Chile On Horseback
A year after returning from her Atlantic crossing, Rosie decided that she really wanted to see Cape Horn again and decided to plan a trek 3,000 miles (4,830 km) through Chile on horseback. The journey took her from the northern port of Antofagasta to Cape Horn, and she rode two Chilean Aculeos horses named 'Hornero' and 'Jolgorio'. From the Hacienda Los Lingues, the horses of the Aculeo Stables were originally brought to Chile by the Spanish Conquistadors in 1492.
Leaving Antofagasta on 22 July 1984, Rosie had secured the protection of General César Mendoza, who was the head of Chile's Military Police (and later the leader of the military Junta there). An Olympic horseman, Mendoza provided her with an armed escort for the first stage. The whole trip was planned to take four months but actually took fourteen. In the first week of her journey, Rosie was caught in a desert sand storm which scattered the horses and all her equipment. Later she fell from one of the horses and broke two ribs. She also faced starvation when she became lost in the southern rain forests and ran out of food. Delayed by bad weather, Rosie arrived at Cape Horn on 2 September 1985, a total of 409 days after she had set out. Rosie wrote of her experiences in Chile in her book Back to Cape Horn in 1986.
Read more about this topic: Rosie Swale-Pope
Famous quotes containing the word horseback:
“How can I explain the difference to me between America and Russia?... the America I’ve known is a place where men on horseback escort union marchers, the Russia I’ve known is a place where men on horseback slaughter young Socialists and Jews.”
—Golda Meir (1898–1978)