Loathe to leave, we departed Ushuaia at 5am and headed for Chile with the aim of making it to Torres del Paine national park. The trip was an experience. Border control took a lot longer than on the way down and 12 hours in we arrived at Punta Arenas. We decided to stopover before heading to Puerto Natales, the gateway town to the park the next day.
I have to say we were less than impressed with Chile´s southern Patagonia´n towns compared to Argentina´s, however the park itself more than made up for this.
We spent the day in Puerto Natales hiring our equipment - tent, sleeping bags and going to the supermarket to get our provisions for a four day hike.
The next day we set off at 7.30 and arrived at the park about 10am. We had decided to do the W circuit and started with the main event, scaling the mountain to reach the viewpoint of the famous Torres peaks. 18km (round trip) later we were spent but the view had been well worth the climb.
That night we had our first night in the camp. After a tasty dinner of pasta (of course) followed by tea and biscuits we settled down for the night.
The next morning after very little sleep on my part, we packed up after a decadent breakfast of scrambled eggs and made for the next camp. This time we were carrying our pack with us - 20kg!!! I did my duty though and carried it half the way. Figured it was just like an intense workout - Andy you would be proud.
We had originally planned to stop and spend the night at Camp Italiano, about 16.5km walk away from our starting point. The landscape on the way was breathtaking.
However when we reached the campsite, 6 hours of hard-core walking in we realised it was shut and would need to walk another 8K to the next camp. 8 hours of solid walking, 24Km and 4hours of carrying a 20kg backpack later we arrived at the campsite shattered and set about putting our tent up and having a hot shower.
Too exhausted to even talk that night´s dinner consisted of super noodles and lots of tea and chocolate biscuits before retiring and funnily enough I had no trouble sleeping that night.
On our last day we woke up to stiff legs and tired feet. Determined to go on though we set up the last day´s hike, a 22km trip up Lake Grey towards the Grey Glacier. Although exhausted from the day before the walk helped shake off our tiredness and wake up our body. Well at least for the first two hours. By the end of the hike, feet in agony we had both agreed to have a break from hiking for a little bit!
0 comments:
Post a Comment