Patagonia Riding Holiday | Harry Hastings

Basecamp Patagonia

We arrive at dusk to pisco sours and piping chimneys. The log cabin clubhouse overlooks the Filo Hua Hum River and is decked in local textiles. Here, you’ll enjoy hearty meals and play games in the evening. Wood burners warm the five cabins that frame the main lodge. Each includes good beds, a veranda, and a private bathroom. This is the African safari camp – wild, cosy, quietly stylish – transposed to Patagonia. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who roamed these lands in the early 1900s, would have been right at home perched at the basecamp bar.

Riding in The Pass of Tears

There is an awesomely perilous traverse along the spine of the Andes, banked on either side by sheer shale cliffs. A jaw-dropping volcanic moonscape known as the Pass of Tears. We descend into lush prairies where the horses take water and cool their bellies in the river before dropping further into a forest glade. Our tents have been set up, a campfire is roaring, beers are cooling in the river and Alberto, our brilliant camp chef, is tending to the heartiest-looking stew I’ve ever laid eyes on.