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Published: April 11th 2010
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The rats
I need say no more Frustratingly, with bags all packed, Sophie and I had to sit around until mid-morning as there is only one ferry a day to our start point, inconveniently at midday! This gave the 4 of us opportunity to practice setting up the new "lightweight" tent (so called because it was about the third of the size as the ones we’d been sleeping in). When we arrived at the lake the others took photos from the bus to avoid standing in the rain with us and our 10-12 kg packs.
We laughed at Duncan wearing only shorts and t-shirt, but 20 minutes into our trek, Sophie, Mahnee and I had to strip down to trousers and -shirt from 5 layers on our top halves and 3 layers on our legs.
The map indicated we had 7 hours of walking ahead of us, with only 6 hours of daylight, so after 2 hours hiking with our packs we stashed them under some trees and raced up to the glacier with just our water. On the way we noticed icebergs in Lake Grey, which had fallen from the receding glacier and collected in bays across the lake. The glacier was spectacular, the cold
The W trek
We started at the left hand spike of the "W".. completing 71km in total blue colour of both the glacier and glacial lakes was amazing, and a first for Sophie and me. Duncan and I wanted a better view so left the girls behind while we braved a sheer rock face to get to higher ground. It was at this point we realised leaving the snacks in our bags was a mistake, and with that in mind we started our descent, which took only an hour.
Here we had our first (and only) rest stop, exhausted after the fast pace we had set ourselves - beating the times suggested on the map. Unfortunately we couldn't beat the sun, and had to walk our last hour in the dark, packs back on our backs. Wish we'd had head torches instead of hand held. On arrival at our refugio campsite, me and Duncan swigged a can of Fanta, a reward for our first 22km completed in 6 hours! Dinner was pasta we'd cooked the night before served with tuna mayo plus a warming cup of minestrone soup.. more pasta! (this was the only site with cooking facilities). Bed at 10:30pm ready for a 6am alarm.
That's How Sophie Sees It So I wake
The 4 Adventurers
Left to right - Duncan, Chris, Sophie, Mahnee up all excited about our 4 day trek (if not a little nervous) and my day is totally RUINED by a hideously awful incident at breakfast. So I'd eaten my cereal out of a mug and went to rinse it out before making a cup of tea. Here I should explain the washing up rules - we have bucket number 1 to rinse, bucket number 2 with washing up liquid and bucket number 3 with bleach. I used buckets 1 and 2 and merrily went on my way to make my last milky cuppa before our trek. After a few sips Duncan went to do his washing up, and asked if anyone had changed the water after washing up our dinner stuff. Apparently they had not, which didn’t bother me, until he emptied bucket number 2 and exclaimed that there were two (not even one, but TWO!) dead rats in there!!!! I instantly threw out my tea and am not ashamed to admit I may have had a bit of a sob on Chris's shoulder (to such an extent that I then had a nosebleed!) and was completely inconsolable. Taryn comforted me with ¨at least they're not dirty city rats¨and
Emma gave me some mouthwash, but all I could think of was the possibility that the edge of my mug had brushed the rats' fur. Being a hypochondriac who has studied infectious diseases and was about to hike out into the middle of nowhere with no facilities or easy escape routes, I was not a happy bunny.
I was soon distracted by a new problem - my knee. An ailment I had developed when training for the Bath half marathon last year (ITB syndrome), which had never bothered me except for when running long distances, reared its ugly head about 4 hours into the trek. Searing pain in my right knee, at its worst when going downhill, but only just bearable on the flat and uphill, had me working out the Spanish I needed to ask the staff at the first refugio to radio our tour guide to come and rescue me! But after all the hype before the trek, and knowing how much Chris and I had been looking forward to this trek since before we even booked the trip, I didn’t want to limp home after only one day. I resigned to sleep on it and see
Glacier Grey
The boys' view! how day 2 went.
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