Torres Del Paine

---

From El Calafate we travelled down to Torres del Paine. It's a National park on the Argentina/Chile border. We stayed in Puerto Natales when we arrived to get our camping gear and food for the 5 day camping trip through the park. There was much arguing over what food to bring but eventually we decised on dried fruit and pasta, pasta and more pasta oh and a bit of chocolate!
First morning we were brought out to the park with a bus of fellow hikers and got a catamaran over to our start point for this 75K stroll...
The sceneary was spectacular from the start and got better as the days went by. The first day we trekked for 3.5hrs to Refugio Grey which is beside a Glaciar. We camped there in horrible weather but thankfully could eat in the main building and heat ourselves up. Sleep wasn´t good that night due to the cold of the ground and finding out that Dee's sleeping bag wasn't up to the task!
we also got visited by a few furry friends during the night who raided our bags for food.
Day 2 began with a hard slog in gale force winds, felt like we were flying at times. Dee's frustration with the hills and being pushed around by the wind led to much cursing and angry shouts.
we got to our stop for that night in Camp Italiano. Saw some mad dancing water on the way..nearly as good as the dancing fountains in Vegas!!
Day 3 and Dee stayed in camp and I went up to see some of the main peaks in the ¨Valley¨. Absolutely amazing vies of the surrounding countryside and the mountains themselves with the sound of avalanches of ice and snow in the background.
Day 4 we mad the long 6.5 hr trek to our last camp to get ready to climb to see ¨The Towers¨the following morning. At 5.30am we dragged ourselves out of bed to make the 45-1hr trek up a steep section of the mountain to see the towers at sunrise only to be met by heavy snow fall. With Dee telling me there was no point goin up and we were mad we pushed on anyway. And she was right we didn't see a thing. It just kept on snowing. Which to me was pretty cool anyway.
But defeated by the elements we headed back to camp rolled up our gear and made our way back out to our pick up point for the return journey to Puerto Natales. The burgers we had in the Refuio were nicest I tink we ever had after our stable diet of soup and pasta.
We were tired and dirty but was well worth doing with the views and experinces were briliant. Plus we survived camping for 5days.
See photos for some of the views.
From Puerto we headed back to El Calafate and immediately on to El Chalten another trekking wonderland.

---

Photos

El Torres - The Towers
On the way back down from the towers in the snow!!