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Published: April 18th 2006
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The Torres del Paine
The sunrise over these mountains was spectacular. ...yes you heard right. We went hiking for 4 days in Torres del Paine. We thought we would go a little crazy for the end of South American adventure! We ended up flying down to Punto Arenas,as we had had enough of long bus journeys so fancied living in luxury for a while! Seeing as how we were living it up we decided to go crazy on the plane and asked for a beer. The air hostess however thought otherwise and asked Zoe how old she was! Even after Zoe said, the hostess still didnt look convinced!
To get ourselves prepared for our mini expedition, we stocked up on supplies in Puerto Natales. It was a really weird little town with loads of rain, and very cold! We rented sleeping bags (the cool puffy ones that make you look like a maggot), a cool tent that other hikers were really jealous of, and enough food to feed Chile for a Month. Obviously in hindsight we may have taken a little too much food, but who knows when a whole jar of coffee will come in useful when your trekking. And you would think we would have learned after going to festivals(If
Lago Pehoe
We got the catamaran over the lake to campsite Pehoe. You can see the ominous clouds looming! only I'd joined the scouts!)
Anyway, we were all ready for the off, and sods law the weather was absolutely shocking. We should have turned back there and then. We got the catameran over to the West part of the W circuit that we were attempting to walk...it seemed like a submarine at times though as we were bobbing in and out of the waves! This went over Lake Pehoe to Camp Pehoe. After surviving the boat trip over we made our way up to the camp beside Glacier Grey. This was hindered slightly by the gale force winds and the hail driving in your face! By the end of the walk we were just walking with our backs bent over looking up now and then to see if we were walking in the right direction! Remember we were doing this with huge rucksacks on our back carrying all the camping equipment too!
Got to campsite before dark which is always a bonus, although everyone who was staying in the hostel there was looking at us with pity as we were attempting to cook our spaghetti using the house as a shelter, but when your paying 30 pound less a
Day 1 - trek to Camp Grey
Here is Zoe trudging up the hill on our first day. As you can see the weather was pretty bad, and sometimes the winds got to over 160km. night than what you paid inside the hostel, I'd stay on the iceburg itself!
We thought about staying at Camp Grey another night as were knackered from the previous days hiking and got up a little late, so lost a bit of time on the australian couple we were with who set off at 7am! (its hard to sleep in the forest because of all the rats trying to get into your tent to eat your food!).
Decide to trudge on though which turned out to be a bad idea when it continually poured day on us for the whole day. I don't think there was a millimetre of our bodies that werent soaked through(we should have just swam back!).
When we arrived back to Camp Pehoe just before dark there was no way we were going to stay in a tent as it was still bucketing it down so we just stumped up the pony and paid 19 pound each to stay in the hostel. It was worth every penny: a warm bed,dry clothes and a huge log fire,much better than wet and miserable in a tent.
The next day even though we were ready for home we thought
Snow capped mountain
These surrounded us the whole way up to grey. Was pretty hard to look at them with the hail and wind in your face! we would get the boat back over to the East side and see how the weather was looking, and we were right; it was a beautiful day. Even though we had been predicted snow so we had to go on(the mountain couldnt beat us!).
Its so much easier to hike when you have nice weather and dry clothes! The walk was a lot better and manged to get to the campsite just below the main feature of the park: The Torres del Paine (three huge mountains all next to each other). We only just got to the camp before dark (lucky our fellow hikers gave us a hand putting up the tent,which can be tricky at night with a torch in your mouth).
We all got up for sunrise in the morning and went up to the torres to see it. We were getting near to the top when Zoe decided she had had enough so I marched on up with my plastic bag full of breakfast stuff! The light was amzing on the torres although on the way down my bag broke and I had to walk most of the way back with my arms full of coffee, cooking
stove and loads of other rubbish! You will be pleased to know that I managed not to slip and break my neck so good job all round!
Then we all marched back down the mountain to go back to the base of the East side and we were very happy that no-one was blown off the mountain(we heard a rumour that a lad got blown 20 ft and broke his arm, although you know these things always get exaggerated. I expect he just tripped over or something).
4 days hiking was enough for us and my old football injuries were kicking in so we decided enough was enough! We headed back down to Puerto Natales for a well earned beer and a lovely piece of steak.
You would think we would take it easy then, but oh no. We were now lean mean hiking machines, so we decided to bob across to Argentina the next day to see The Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate. Everyone said it was loads bigger than Glacier Grey, but we couldnt even see Glacier Grey anyway due to the wind and hail! El Calafate was a nicer little town, and of course much cheaper
Iceburgs
They were so bright against the grey of the lake. They had fallen off Glacier Grey which was just round the corner. than Chile (which we were happy about!). So we were looking around at tours and decided that in this case paying a bit extra was worth it as we could actually go hiking on the ice. The glacier was so unbelievably huge, and so stunning. We also had perfect weather which made it all the more special. Was a pretty cool experience and got a nice glass of Famous Grouse whisky with glacier ice at the end (I would have preferred Jack Daniels)! After we left the glacier though and were looking at it from a distance we saw huge bits of the glacier emerging from underneath the water that had broken off from the bottom,this was an bizarre sight and very rare! It was like seeing some huge sea monster surfacing. In fact, one of the Americans who were on our tour thought it was the "Loch Nest Monster". No thats not a spelling mistake. Thats what he said. As you can tell, we REALLY got on with him. Ha. Ha. Hmmmm.
Anyways, we flew back to Santiago from Punto Arenas and chilled out for a couple of days recovering and waiting for our flight. And we are now
Night 1 - Home sweet Home
Our camp at Camp Grey. Really homely. Central heating and everything. Ok that last bit was a lie. in New Zealand! Flight was great, although not quite the Business Class luxury that we are used to. Maybe next time eh! Spent yesterday sleeping and today having a little look around, although we have brought the rain from Chile with us. Hopefully better tomorrow! Picking up the camper on Thursday, and then we will be in touch with news of our Kiwi adventure! Will also be getting a mobile so we will pass on our number if you fancy texting or ringing us (if your loaded or drunk)! We are now 12 hours ahead of you (tomorrow is going to be great!).
Hope your all well. Another small request for more MP3 please! Thanks to the 1 person who has sent us some (you know who you are!). Anyone else...please email us some good tunes!
Take it easy
Rich & Zoe
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Libby Tudball
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Wow again!
Melbourne and city life might just give you culture shock when you arrive here...after all that nature and amazing natural wonders. I am sure you will be happy to chill out for a while! Your photos are spectular. I still havent wokred ot how to get my digital ones out of the camera! love Libby