Day 135 - The right-hand arm of the 'W'

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Today was a luxury - an entire day without carrying our tent. We set off at 7am to give ourselves a fighting chance of making breakfast at Refugio Chileno, a couple of hours walk up the mountain. We struck lucky - just - which meant the stove and 2 cup-a-noodles thankfully remained in Ed's bag. Breakfast was actually amazing, in particular the porridge.

Next was a steep hour or 2 up to a high altitude campsite. We bumped into our friends from the boat, Eddie and Sally, who had camped a couple of snowy nights up there. At the campsite is a cosy little (6 people max) shelter made of wood and polythene with an open fire. We sat there contemplating the final part up to the base of the towers, as in whether to wait for the weather to change or not. We decided to push on straightaway in case we got too cosy, even though it was cloudy. As we'd hoped, things brightened up over the course of the next 45 minutes as we scrambled over boulders to reach the viewpoint. Ed actually took a wrong turn here, rather embarrassingly; Gemma didn't, as to be expected.

All of a sudden the 3 Torres del Paine came into view, and what a sight they were! It's hard to avoid overuse of superlatives on a year travelling, harder still in Patagonia and hardest of all when recounting a close-up of the Torres del Paine. The Torres are GINORMOUS (only a made-up word can suffice) pillars of granite, below is a cliff and lower still an aquamarine lake. The view is from across the lake, looking down on it and up at the Torres. Little point describing in more detail - just check out the picture!

On the way back down we took in lunch at the refugio which lifted our spirits at breakfast-time. Eventually we reached home, our freezing cold and windy tent. A final meal of pasta and tomato sauce (thank God!), a couple of beers and then bed.

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