Torres Del Paine - The Circuit - Day 1

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Today we ventured off to Torres Del Paine to tackle the circuit, which is the famous 'W' trek, plus the backside of the national park. It's around 90-100km, and you need to be self sufficient. So the previous day we went out and bought our supplies and hired a tent and some sleeping mats (as we were unable to make our thermarests fit when we left Oz). We were pretty limited in what food we could get, so it will be 3 minute noodles (not 2 minute), soup, dehydrated potato, oatmeal, dried fruit and nuts for a week. Glad the tent had ventalation...

After registering at the national parks adminstration office, we headed to Campamento Seron,a nice 11km to ease our way into the circuit. The weather was good, slightly warm, and we had good views to the Torres (towers) of Paine.

This part of the walk had been decimated by the fires that ripped through the park 5 years ago, when some dumb backpapcker thought it would be a good idea to burn their toilet paper, rather then carry it out. The destruction was still clear to see, and it will take decades for it to regenerate. It did allow for great views, but it is not the way you want to see the mountains.

We arrived at the campsite, which was basic, but in a pretty location and setup camp. As soon as the sun set behind the mountains the temparature dropped dramatically, and we quickly cooked up dinner. We chatted to some other trekkers for an hour or so after sunset, before we deemed it too cold to stay outside and went to bed.

It was obvious pretty soon that the sleeping mats only provided some protection from the cold ground, and not some padding. We both had to constantly shift positions from our backs, to side to other side every 20-30 minutes, as the ground was rock hard and started to bruise you on any pointy bits in your body, like your shoulders or hips. By early morning (3am) the winds came and it really howled, and the temprature dropped even more. Even in thermals, balaclavas, jackets inside the sleeping bag it was cool.

Getting out of bed the next morning was really tough, and going for a whiz even tougher with cold hands and making sure you are pointing in the right direction with a swirling wind

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Photos

Wont lose us
With Mike's orange pants, and my purple bag

Panorama view of Torres Del Paine
One of Mike's photo's

Panorama
Another of Mike's

One of the locals
The reason why there are no mice on the backside