“We decided to travel by canoe along the Rio Chubut, in Argentinan Patagonia, starting from the Andes and reaching the Atlantic. That would involve paddling hundreds of kilometres through an unfamiliar desert. In the beginning, things did not go as planned, and dangerous capsizing in cold waters led to a situation of near emergency. Then, with help from the gauchos, the voyage continued amid unforgettable encounters with people who live in sparsely inhabited places. For days, we paddled through an Eden, enjoying a wandering life on the surface of the stream, but then the Patagonian gods woke up again and violent winds blockaded us with tall waves and sandstorms. There were more capsizings, rescues and furious arguments. When we finally reached the ocean, we weren’t the same people anymore. In total, we had covered over a thousand kilometres following the wandering meanders of the Chubut.”
Valentina Scaglia, a naturalist by training, has worked
as a journalist. She currently writes for Meridiani Montagne,
for Le montagne incantate (Repubblica/National Geographic), and for the Swiss magazine Azione. She is the author of
guidebooks for sailing in the Mediterranean and of Wilderness in Italia, dedicated to the last wild places left in Italy. She
has explored unknown paths, from Calabria to Iceland,
from Anatolia to Scandinavia. She has taken part in canoe expeditions since the 1990s
in Canada, Siberia, the US, the Balkans, Central Asia and, more recently, Mongolia, Argentina and Chile. She has launched two projects that revolve around the knowledge of
wilderness near and far: A piedi nell’Italia del silenzio and Dove il Mediterraneo è ancora selvaggio.
Pub date: June 2024
Length: pp. 208