---

After a 12 hour sleep we retrieved our breakfast ingredients from the bin bag hanging in the tree (to keep the mice away!) Unfortunately rations were low - a few dry Cheerios and a stale piece of bread with minimal jam (I had to shove my bread in the jar to get any jam on it at all). But we didn’t mind, because today was an easy day - 4 hours downhill to a site with a hotel and refugio where we hoped there would be Fanta and chips and something for lunch - chips being the foodstuff in all of our trekking fantasies.

On the way down we passed the others from our Kumuka tour, doing a day trip to the Torres. Ishii made us pose for the usual Japanese tourist photos and Taryn was glad to see we still had arms - frostbite hadn’t taken them.

Down at the bottom we were devastated to discover the shop wasn’t open until 4pm (it being only 1pm) and the price of a meal in the hotel restaurant was the price of a private room in a hostel! We slept for an hour with the rest of the backpacking community on the hotel lawn before the cold, boredom and hunger forced us to make a direct line for the refugio we knew to be nearby but were unsure as to whether it would be open (leaving our packs chained to a post of course!)

Walking through the door, a smiling woman showed us to a table in their cafe, turned on music for us the only customers and served us a bottle (or two) of Fanta! The menu was limited, but chips and 3 fried eggs was delightful to read and seeing it in front of us, and demolishing it, still feels like a dream! Sophie couldn’t quite finish hers, so I ate that too.

We caught a transfer back to Tranquilo, and headed back to camp with the others. To my delight, there was a meal planned... steak and mash followed by fresh fruit salad for desert. Even better, I got to do more manly stuff cutting up two huge rumps into steaks - blood everywhere! Delightful after I´d just had my first shower in 5 days!

I managed 3 lovely and rare steaks cooked by Duncan, mine rare by special request, just seared on the outside. What a great way to end our time in the national park before heading back to our much more roomy tent.

That’s How Sophie Sees It

Despite 12 hours in ¨bed¨ I felt awful this morning, it had been far too cold to sleep properly. I was not looking forward to the 3 hour walk back to our transfer point as I knew 90% of it was downhill. But I was thankful I had not been taken ill after the rat incident, and was so glad to have conquered the W trek and experienced the park´s real beauty, heavy packs, injury and all! I was very grumpy for the final hour downhill and frustrated at my snail-pace, but I was happy it was nearly over; 71km and 26 hours of hiking, what an achievement.

---