Tang Feng did not rush to Rio Grande on Tierra del Fuego, but stayed in Calama for a day, sorted out the plan of this trip, and replenished the star core with some materials that Tang Feng thought was necessary, and then left Kalama on Captain Tiger and the Iron Man and flew to the southernmost tip of the South American continent.

Tierra del Fuego is located at the southernmost tip of South America, and in 1881 Chile and Argentina demarcated the border, with Argentina in the east and Chile in the west. It is the largest island in mainland South America.

Generally speaking, Tierra del Fuego refers to the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, the main island of Tierra del Fuego, and hundreds of small islands and reefs nearby, just like Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost point of which is the world-famous Cape Hoego. However, administratively speaking, Cape Horn does not belong to Argentina, but to Chile.

In October 1520, when the navigator Magellan discovered the Strait of Magellan, which he named, the first thing he saw was the bonfires lit by the indigenous people on the island, so he named the island "Tierra del Fuego".

The main island of Tierra del Fuego is slightly triangular, the western and southern mountains are the remnants of the Andes, the ground is rugged, the altitude is 1500~2000 meters, the highest peak is about 2469 meters, because the latitude is very high, so the height of the snow line here is only 500 to 800 meters, and there are modern glacier development.

The eastern half of Tierra del Fuego is Argentine territory, and the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego is Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, it is only 1,000 kilometers away from the Antarctic Peninsula, it is the gateway to Antarctica, and it is a veritable end of the earth. In the Indian language, "Ushuaia" means the bay where the sun sets.

The last time Tang Feng took Sophia around Argentina, he had been to this small city and had enjoyed the sunset here, and it was really as described in the book, enjoying the sunset here was the water and the sky, the clouds were like a brocade, and it was beautiful.

Tierra del Fuego's southernmost point. It is Cape Horn, one of the world's five major capes (PS: the world's five major capes are Cape Horn in South America, Cape of Good Hope in Africa, Cape Lou in Augusta in southwest Australia, the southeast corner of Tasmania and the southwest corner of Steiwalt). It is one of the world's most famous "cemeteries at sea", where more than 500 ships sank and more than 20,000 people died at the bottom of the sea.

Tang Feng is going to the Antarctic continent this time, and he is going to start from Tierra del Fuego. However, Tang Feng did not set out from Ushuaia like everyone else, because Sigman told Tang Feng. He had a private port in Rio Grande where all the Antarctic supplies would converge, so Tang Feng's starting point was the harbor city bordering the Pacific Ocean.

Rio Grande is a small seaside town in Ushuaia, on the Atlantic coast, about 100 kilometers northeast of Ushuaia, and Highway 3 connects the two cities. The last time Tang Feng entered and left Ushuaia, he had passed by this small seaside town, but he had never stopped in this city.

This small town is not small, but it is quite well equipped with all kinds of facilities and is located in the northwest corner of the city. It's Rio Grande Airport, a regional airport with a 2,100-meter runway, but enough for private jets of the Captain Tiger and Iron Man to take off and land.

Although the city is on the coast, it does not have a decent port, and the only port pier in the whole city that reaches into the Atlantic Ocean is about fifteen kilometers north of the city. As for the only two small ports in the interior of the city, they were built around the banks of the Rio Grande and were not seaports at all.

One of these two small ports. It is privately owned by Sigman.

It is said to be a port, but in fact it is nothing more than a concrete trestle bridge that juts about 30 meters into the river. The top of the pier can allow yachts of several hundred tons to dock only.

Every year, at the right time, Sigman would go fishing on his private yacht here, and in normal times, only a butler and a few servants would take care of the small estate.

When Tang Feng was picked up by the housekeeper from the airport to this small manor, as soon as he entered the door, he was stopped by a big guy parked in front of him.

"My Jesus Daddy. How can there be a Osprey helicopter here? Tang Feng asked in surprise.

The butler replied politely: "Mr. Tang, if you have any questions, you'd better see Mr. Sigman in a moment and ask, this plane also flew over last night, and I don't know what it is for." ”

Tang Feng met Sigman with a stomach full of questions, as soon as they met. Tang Feng naturally asked the big guy who was parked outside.

Sigman said with a smile: "Don, this is a transport I specially prepared for you to the Antarctic continent, you should know how bad the sea conditions in the Drake Strait between Cape Horn and the Antarctic continent are, I don't want you to suffer that crime, so I am going to use this big guy to transport you over, which will save time and make you suffer less." ”

The Drake Passage, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, is the widest and deepest strait in the world. It is located between the southern tip of South America and the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, and is 970 kilometers wide from north to south. Ordinary helicopters cannot fly from the north to the south of the strait, because ordinary helicopters do not have such a large range.

The pressure difference between the north and south ends of the Drake Strait can reach 12 millibars, and this huge pressure difference prompts the exchange of cold and dry air from the Antarctic continent with the relatively warm and humid air of South America. The Antarctic Convergence Zone passes through the middle of the strait near 60°S, where the easterly and westerly circulations converge, so there are often strong winds and waves in the strait, sometimes up to 10-20 meters high.

The most important thing is that during the warm season every year, the icebergs that slide down from the Antarctic often float in the strait, which brings great danger and difficulty to navigation.

The Drake Passage is known for its rough waves, and because the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet here, and because of its high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, storms dominate the Drake Passage. In this strait, the wind force is above 8 for 365 days a year. Even the gales of force 12 or even above are frequent visitors here.

This year-round storm and furious strait has caused countless ships to capsize here in history, so the Drake Passage is called the "Murderous Westerly Belt", "Storm Corridor", and "Devil's Strait", which is a veritable "Death Corridor".

This strait is so famous, of course Tang Feng knows about it, but the careful Sigman obviously took this into account and actually planned to use this Osprey helicopter to send Tang Feng directly to the opposite Antarctic Peninsula.

Other helicopters don't have that much range, but this tiltrotor has a range of more than 1,600 kilometers, enough to send Tang from mainland South America to the Antarctic Peninsula. (To be continued.) )