Still alive

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Hi all.

Apologies for the lack of updates. Been out from Torres del Paine (TdP) for three days now but have been filling the hours with rather a lot of living instead of typing.

This'll be a short update and perhaps a longer one will appear once I've made it home and if I manage to find an evening free to meander back through the memories of this trip.

So, a brief summary will have to suffice:

1. Arrived Punta Arenas (PA), found FD already installed in hostal. Shower, out into town to find the bus company and book a bus to Puerto Natales (PN) the next day, then random dinner consisting mostly of confusion about what we ordered, then sleep.

2. Rise and wander around town a bit, pick up a couple of last minute essentials then long bus ride to PN. Much confusion as we negotiate trips between four different bus companies but eventually end up with bookings to get us into the park tomorrow, out of the park on exit (a day earlier than previously planned), up to El Calafate (EC) then next day, and then the wanderer back to PN and PA a few days after. Stock up on food & gas for the trek then collapse to get some sleep.

3. Rise early for bus into the park. Hike (5hrs) in to Seron (the hiking etc bits I'll fill in later).

4. Hike (6hrs) to Dickson - warm day, feeling crispy by the end but find showers at the beautifully located lakeside camp.

5. Hike (5hrs) up to Los Perros - awesome glacier calving watching for the afternoon.

6. Hike (9hrs) over John Gardner pass, down the side of Glacier Grey, and down to Refugio Grey camp.

7. Jump in a kayak and up to the face of the glacier before a hike (4hrs) to Paine Grande camp.

8. Hike to Italiano (3hrs), up and down the truly gorgeous Valles Frances (4hrs), then down (2.5 hrs) to Los Cuernos camp.

9. Hike (3.5 hrs) to junction of paths above Las Torres, hide the packs, hike up and down (4hrs) to the stunning natural cirque of the towers themselves, then back to fine the packs and hike out (1hr) to Las Torres for a welcome beer and pizza while waiting for the bus back to PN (get there for 10pm). Collapsing on a mattress in PN is hungrily welcome after six nights on a thermarest mat.

10. Rise, quick breakfast before heading back to the bus station to jump on a coach across the border into Argentina and up to El Calafate. Trip takes more than six hours (as opposed to the published five) which leaves the viability of the connection (PN > PA) on the return trip in question but we'll see. Stunning steak dinner before very welcome bed and sleep.

11. Lazy day means getting trekking gear washed, booking a trip to the Perito Moreno glacier (the main reason the wanderer has crossed the border), then a trip out to the Glacierium for some wonderful ice & mountain porn before heading back to collapse - still no good at rest days it appears.

12. Early rise for bus out to the glacier, some calving watching time, then a boat across the east of the lake, don crampons and out onto the ice. Great little hike round the stunningly beautiful hues of blue and white, finely sculpted crevasses all around. Hike back through the woods then back on a boat across the lake, sleep on the bus back to EC.

And now you're up to date. Patagonia is an awesome place and the temptation to stay and continue the explorations is really quite strong but I guess the beauty and grandeur of the myriad of glaciers, the peaks of Fitz Roy, Lanin et al will have to wait for a different day.

Out for a farewell dinner with FD this eve but glad she's organised to team up with a Maltese-British combo of friends we met on the TdP trail tomorrow so that feels a bit less like I'm abandoning her. Come morning, the wanderer will be getting back on the long bus ride (across the border) to PN, then on another bus to PA, find the hostal to lay his head for the night, up to the airport and on 26 hours of flights (PUQ > SCL > GRU > LHR) back to the UK. Make his way home and hope to sleep before rising in the morning to head for the Cotswolds for a 40th birthday party, then back for a week's work, then off to Snowdonia for a hiking weekend in very different weather and landscape.

If reading that has left your mind somewhat fatigued and your eyes somewhat red, the wanderer's eyes probably betray much more of both...

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Comments

[PXB]

Update
Glad to hear all is well. Seems like a lot of travel of the less pleasant kind for a smaller ratio of mountain porn. Best go for longer next time eh?

[Dancing Dave]

WOW
Fantastic. Do I assume correctly the weather has been good to you? I hope the Patagonian wind blew you inside out, as no trip to Torres del Paine is complete without it. Hope your pics are stunning and you will share them in due course.

[Rob]

Who kept up with whom
Sounds like a gruelling pace, and something you wrote with your job in mind. Are you sure it was a holiday? Trial of endurance if you ask me! Now was it you keeping up with Fiona or Fiona keeping up with you? I think you might have been the one who was slightly on the drag there Tak. I hope that there wasn't so much 'living life' that you forgot to take pictures! Get a thicker thermarest mat with a bed attached to it :-) Enjoy the last days of your holiday, and start looking for a date in your diary for Abingdon Cottage.