Sheep are the movers and shakers in Patagonia. Indigenous tribes and gauchos have been massacred to make space for them; beautiful wild mammals such as guanacos and pumas have been enclosed to free up the grasses; and you can even link Britain's claim on the Falklands to sheep quarantining in the 19th century.

Behind that quiet, fluffy exterior lurks a lot of history and culture. After the breakneck, in-your-face, hedonistic overdose that is Buenos Aires (a natural stopover for anyone en route to Patagonia), the province of Santa Cruz, situated at the very bottom of the South American continent, is a mental and physical detox.

But before heading for the absolute outdoors of an estancia (ranch), I spent a weekend in Rio Gallegos, one-time hub of sheep farming and, with about 75,000 residents, still the only seriously populated town around here. It's a functional though friendly kind of place, with a few old wooden homes among the mid 20th-century concrete and corrugated iron and prim, proud lawns planted in the tough Patagonian soil.

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