are blocked by thick ice
and rock falls.
It means we need to take another way
up.
- One possible route is going on the
right, into that gully there,
but we can't figure it out now.
There's a lot of ice.
- OK.
- So, the other Plan B route is up
here
..with some fixing ropes.
- Ropes?
- Yeah, ropes.
- OK.
We've got to get up.
My full rucksack weighs more than
20kg.
Tricky on a narrow ledge.
Bloody hell!
So we're nearly up at the snow and ice
line now.
Nearly.
Here we go. Look.
This little channel, to me, feels like
we're crossing
from the land of rock to the land of
ice.
As if to prove a point.
After several gruelling days,
finally we've reached the edge of the
South Patagonian Ice Field.
It's an enormous wall
of snow and ice.
To get up onto the ice field to see
its true scale,
we now need to climb up a 40 degree
slope of sheet ice for miles.
One slip could send us sliding down
hundreds of feet onto jagged rocks.
That could easily be fatal,
so we're wearing sharp crampons on our
feet to give grip.
- OK?
- That's good. Yeah, that's good.
And we're roped together to save us
from a slide
and from falling into a bottomless
crevasse
that can suddenly appear under your
feet.
- BLEEP!
- We haven't really got much time for
rest stops
..because a storm is coming
and we've got to get off the ice
field.
We don't want to be stuck up here for
too long.
So we've got to move as quickly as we
can, but
Argh!
I've just put my foot into the edge of
just a little crevasse.
I can't see the bottom. Ooh-ha-ha!
For hours, we trek upwards.
I'm properly shattered.
I'm starting to feel like we'll never
reach the top -
the ice field plateau.
Then, eventually, suddenly, the ice
levels out.
We've made it.
This
is the South Patagonia Ice Field.
Oh, my goodness.
- Yesterday, it was raining, and now
look here.
A blue sky, the sun, we can see all
the summits,
all the mountains, right in the middle
to the ice field.
- The mountains here are the middle of
the ice field?
- Correct, yeah.
- Yeah.
- That's unbelievable.
Still you have more ice field in the
back.
- Wow.
You have no idea how big it is up
here.
It's enormous. It's on a scale that I
just
I couldn't comprehend.
Stretching more than 200 miles north
to south,
billions of tonnes of frozen water.
The South Patagonia Ice Field covers
more than 5,000 square miles.
In some parts the ice is a mile deep.
HE WHISPERS: Silence.
On a very busy planet
..this is a proper wild
wilderness part of the world.
- It's unique, this place.
- For me, being here, makes me, like,
in real contact with the land,
with the natural areas.
- I feel I feel emotional being
here.
What an absolutely staggering part of
the planet.
Look at this.
So, thank you, guys.
- Well done.
- Well done.
- Getting onto the ice field, seeing
the scale of it,
feels like a real achievement.
From here, I'm going to head south,
exploring more of the wilderness in
Patagonia,
trying to get a sense of how this
whole region is coping
as our world heats up.
This is one of the least explored
mountain areas of the world.
It's one of the least known ice fields
on the planet.
But it is vast.
And the store of fresh water here
is vital not just to Patagonia
but to the whole of South America,
and the impact of this vast store of
ice
is felt by the climate across the
region
and helps to regulate the climate of
the world, no less.
Of course it does.
Every little aspect of the planet
helps to keep it in balance
..and this here plays a crucial role.
If this wasn't here, if this was the
colour of the rocks around
..it would absorb more of the sun's
energy and heat
and that would further drive planetary
climate change
and global warming.
We need this ice field. All of us do.
It matters to everyone.
With the weather about to turn and a
powerful storm on the way,
we start the long trek down from the
ice field.
I want to head south through the
foothills of the Andes
..to try and meet some of the people
who live on the edge
of this frozen wilderness and perhaps
understand it best.
Trekking down the ice wall into the
valley
pulls and strains a whole new set of
muscles.
But our packs are lighter, nobody
snaps an ankle,
and after two days we find ourselves
off the ice and hiking through
some of Patagonia's mind-boggling
range of landscapes.
Soon, we're in bleak and windswept
forests and grasslands.
It's romantically rugged.
Miles to the south, we pick up our
four-wheel drives.
It takes a tough and hardy soul to
survive out here year round.
But Argentina's gauchos farm this area
and we're heading to a remote gaucho
outpost.
Lucas is taking me to meet some
gauchos -
the legendary cowboys of South
America.
They live much of their lives on
horseback.
Probably wise, considering the state
of the roads.
Great stuff. Well done.
A little bit stuck.
Being in the wilderness, travelling in
the wilderness, is tricky.
We're not here alone. We've got
another
Some of our team are in a vehicle
behind.
We're going to have to bring that up
and try and pull this one out.
The sun is going down, we're still
about four miles
from our destination, which is not
ideal because we keep getting stuck.
We really need to make it there
tonight.
This is as far as we can go on four
wheels.
We have to do the last section on
foot.
- Simon, we are almost there.
- There it is!
God, it's a tiny little thing.
DOGS BARK
- Hey, buddy.
- Look at this place.
Thank you, mate.
Taibo lives out here alone in the wild
for months on end,
with only his dogs for company,
looking after herds of sheep and
cattle.
His friend, Juani, another local
gaucho, is staying for a few nights.
Wow.
Well, this place is very very
special.
LAUGHTER
Several bottles of wine.
- Taibo sleeps here and he spends most
of the summer here.
- How long have you been a gaucho,
Taibo?
So that's in your bones.
We'll be staying with Taibo and Juani
for two nights.
We'll all fit into a single basic
room.
OK.
It's cosy.
- It's cosy, eh?
- Yeah, there is space for all of us,
I think.
So, we've got somewhere to stay, we've
got somewhere to sleep,
we've got some food to eat, hopefully.
- Oh, we're fine. We'll survive.
- What a life this is, eh?
Yeah, there were some gauchos until
pretty recently,
they would spend something like a year
in a lonely outpost like this
and not see another human being.
There is something remarkable about
that existence.
Something that's still quite
appealing.
Intimidating but appealing, out here
in the wilderness.
DOGS BARK
Oh!
I slept OK. Well, not too bad, anyway.
But ironically, after worrying about
everybody else snoring,
apparently it was me snoring for
Britain.
Yes, a few too many glasses of the red
wine, I fear.
Taibo is already up, cooking
breakfast.
This far south and with winter
approaching, days are short.
Taibo spends most of his time working
outside in the elements.
He has to endure Patagonia's brutal
winds and temperatures
that range from minus 20 in winter to
more than 25 degrees in summer.
A hearty breakfast is essential.
Mm! That is an exceptional breakfast.
- Basically, there's beef for
breakfast,
lunch, dinner
The same.
- Repeat.
- Repeat, yeah.
Or lunch can be
You know, in Argentina, we eat also
Do you know cottage pie?
- Cottage pie?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- It's very popular in Argentina.
- Mm-hm.
I wasn't expecting you to say that,
but, yeah.
Mm-hm.
SIMON LAUGHS
I love that.
Yes. Are you a particular fan of
mashed potato?
- Mashed potato with meat.
- Cut off from the rest of the planet,
Taibo stays out here with few of the
benefits of the modern world
and less of the headaches.
His tools are his sheepdog, a lasso,
and of course a sturdy horse.
- This is going to be your horse.
Valencio. Super calm.
For everybody.
- I appreciate that.
Gauchos are legendary riders. Me,
definitely not so much.
And they have their own riding style
here.
- There you go. You pull your hand
left.
Exactly.
- OK.
- That's left. Right, the other way.
- And to stop?
- Just pull back.
- Just pull back.
- And then release.
- The gauchos, the landscape, the
wilderness.
Gauchos have lived like this for
generations.
Ranchers first came here in the 19th
century.
Over the years, they've encroached
ever further into the wilderness.
- Brr-brr-brro!
You move them from the left.
- OK.
- Yeah?
- Their sheep and cattle graze the
land.
Sometimes overgraze it.
And the fences they put up do cause
problems for the wildlife here.
But their way of life is still at the
mercy of the environment
and the landscape.
- Very good.
- The climate of Patagonia is governed
by the Andes Mountains
and the enormous ice field that sits
above us.
My God.
It looks like another planet. Look at
the colour.
Taibo has lived out here on and off
for his whole life.
I wondered if he'd seen changes in
that time.
I know Patagonia is one of the wettest
and windiest places in the world
..but how has the how has the
weather changed here over the years?
I mean, for me, that's that's a
scary thing that you're saying.
You're talking about dramatic changes
in a short period
of time that you are personally seeing
with your own eyes.
- Ya!
- Taibo knows these wild mountains.
He's not a scientist monitoring from
afar, he's a witness.
A canary in a coalmine alerting us to
profound change
in this wilderness.
The ice field is shrinking, rainfall
has dropped,
there's drought, forest fires
increase.
This is the climatic upheaval we know
is made more likely
and extreme by our global climate
crisis.
I'm getting a little bit sore
..in places that you don't need to
know anything more about.
Juani wasn't born to the gaucho
lifestyle.
He actually grew up in a town.
But he's chosen this way of life,
living out on the raw edge of the
wilderness.
There aren't many younger men here
like him.
- Gauchos, I think, they have this
passion,
but it's really hard for other people
to do what these guys do.
Where you have to work to take the
cattle from the mountain
Not the top.
But all the cattle down.
- Mm.
- That is a mountains crew.
Now, the problem, this generation,
people of my age and younger,
they're not staying on the farms any
more.
They prefer to stay in the city.
- And there is a risk that the
gaucho
- Yeah.
- ..the way of life might wither and
die out?
- Erm, yeah.
- The gaucho life is a solitary one,
but obviously, there are upsides.
It's quite delicate.
- Yeah?
- The texture is like a hard boiled
but perfectly cooked egg.
And it's a very light meaty taste.
- Testicles are great.
When you're doing all the work with
the cattle
You know, the castration.
- Yeah.
- Right after that, you put all the
testicles in the bucket
and the following days they are eating
testicles.
- Testicles for breakfast, lunch and
dinner.
Go on, all in, then. A bit of
intestines.
This is This is very good.
Does anyone just want to go and talk
to the dog?
- It could be a puma.
A fox, a puma.
- Hold on, did you just say it could
be a puma?
- Probably.
- Probably?!
Is that one of the biggest threats to
a gaucho's flock or herd?
- Of course, when they are about one
year old, one year and a half,
they are still a prey of a puma.
- Right, a foal. OK.
- Yeah. So you have to really take
care of them.
Keep them in the corral every night
before evening.
Two years ago, a puma took down two
foals.
One night we forgot them outside.
One night. And they were gone.
- And the puma took them both?
- Yeah.
- Charles Darwin wrote about gauchos
in the 1830s
and he said they were very courteous,
very hospitable,
full of modesty when talking about
themselves or their country,
but also daring and brave.
I think there is still a great romance
about the gaucho
..and coming here, I think I can see
why.
What an epic landscape and world in
which to operate.
We're up early the next morning.
It's time to leave.
So, farewell to new friends Juani and
Taibo.
Taibo, big hug, man.
God bless you.
Thank you. Stay safe.
To explore more of this beautiful
wilderness area,
we're going to try and track along the
Andes Mountains
and cross the border from Argentina
into Chile.
We're about to arrive at a very remote
border crossing.
I'm tracking around the edge of the
South Patagonia Ice Field,
towards the mighty glacier which flows
down from its southern tip.
This stage of my journey is taking me
across
the vast Patagonian Steppe -
thousands and thousands of square
miles of grassland
in the foothills of the Andes.
Across the border, the landscape of
eastern Chile
is majestic and imposing.
It's here that I'm hoping to catch a
glimpse of the big cats
of this wilderness.
I'm going in search of pumas.
Oh, man, it is spectacular here.
It's so vast, though. You could hide
an army out here.
I need a guide who knows and loves
this wild area.
We've found just the guy - his name is
Vicente Montero.
- This is the right place to enjoy
wilderness, man.
- Like many young men, Vicente wanted
meaning in life
when he came here to the wilderness.
- I'm from Santiago, the capital of
Chile.
A big city. You know, like, 9 million
people living there.
And I was raised to stay there, you
know,
and be someone according to my own
family's preferences.
- And then you find here.
- I quit everything and came here to
starve to death,
according to them. You know, like
- To your family?
- Yeah.
I found, like, a purpose.
Or I really felt alive every single
moment you're up here.
I mean, look at your surroundings.
- Look at that view. That is
absolutely gobsmacking.
- The amount of fauna you can see
here, it's
it's unbelievable.
There are flamingos, there's skunks,
foxes.
The condor here is three metres, 45
centimetres wide.
In the rest of Chile, they are only
three metres.
- Vicente has spent more than a decade
in Patagonia's mountains
and grasslands studying and helping to
protect
the extraordinary wildlife that lives
here.
- Right there.
- Oh, yes!
So, these are guanacos, is that right?
- Guanacos, yeah.
- And are they Are they related to
llamas?
- Yes, it's the ancestral animal that
colonise all the Andes.
A guanaco, after 4,000 years of
domestication,
then it borns a llama, which is
like
a lazy guanaco with long hair, you
know.
A completely domesticated animal.
- You're being very rude about the
llamas, but
- Yeah, I like the wild version.
Their main defence mechanism, they sit
with the wind
so they can smell everything that the
wind brings,
and they look the other way.
So, if it's visible, they will make an
alarm,
and what they can't see, on a bad day,
they will smell it.
- So they've got both their bases
covered?
- Absolutely.
- Wherever guanacos are grazing,
it's possible predators could be
nearby.
Pumas.
So, it's thought that there might be
50 to 100 pumas in this area.
They are South America's most iconic
but also elusive big cat.
Vicente has tracked and studied pumas
for years.
If anyone can find them, it's him.
But pumas are pretty adept at blending
into the landscape.
For hours, I just spot what Vicente
calls PSRs -
puma shaped rocks.
So, the rain is just starting.
We're going to try and find shelter
and then head out again tomorrow.
So, we're out before dawn
and Vicente is using a thermal
spotting scope
which picks out heat signatures in the
landscape,
so he can spot warm-blooded creatures
moving across the hills.
- But it only works before the sun
comes out.
After that, the sun starts heating
every rock,
and then I have, like, living things
everywhere.
- Yeah.
- So we only have a few minutes. We
should get on top
- All right, mate.
- ..to keep scanning.
- Let's go.
- OK.
One of the sentinels is facing that
way.
- Oh, yes!
- So, in this hill, in front
- Like a sentry.
- Always. It's the way they keep
alive.
- Mm.
- A little bit lucky.
There is something over there.
I guess I see the back of a puma.
Don't get excited yet.
- Why not? It's exciting. It's an
exciting thing to do.
- Cos we're, like, 1km away, so let me
be sure.
- So, what? You use the spotting scope
to identify the heat
..the binocular to check and the
camera to confirm?
- Exactly.
Ah-ha.
There it is. Now let's go and check.
- OK.
- We can move.
- HE WHISPERS:
- Right there.
- Oh, my God.
That looks like a lot of body of puma
for one single puma.
- I think there are two. There are two
pumas.
- I think I just saw a puma put its
arm
put its leg over the other one.
- Oh, now I see the head of the cub.
It's a tiny cub of, like, four or five
month old.
Count how many there are.
- Well, I can see two.
- Come on, move a little
- Hang on, hang on.
- ..higher up.
Count the ears.
How many pairs of ears do you count?
- Oh, my God. There are three pumas.
- Three pumas.
- Three together.
- Now, she already heard us, she
already saw us,
and she's still comfortable.
- This is completely astonishing.
Three wild pumas.
Pumas are found almost the entire
length of the Americas.
So they're found from Alaska, right
down to here in southern Chile.
But they're found in a greater
concentration
around here in Patagonia than anywhere
else.
It's on the move. The cat is on the
move.
Wild big cats roaming free.
This surely is the absolute definition
of a real wilderness.
Pumas are also known as a mountain
lion.
They're the apex predator supporting
the entire ecosystem.
We've just found this carcass. Is it a
guanaco?
- It is, and you can see all the grass
around it,
how tall and different from the rest.
- It's very green here.
- All the nutrients go back into the
ground
and that is the latest process,
because before they feed
hundreds of different species, and I'm
not being exaggerated, like.
The puma do the k*ll, eat as much as
possible,
you know, but then they leave the
carcass behind
and the next animal that comes is the
condor.
If there is, for example, a fox also
eating the rest,
the condor comes here, spread their
wings,
the fox moves away and then the condor
eats whatever they can.
After the condor comes the armadillo.
After the armadillo, also the skunk.
People usually don't associate the
skunk as a carnivore, but they do,
and they take every tiny piece of fat
or meat
that is left behind.
- Wow.
- Then come all the scavengers.
So the puma is absolutely central to
the ecosystem.
- Much of the Patagonian wilderness
here
is a protected area called Torres del
Paine.
It's been a huge conservation success.
Just a few decades ago it was rare to
see pumas here.
Now there's thought to be several
hundred in the region.
- There, there, there. There it is.
- Just here.
- There, there, there, there.
- He's got it all as a cat and a
carnivore.
- That's why it's the king, man.
It's the king of Patagonia.
Nobody messes with him.
- This wilderness is a long way from
heavy industry and huge cities,
but the impact of humanity is still
felt here.
Climate change and drought in
Patagonia
is thought to be pushing guanacos
further out of the mountains
in search of grazing.
Pumas follow the guanacos and that's
bringing them
into conflict with ranchers who farm
sheep at the edge of the wilderness.
- They always will prefer the guanaco,
but occasionally they do have a tasty
lamb available
that's left the safety of the herd
and, well, the puma is an opportunist,
as most of apex predators, you know,
so if they see an opportunity, they
hunt it.
So, what does the ranchers do?
They k*ll pumas even though they're
protected.
The economic losses for them are so
high
that they choose to ignore the law and
still k*ll many pumas.
- Even here, pumas still face threats,
and they won't be immune from the
great planetary changes
facing this wilderness.
The next years and decades will be
crucial
for ensuring their future.
Condors.
This is the final part of my journey.
I've made it down close to the
southern end
of the South Patagonian Ice Field.
I'm heading towards a glacier which
flows slowly down from the ice -
the spectacular Grey Glacier.
Vicente, what a place this is.
- Beautiful. We were very lucky.
You can see how spectacular it is.
- Up there, at the top,
is the ice field from which this
glacier flows.
It's been several weeks since I began
my journey
up to the ice field.
I'm hoping that if I can reach the
Grey Glacier,
I'll be able to understand how our
changing climate
is impacting on this world of ice and
rock.
- How are you doing?
- Doing OK, mate.
It's a bit of a trek,
but eventually we make it up onto the
top of the glacier.
Four miles wide, it's one of 53
glaciers
that creep down from the great South
Patagonian Ice Field
..eventually turning into rivers that
flow to the ocean,
giving life to everything on their
route
across the south of the Americas.
This landscape is astonishing.
The glacier here positively glows with
light.
It's almost as if it's lit from
within. Like it's luminous.
And it's disconcertingly noisy.
Of course, there's the howling wind,
but there's also creaks
and cracks and moans and groans coming
from the glacier.
It feels alive.
I've got my feet well apart here.
I've got my crampons in the ice.
The wind will not take me this time.
- You can't fight the wind, you play
with the wind.
You can play against it.
- The glacier is so brutishly huge, so
epic,
that it can appear eternal,
unchanging.
But Vicente is another person who has
witnessed
a rapid transformation of this
landscape.
- When I first came here in 2005, you
can barely see, erm,
the beginning of this big nunatak -
this island.
And this is only in a few years, you
know.
- A nunatak?
- Nunatak. It means island of rock
inside the glacier.
- Just 20 years ago, this rocky island
was mostly buried in the ice.
Every year, the glacier is retreating
100 metres.
I've been seeing the impact our
changing climate is having
on Patagonia, but the melting of our
ice fields here, in Greenland,
Europe, Asia and elsewhere, is a
slow-burn global disaster.
The rate at which glaciers are melting
has nearly doubled
over the past 20 years.
That further destabilises the climate,
making our weather systems more
unpredictable.
It's astonishing to think that when
scientists flew over the ice field
in an area near here not so long ago,
the altitude at which their plane was
flying
would have put them inside the ice
just in the 1980s.
That is how much the ice has melted
away.
It's not too late to preserve our last
great wildernesses.
These raw, wild areas need protecting.
They're worth fighting for.
They're vital for ensuring we have a
healthy planet
and they're important for us as humans
as well.
They feed our souls.
What do you see when you look out
here? what does it mean to you?
- I think it's the wild side of
nature.
We forget we belong into the
wilderness,
we belong into the ice glacier,
forests and everything.
- There is that sense that people have
forgotten
they are living creatures on an
astonishing planet.
We've forgotten that these
wildernesses exist
and we need a bit of it in our lives.
We need that sense that nature is raw
and powerful
and wonderful!
THEY LAUGH
Next time, in the region they call the
Amazon of the seas
..I meet the spear fishermen of the
Coral Triangle.
He is an astonishing human being.
It's a voyage to a truly remote corner
of our oceans.
So, we've got a bit of a problem.
Oh,
- BLEEP.
- So it's far.
When I say it's far, it's far.
- Not another boat, nor another ship.
Help is a long way away.
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01x02 - Patagonia
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An epic adventure into the unknown. Simon Reeve's toughest journey yet - into the heart of Earth's last great wild areas, where nature is at its most beautiful and fragile.
An epic adventure into the unknown. Simon Reeve's toughest journey yet - into the heart of Earth's last great wild areas, where nature is at its most beautiful and fragile.