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Published: February 5th 2008
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After 4 days on the Navimag Ferry sailing through Patagonia we arrived in Puerta Natales and were ready to face the national park of Torres Del Paines. The Navimag had givenme and Fergus many, many hours to decide what route to try and take through the park to maximise our trekking, but minimise the potential ear ache from Pauline and Helen (sorry girls!).
Anyway we decided to try and take on most of the famed W walk and then add on a bit extra on the end. After purchasing all our food and supplies for the next 5 days we went out for our last decent meal which was, of course, a fat steak - eeeeexcellent.
After a 3 hour bus ride we made it into the park and set off on the first part of our trip. As the incline grew steeper and the minutes ticked by it became blindingly obvious this was not just going to be hard work, but also quite painful. The map had said it would be 2 hours to the first campsite and the maps, although fairly accurate on the actual routes hadn't quite mastered the fine art of accurate contour lines. So
Windy Glaciers
4 of us infront of a large glacier clutching the all important redwine - essentially navimag equipment. when Fergus and I had promised the girls there would be a small hill to climb, it turned into a monster! Finally we made it to the top and could see the campsite - we had originally planned to trek onto the next site but this was quickly dismissed as a very bad idea. After striking camp and having a nutritious lunch of Philadelphia and crackers we embarked on the next section of the day which was a hike up to the view point. This wasn't too bad for the first hour and then the real climb began. It seemed yet again the contours on the map we had were blantent lies and it was a rather steep acent over rocks (sometimes on all 4's) to make it. When we eventually made it to the top it was definitely worth it - we were greeted with an amazing view of the 3 'torres´ that more than made up for the journey - al we had to do now was make it back down again!
Day 2 was always going to be the hardest day - but as we hadn't quite made it to the expected campsite yesterday we had
Bingo Bongo
Bingo on the last night of the navimag already saved an hour and a half (screams of joy from the girls). We made it back out of the valley in record time and were about an hour ahead of schedule. The scenery was breathtaking (as was the walking) and every other step was a kodak moment. After taking a 'shortcut´we had lost the path and other walkers completely - fantastic we though, we really are in the middle of nowhere. This enthusiam was cut short by an enormous hill we had to climb and, unfortunately after we got to the top, a group of horse riders galloping up behind and letting us know we had gone the wrong way (sorry girls :-(...) So back on track we started walking down by next to the lake with fantastic views back across the mountian ranges and over over the lake. Now the contours on the map had showed an ever so slightly undulating walk but in the main fairly flat. Lies. After the first beast was ascended you could see the hills pan out infront, and hear the groans of the girls from miles away. It was a 4 3/4 hour trek up and down on slippery gravel to the
Ever so slightly inebriated ladies
after many many vodkas the bingo began and the girls were s**t faced next campsite and, for want of a better phrase, a complete bitch. We arrived at the campsite around 3 in the afternoon absolutely knackered. There had been talk of cracking on to the next site but, again that was dismissed as quickly as it had been mentioned. With a lazy afternoon infront of us it was only right to purchase some red wine and sit by the lake relaxing in prepartion for day 3.
Day 3 was started with a quick 1 1/2 hour trek to the next campsite where we dumped all the stuff and then set off to climb up the French Valley. This was a brilliant walk through forest and next to the Rio Frances where wqe had some outstanding views of the glacier. Every now and then it sounded like a massive clap of thunder as parts of the glacier cracked and creaked, sometimes falling off down into the river below. Spectacular. After around 3 hours we had made it up the valley and went on to the viewpoint. This was up a steep, rocky path and after about 15 mins we got to a massive rock with people sat up on it. Not fully
realising that was the viewpoint we cracked on and thought it a bit funny we couldn't see any more trail markings. Soon we were basically climbing up a waterfall under what can only be described as dangerous conditions, but not put off we struggled on. Pauline did fantastically well, as at one point I thought I may have been asking a bit too much of her - she looked like she was about to kill me if i asked her to take 1 more step. Fergus, Pauline and I made it up and were rewarded with a fatastic view back down the Valley and over the brigh grren lake. Its one of those view the camera can never do justice to but was absolutely stunning.
Day 4 was to be the last day of serious hiking and it started with a 2 and a bit hour walk over to Grande Torres Lodge where we caught the catamaran to the otherside of the park. From here we had estimated a further 45 minutes to the next campsite. Stupidly I opted for a quick trek to a viewpoint of a waterfall and decided I would catch the others up. So after
Pea at the 1st campsite...
So far so good... little did she know!! seeing the waterfall I started off 30 mins behind them. The walk was down one of the main roads in the park and was without doubt one of the worst walks of my life. The wind was blowing at gale force and whipping the sand up into mini tornado´s (potentially a slight exageration) that was sand blasting against my face. When the wind rested for a few seconds, I had just enough time to take my glasses off my face clean them and then get a fresh load of sand in the face. The walk turned out to be just over 2 hours instead of 45 mins which didn´t help. On arriving at the campsite i felt like i´d been beaten with a very large stick. There was some conolation in the fact that the other guys had had a windy experience as well - although bizzarely the girls didn´t find it a problem. 3 days of walking thorugh some of the best secenery we´ve seen with at least 1 moan per day each and then 2 hours on the worst road with near natural disaster like conditions and they thought it was fine! Women!
Fergus and I decided
The view from the Torres Mirador
After a steep rock climb to the top of the view point we wern't dissapointed with what we saw... the best way to recover from the trauma of our 2 hour ordeal was to consume many, many glasses of red wine - and it worked!
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