Camped at a beaver pond

I have 3 favourite animals but I think one of them might have to give up its position for a beaver. These animals are wonderfully interesting. 

I had been wanting to observe some beavers and lucky for us the Alaskan overlanders told us of a spot they'd found, suitable for quiet camping and beaver watching. We stayed there on the  nights of the 26th and the 31st (December). 

Beavers are active in the evening, so if you want to see them being 'busy beavers' you need to be there late, and camping in a vehicle with windows looking out from the bed (like this one) is perfect. 

We spotted 4 beavers at this site. If you don't know much about beavers I recommend you do some reading on Wikipedia or similar, they are amazing. These beavers had made their pond by constructing a dam wall about 40metres long and about 2.5metres tall at the highest point. Their lodge (that's the correct term for a beavers house) was about 30m from the dam, in the pond. 

Canadian beavers were introduced to Tierra del Fuego for the industry of fur pelts, but animal rights activists killed the international fur trade industry and in 1960 the pairs were released into the wild. Without predators (in North America they have bears and wolves, but here nothing) the population has reached plague proportions and they are destroying waterways. 

I'd read that Canadian beavers can fell a tree up to 250mm in diameter in a single night. But at this pond there were beaver felled trees (the marks a different to an axe) up to 350mm. This may be accounted for in that Canadian beavers in Tierra del Fuego have become bigger than their ancestors.  

On our first night there we woke up in the morning to everything covered in snow. So I didn't get a white Christmas, but I got the white 2 mornings later. On that night the Alaskans also camped there. 

And then we spent New Year's Eve with the beavers. We could have spent it at the campsite in Ushuaia (the beavers are only about 15kms from town) with the other overlanders but I actually don't like seeing in the New Year. H agreed that the beavers company would be fine. So we had champagne and finger foods while watching the beavers. It was lovely. 

Between Christmas and New Year we visited an old estancia (ranch) 'Haberton' which has a fascinating story because the founder of it was sent out from Britain as a missionary to convert the natives but he preferred saving them to converting them and put his main life's work into that. Unfortunately the natives have been all but wiped out with just one old lady currently left. 

The estancia is 27000 hectares but with rising costs and after loosing 80% of its sheep stock in a terrible winter about 10 years ago they've given up sheep farming and now just rely on tourism. 

We then visited Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire, so called because the natives used to keep fires everywhere) National Park, the end of the Route 3 Highway. We hiked and had photos with the end of the road sign. 

Then on New Years Eve the weather was spectacular so we took the cable car and hiked up Martial Glacier for absolutely breathtaking views of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel. 

And then we left Ushuaia for the Beaver pond, and from here there is only one way to go.... North!