Puerto Natales & Torres del Paine (22-27 Oct 2010)

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Friday 22nd October 2010

A long day travelling starting at 5am with a minibus to Rio Grande, we switched onto a coach after a couple of hours wait in the middle of nowhere and the highlight of our day was being traipsed through customs! At one point we thought we might be stranded on a dirt road when our coach driver told us we needed to change buses when all we could see was dessert and not a vehicle in sight. Thankfully another bus did turn up and we completed the final part of our journey to Puerto Natales. On arrival, after 15 hours we arrived at Yaganhouse and Paulina told us about the national park and we ate before bed.

Saturday 23rd October 2010

A well deserved day off as Joanne was ill so hiking and camping didn’t seem like the best idea. Paulina put on a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs our first in South America with toast jam yogurt and homemade cake, yum. We did smoe research on the national park updated diaries wondered around town and booked our bus for the following day. In the evening we went to a restaurant where we were the only customers and Richard enjoyed his first red wine in Chile (Cab Sav obviously!).

Sunday 24th October 2010

Hiring tents, mats & sleeping bags, we emptied our rucksacks and packed for a few days camping, overloading Richards’ large bag with the camping equipment and Joannes’ small bag filled to the brim with food (mainly sweets & cookies).

Pauilna put on an early breakfast for us and we were picked up at 7.30am. Almost immediately Joanne realised we’d left our 8 sandwiches in the fridge but alas it was too late, the bus would not turn around, until, fortunately for us, a section of road was closed and we had to divert back past our hostel so Richard jumped out, back in a flash with our food and we were on our way.

2 hours later we were in the park. As the cloud seemed thin we were advised to do the ‘W’ circuit in reverse as it would be our best chance of seeing the Torres. Our shuttle bus crossed the skinniest of bridges with just an inch clearance of each wing mirror and sat us down at the bottom of the mountainside, we shed some layers as the sun was out and began our ascent. Uphill most of the way we hit the first stop after only 90 minutes and were at our free camp site just an hour later. We pitched our tent and found we were missing a pole. Joanne resourcefully found a tree branch that did a good job of keeping the fly sheet away from the main tent, something we were very grateful for later when we had torrential down pour. We set off while there was still plenty of sunlight for Japones, clambering over massive ancient rocks with fossilised images in them, and got a wonderful view of the Torres. When we got back to the campsite we still had a couple of hours before sunset so we decided to climb up to the mirador (viewing point) of the Torres in case the clouds set in obscuring a sunrise view the following morning. It was a tough uphill climb but we were met with an unexpected view of a frozen lake littered with Icebergs under the Torres – Spectacular. Back down to camp for cold pesto pasta, we enjoyed sitting on logs listening to our fellow travellers recounting various worldwide expeditions.

Monday 25th October 2010

Another delightful 5am start, we wanted to climb back up to the Torres mirador to watch the 6.20am sunrise which turns the peaks red, but this would leave us with an impossible schedule to get back down and catch the 9am bus to the ferry. We packed most of our gear and headed up, as the skies got lighter we were slightly worried we’d missed it, but we just caught the morning light hitting the peaks and filmed red back to grey. Swiftly back to camp, down came the tent and we set off attempting to break world records to catch our bus to the ferry. Our downhill scramble was doomed from the start as it was more uphill then we recalled. After two hours, with 30 minutes till the bus left, and an hours worth of hiking ahead of us, we cut our losses and turned off on a cut through to Cuuenos. This “short cut” may have edged off a corner, but it still took us 5 hours at our new relaxed pace. Stopping for a large and very expensive apple juice we dropped our bags for 40 minutes. The rest did us good, with a second wind we strode up the very steep hills leaving another couple behind and arrived at campmento Italiano (the next free campsite) in less than 2 hours.

Lots of people were setting up tents, but looking at the valley and chatting to passing hikers, we decided to skip Val de Francis, and turn the W into a U! This meant continuing onto Pehoe, where we arrived just 90 minutes later along the easiest path of the day. We had to pay for the pitch at this campsite, but it was worth it for Joanne who heated her pasta and had a hot shower – Bliss! Sitting down to analyse a map, we were shocked to realise we had hiked over 40km (the equivalent to a marathon on a mountain).

Tuesday 26th October 2010

We got up a 4.45am (or as Joanne likes to call it, stupid o’clock) to reach Glacier Grey and get back in time for the midday ferry. Packed and on our way by 5.20am we found the path in the dark with only our head torches to light our way until 45 minutes later when the sun joined us. It was a nice spongy path to start with, we’d expected ferocious winds as other hikers had been blown over here but it never came, just hills, hills, hills! Striding out we reached the glacier in just 2 ½ hours, knocking an hour off yet another trail. 10 minutes further and we were at the viewpoint on the right-hand face of this magnificent glacier taking in the spectacular view in front of us while eating left over cheese sandwiches for breakfast. At this point another couple appeared and were surprised to see us as it was still very early and they’d been the first to leave the closest campsite. When we explained where we’d come from they stared in shock and awe as the same path had taken the 4 hours the previous day.

Soon it was time to go as we didn’t want to miss the ferry, taking a slower pace and stopping for occasional photos it still only took us 3 hours. We packed the tent quickly and wandered over to the Jetty. Unfortunately the ferry was almost an hour late, very annoying as we could have spent more time at the glacier or taken the hike a little easier. The ferry crossing was smooth and our bus was still waiting for us. A couple of hours later we were back at yagenhouse, exhausted after an intensive 3 days. We booked massages, but she could only fit us both in if we went immediately so after two very quick showers we made our way over for a well deserved 45 minutes of muscle pummelling.

Wednesday 27th October 2010

Feeling like home, we thought we’d spend another day in Yagenhouse. We chilled and updated diaries while Joanne continued to recover from her cold which still hadn’t gone away. Joanne bought some hiking trousers as her Jeans had finally died, and we spoke to an Aussie couple before bed who were starting the W circuit the next day (although they were cheating and using the hostels).

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Comments

[Mark]

Sounds fantastic
, stunning views, stupid o'clock, I agree!! Pixs on FB of snow we had here, deepest I can remember, more forecast for end of week.