Video | Five recommendations from Paco Nadal: the most violent natural enclaves | Paco Nadal’s Travel Blog | Traveler
Although humans have reached, dominated and left their mark on most of the wildest and most remote places on the planet, there are still pockets that can be considered virgin lands. Enclaves in which the essence of nature remains virtually untouched and the presence of people is almost anecdotal. Patagonia, Antarctica, the Namibian desert, Greenland and the South Island of New Zealand have wild magic at the moment. The Five are five places whose nature is so cruel that it is impossible not to fall in love with everyone who sets foot in them.
- Patagonia, the southernmost wilderness of the American continent. Distributed between Chile and Argentina, this place is borderless, isolated and endless, offering pure mystery in which to get lost. Almost a million square kilometers between glaciers, forests and rivers pose a serious obstacle to any attempt at human expansion.
- Antarctica, the wildest continent. With millions of square kilometers of snow, ice and rock, this place is the only part of planet Earth that does not belong to anyone. Infinitely beautiful, the so-called frozen continent, surrounded by the Antarctic Ocean and located south of the Arctic Circle, offers travel opportunities, especially in the spring, thanks to explorers who dare to enter this universe. This is a journey of travel.
- Namibia, the most atypical African country. The most beautiful and oldest deserts on Earth (estimated to have existed 65 million years ago) are found in this country, offering barren landscapes taken from another planet. What stands out are its gigantic dunes, about 300 meters high, of bright red color, the savanna, through which unique tribes such as the Himba, and large mammals of the African fauna move. The Twyfelfontein petroglyphs, carved over 6,000 years ago, have also been found in Namibia.
- Greenland, a white desert in danger of extinction. The second largest area of ice on Earth after Antarctica – 2,400 kilometers long, about 1,100 wide and more than two kilometers thick – the mention of which evokes images of adventure, remoteness and cold, is not as far or as extreme as most people think . “A giant cube of ice that supports itself,” is how Ramón Larramendi, Spain’s top Arctic explorer, described the site, which is home to just 56,000 people and is unfortunately melting rapidly due to global warming.
- The South Island of New Zealand is a true pearl of nature. On the southernmost island of the ocean country, nature is the main character. The snowy peaks of the so-called “New Zealand Alps”, fjords like Milford Sound, glaciers like Franz Josef, wet forests with Scottish air, Otago beaches, penguins, royal albatross and Fiordland National Park. Any outdoor travel lover will fall in love with this place.