Original subtitles

We live on a crowded planet, but

there are still vast areas where nature has the upper hand.

I'm heading to the last great wildernesses.

I'll try to cross four of these rugged landscapes on my toughest journeys yet.

I have to be honest, things are not going brilliantly.

Bit of a medical situation.

Help is a long way away.

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.

I can stay down there for half an hour.

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.

...in some of the most hostile environments...

Are you OK, Jonathan?

Yeah, yeah.

...and the remotest regions...

Bloody hell.

...of our wild planet.

Cuckoo.

Cuckoo.

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's 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-a-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 we see the blue sky now, it's perfect.

But we have to see...

We have to see what happens at the end, because we are going in that direction,

and we have to see what happens with the cloud 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, to the ice field.

We need three days to get there.

In some parts, it will be rocky area.

That will be a challenge.

Some parts, we have to cross the river.

A challenge.

We cross Crovas.

That will be a challenge.

You've used the word challenge several times, Ceci.

Yes, exactly.

Flipping it.

You're right.

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 our 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, because we're going up.

Ahead, I start to catch glimpses of the mountains,

which guard the great ice field that sprawls beyond.

Step by step, especially the first 15 minutes.

We're following a jagged, barren valley, carved

by the force of enormous ancient glaciers.

They're crushing ice, crawling and grinding down the mountains.

Above us, silent and brooding, sits the South Patagonian Icefield.

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 icefield still fares on 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 zip line here to cross.

Basically, you, Simon, need to pull yourself.

OK.

Be in contact all the time.

Right.

Perfect.

I hate heights.

OK.

OK?

Yeah.

Your hands behind your head, and pull it slowly.

OK.

Thank you.

OK?

You see this?

This torrent of water is all coming off the icefield that is above us.

This mass of ice up there.

Above is the largest expanse of ice in the southern hemisphere, outside Antarctica.

These meltwaters sustain life across the Patagonian wilderness and beyond.

And now I can start to see...

the icefield above.

Up there.

That is what we're heading towards.

Still a bit of a distance.

We think it'll still take at least another four days' climb to get up to the

icefield, but the weather's closing in on us.

The wind is...

is so powerful here.

You know, sometimes I take the classic two steps forward and get blown one step back.

Simon, welcome to Patagonia.

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, yeah.

Just give me a minute.

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's it feeling, mate?

Feels a bit swollen.

Right.

The problem is there's a lot... still a lot more up to do.

And the up is...

is the problem.

To be honest, as you see today, the terrain is getting more and more

technical every... every metre we're moving.

Anyone needs to be rescued involves, like, in between 30 and 40 people.

What, to evacuate a person?

Yeah.

So, because you still are in 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 to Patagonia.

All right, mate.

Well, it's... 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.

Fingers crossed.

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.

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 be able to make it to the ice field.

I'm going to have to see what the weather's like in the morning and make a

decision on whether we go up or whether we go down.

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 are very close to the Patagonian ice field.

The blue sky.

Some cloudy passing.

Perfect timing.

As we climb up the valley, we map out various routes ahead.

But several are blocked by thick ice and rockfalls.

It means we need to take another way up.

One possible route is going on the right into that galley there.

But we can't figure out now.

It's a lot of ice.

So the other plan B route is up here with some fixed ropes.

Ropes?

Yeah, ropes.

OK.

We've got to get up.

My full rucksack weighs more than 20 kilograms.

Tricky on a narrow ledge.

Bloody hell.

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 the 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.

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.

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...

Oh!

I just put my foot into the edge of just a little crevasse.

I can't see the bottom.

For

hours, we trek upwards.

I'm properly shattered.

I'm starting to feel like we'll never reach the top, the ice-filled 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.

Blue sky, sun, we can see the sea.

You can see all the summit, all the mountain, right in the middle to the ice field.

The mountains here are the middle of the ice field.

Correct, yeah.

That's in the middle.

Still you have more ice field in the back.

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.

Silence.

On a very busy planet, this is a proper wild,

wild, wild, wild, wild, wild, wild, wild, wild.

Wilderness part of the world.

It's unique, this place.

For me, being here makes me like in a 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.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome.

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's 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 plays a role.

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.

No, this isn't going to work.

Being in the wilderness, travelling in the wilderness, it's 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 then 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.

I really need a break.

I think we need to make it there tonight.

This is as far as we can go on four wheels.

I have to do the last section on foot.

Simon, we are almost there.

There it is.

It's a tiny little thing.

Hey, buddy.

Look at this place.

Buenas, buenas.

We're here with Simon, our friend.

How are you?

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

My name is Simon.

Yes, come in.

Let's go.

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 Wani, another local gaucho, is staying for a few nights.

Wow.

Well, this place is very, very special.

This is the economic kitchen, which is made of wood.

This is the dinner table, which contains all the vegetables.

Salt, pepper, oregano, wine... Several bottles of wine.

Taibo sleeps here, and he spends most of the

summer here, so he can go in and out of here.

How long have you been a gaucho, Taibo?

Well, as a gaucho, since I was born, I was born in the field.

So when I realised, I became a gaucho.

So that's in your bones?

Yes, in the bones.

We'll be staying with Taibo and Wani 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.

I think so.

So we've got somewhere to stay, we've got

somewhere to sleep, we've got some food to eat.

We'll eat, hopefully.

Yeah, we'll be fine.

We'll eat for the wife, eh?

What a life this is, eh?

Yeah, there are some gauchos who, until pretty recently, they would spend

something like a year in a lonely outpost like this, not seeing another human being.

There is something remarkable about that existence.

Something that's still quite appealing.

Intimidating, but appealing, out here in the wilderness.

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's 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.

He's got a lot of experience, but he's got a lot of experience.

That is an exceptional breakfast.

Basically, this beef for breakfast, lunch, dinner...

Repeat.

Repeat, yeah.

Or lunch can be...

You know, in Argentina, we eat also, you know, cottage pie.

Cottage pie?

Yeah, it's very popular.

Mm-hm.

I wasn't expecting you to say that, but yeah.

Le hago una pregunta.

Mm-hm.

I love that.

Yes!

Are you a particular fan of mashed potato?

It's like...

It's mashed potato, isn't it?

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, Valencho.

Super car.

I appreciate that.

Gauchos are legendary riders.

Me?

Definitely not so much.

And they have their own riding style here.

Show him how to go to the left, Taibo.

There you go.

You pull your hand left.

Right?

Exactly.

Okay.

Left, right, the other way.

And to stop?

Just pull back.

Just pull back.

And then release.

This way.

This way.

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.

Bro, bro, bro!

Can you move it from the left?

Okay.

Yeah?

Yeah.

There we go.

They come from far away.

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 My God, it looks like another planet.

Look at the colour.

Thaibo has lived out here on and off for his whole life.

I wondered if he's seen changes in that time.

I know Patagonia is one of the wettest and windiest places in

the world, but how has the weather changed here over the years?

Until today, it has changed a lot.

Sometimes the autumn comes later, and there's no snow,

no ice, it doesn't freeze as much as it did years ago.

In the summer, it's freezing.

For the animals, it suffers a lot.

For the spring, they lack food, greenery, water, and drought.

For the animals, it suffers a lot.

I mean, for me, 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.

Yes, yes.

It's very impressive the change, totally.

Because when nature comes, you're under pressure, because it's the same every year.

..

It's bad, bad.

That.

That, yes... That.

That.

That.

Taibo knows these wild mountains.

He's not a scientist monitoring from afar, he's a witness, A great darkness,

a canary in a coal mine, 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 climactic 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.

MUSIC PLAYS Wani 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 to other people to do what these guys do, where you have to

walk, you have to take the cattle from the

mountains and not the top, but all the cattle down.

That is the mountain's crew.

Now the problem, these generations, people of my age

and younger, they're not staying in the farms any more.

They prefer to stay in the city.

So there is a risk that the gaucho, the way of life, might wither and die out?

Yeah.

MUSIC CONTINUES The gaucho life is a solitary one.

But obviously there are upsides.

This is testicles.

It's quite delicate.

The texture is like a hard-boiled but well, perfectly cooked egg.

It's a very light, meaty taste.

Testicles are great.

When you do all the work with the cattle, the castration, right after that,

you put all the testicles in the bucket, and

the following days, they are in the testicles.

Testicles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

LAUGHTER Go on, all in then.

Bit of intestines.

This is very good.

Please.

MUSIC CONTINUES Does anyone want to go and just talk to the dog?

MUSIC CONTINUES It'll be a puma, eh?

MUSIC CONTINUES Is there a puma out there?

Yes, yes.

It's a puma.

It's probably a fox puma.

Hold on.

Did you just say it could be a puma?

Probably.

Probably?

How many pumas have you seen this season?

This season?

This season, I've seen like four pumas.

Four pumas.

Four pumas.

Is that one of the biggest threats to a gaucho's flock or herd?

For the poultry, for the poultry.

For the cow and for the sheep.

Mm-hm.

Foals, when they are about one year old, one

year and a half, they are still a prey of a puma.

Right, foals, OK.

Yeah, so you have to really take care of them.

Yeah.

Keep them in the corral every night before evening.

Two years ago, a puma got... took down two foals.

That one night, we forgot them outside.

One night.

And they were gone.

And the puma took them both?

Yeah.

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 Wani and Taibo.

Taibo, big hug, man.

See you in the Ljubljana.

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 icefield 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 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, capital of Chile.

Big city, you know, like nine 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 out here.

I mean, look at your surroundings there.

Look at that view.

That is absolutely gobsmacking.

Amount of fauna that you can see here, it's...

It's unbelievable.

There are flamingos, skunks, foxes.

Condor here is 3.45 metres wide.

In the rest of Chile, there 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 colonised all the Andes.

A guanaco, after 4,000 years of domestication, then it borns a llama,

which is like lazy guanaco with long hair, you know?

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 the bat, 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's 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 pumas.

PSRs.

Puma-shaped rocks.

So, the rain's just starting.

We're going to try and find shelter and then head out again tomorrow.

So, we're out before dawn and Vicente's 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 only works before the sun comes out.

After that, the sun starts hitting every rock

and then I have, like, living things everywhere.

So, we only have a few minutes.

We should get on top 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.

A little bit lucky.

There is something over there.

I guess I see the bug.

Don't get excited yet.

Why not?

It's exciting.

This is an exciting thing to do.

Because we're, like, one kilometre away, so let me be sure.

So, what, you used the spotting scope to identify the

heat, the binocular to check and the camera to confirm?

Exactly.

There it is.

There it is.

So, let's go and check.

OK.

We can move.

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, but it's arm, but it's leg, over the other one.

Oh, now I see the head of the cub.

It's a tiny cub of, like, four or five months old.

Count how many there are.

No, I can see two.

Come on, move a little.

Tango, tango.

Higher up.

Count the ears.

How many pairs of ears do you count?

Oh, my God.

There are three puma.

Three puma.

Three together.

All right.

OK.

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, is it a guanuco?

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, Before, they feed hundreds of

different species, and I'm not being exaggerated, like the puma do the kill,

eat as much as possible, you know, but then they leave the carcass behind,

and the next animal that come is the condor.

If there is, for example, a fox also eating the rest, the condor come here,

spread their wings, the fox move away, and then the condor eat whatever they can.

After the condor come the armadillo.

After the armadillo, also the skunk.

People usually don't associate a skunk as a carnivore, but they do, and they take

every tiny piece of fat or meat that is left behind.

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, look.

There, there, there, there.

He's got it all as a cat and a carnivore, hasn't he?

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.

They will prefer the guanaco.

But occasionally, they do have a tasty lamb

available that lifts 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 rancher do?

They kill pumas.

Even though they are protected, the economic losses for them are so high

that they choose to ignore the law and still kill 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.

Spesente, what a place this is.

Beautiful.

We were very lucky.

You can see how spectacular it is.

It's a beautiful place.

Up there, it's hot.

It's 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?

I'm 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't play against it.

The glacier is so brutishly huge, so epic, that it can appear eternal, unchanging.

But Vicente is another person who's witnessed

a rapid transformation of this landscape.

When I first came here in 2005, you can barely see

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, forest, 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!

Next time, in the region they call the Amazon of the

Seas, I meet the spear fisherman 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,.

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.