Our day started out rather early, the tour we'd booked had a 07:35 start so we have to up, fed and shaved before then - all this after the most interesting a late night of the cruise so far!
Anyway we were soon on the minibus (as there were only 11 people) heading off to the excellent Ranch Centro Hipico where we donned hats and jumped on some magnificent Argentine horses. Mine was called Chiquita something something, but was happy with the first part thankfully! He was a frisky one, always trying to be at the front of the line, which suited me perfectly! In fact he was great fun and I didn’t mind the continuous fight to prove who was boss (it varied repeatedly over the next two hours!)
We set off from the ranch down through a wooded area and over a rapidly flowing river before climbing up the lower reaches of Mount Susannah. From then on we threaded round the edge of the mountain on some fabulously precipitous paths, through forest, bog, thicket and housing estate (!) until we dropped down to the water’s edge of the Beagle Channel. Then we followed the channel back in the direction of Ushuaia, passing under a jetty and crossing a small bay with the water up to our mount’s bellies.
We then continued back towards the ranch enjoying a good gallop on the way, before we again reached the river, this time ignoring the bridge in favour of wading across it. Soon we we’re back after enjoying a fabulous two hours in the saddle.
On our return we asked to be dropped off before the town, so we could walk back, and we explored a local bird reserve and the previous airport, now the preserve of the military and private aviators, an old DC3 was on display, the last ever to service Antarctica. We continued on past the port and walked in the other direction past more military bases, the monument to the person General Belgrano, and later a monument to the ship General Belgrano, now a military grave to the 323 souls still on board.
We had an early departure and all aboard was 12:30 so we headed back to the port, fighting against the hoards who had recently arrived on a Norwegian ship, the Sun. Without labouring the point we’ve tried them, it was the one and only time we’ll do it!
The afternoon became a carbon copy of many, lunch at the patio grill, followed by a jacuzzi with cocktails and ice-cream, changing for dinner and then aperitif by the patio again before decending to MDR, tonight it was veal chop, just perfect!
There’s new performers onboard today, starting with a very talented young saxophonist from Britain.
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