PATAGONIA IS, FRANKLY, A BIT much. So affectingly vast and unspoiled is this elemental landscape of infinite steppe and big sky that you find yourself questioning its plausibility. It is as if the prow of our speeding orange Panamera might at any moment tear into painted canvas and shatter the illusion, Truman Show-style.
The United Kingdom does not really do wide open spaces. By contrast, Chilean Patagonia sprawls with uncluttered majesty. The emptiness stretches to a distant mountain backdrop which, with its solemn peaks wreathed in candyfloss cloud, is so spectacular as to appear unreal; more greenscreen CGI construct than raw geography. Were we in a darkened edit room, I would be leaning over and urging James Cameron to take things back a notch: Jim, mate, sometimes less is more."
The wind and sun that assault my already tender face feel real, as does the stony ground beneath my now-damp feet. But time and again I am struggling to process the views, from raging waterfalls cascading into lakes of dazzling sapphire to the patches of sunlight that race across these lake-studded plains, transforming the colour palette from muted and drab to vital and vivid as they fly.
With time you begin to accept it. Getting out of the car helps; trading your turbocharged and hybrid-boosted isolation chamber for wind, water, and the alarming proximity of some spectacular wildlife: vultures, pumas, and the last of the llama-like guanaco. A few hours ago, in sprawling Santiago, the natural world was absent bar a "living wall" outside the airport's international terminal. Here, that is inverted. Here, humanity clings on by its fingernails; windswept and humbled and unable to muster anything resembling permanence. And yet we just found the most advanced petrol station on the planet: Porsche's synthetic fuel test plant.
Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Car India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Car India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på