Days 9 - 15 Peninsula Valdes, Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine

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We intended to send episode number 2 of our blog about a week ago but for reasons that you will discover in episode 3 which will follow very shortly, we have been in the middle of nowhere with no internet or mobile reception for the last few days.

2 November (day 9) - Peninsula Valdes

The 5.15am start wasn't too bad, especially as they didn't serve breakfast on the plane (they had forgotten to load it on) so we managed to sleep the whole way. James is actually a closet plane spotter as he loves telling me what kind of plane we are on, how many engines it has etc - this one was apparently a very old McDonnell Douglas 80, all I cared about was that it got us to Trelew.

We smuggled some food through customs - this time apples, tomatoes and sausage were the banned products we had in our lunch. The car lady was clearly at a loose end as she walked us to our car and proceeded to take 10 minutes to explain to us how to operate our 8 year old Corsa. It had seen better days but was perfect for the dirt roads we subjected it to.

We spent the rest of the day on the Peninsula Valdes, an absolute must for anyone heading to Argentina. Once you enter the peninsula you are on gravel roads pretty much the whole way. It is strange that they seem to be rebuilding the existing and perfectly good tarmac roads all around the area but still have plenty of gravel roads they would be much better spending their money on. In this instance though, it is a good thing that the peninsula isn't too accessible as we hardly saw anyone all day.

Our first stop was Punta Norte, obviously at the north of the peninsula. This is the spot where killer whales sometimes come right up onto the beach to feed on the sea lions and seals that lounge about there. Unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to witness this but we did see a number of elephant seals and sea lions, including some babies playing near the water.

We drove from here down the east coast of the peninsula stopping in the middle of nowhere to climb over a fence onto the beach. There were elephant seals in both directions but luckily (in my opinion) and unfortunately (in James' opinion) we managed to pick a spot without any very close.

A very inconspicuous lay-by a little further down gave us our first penguin sighting. There were a few nesting about a metre from where we stopped. Next wildlife spot was some guanacos (a bit like llamas) who were drifting across the road in no particular hurry. We stopped off another couple of times to see more elephant seals and sea lions. We have concluded that they are the laziest animals around, they just lie on the beach all day and make a huge amount of fuss and noise even to move one body length. I suppose if I weighed 3,500kg, which some of the males we spotted did, I might struggle to move as well!

The highlight of our day was a sunset boat trip from Puerto Pyramides to see southern right whales. We hadn't even left the shore before spotting our first few. The wind from earlier in the day had died down and the water was like a mill pond, making for perfect viewing conditions. There are about 500 in the area so as whale spotting goes, this has to be one of the easiest places to see them. We saw loads of mothers and babies and for a large part of the 2 hour trip there were whales swimming right next to and under our boat. One of the most curious ones was a grey whale which apparently is very rare (I think a bit like an albino whale). We quizzed the guide and found out that the whales live for approx 70 - 80 years, they are about 14m in length and they only sleep in 15 minute stints by holding their breath. We decided based on sleeping habits we would rather be a seal than a whale! We (James) took about 200 photos until our battery died.

We raced back to Puerto Madryn, grabbed a quick dinner of prawns and lamb stir fry (not on the same plate) at Ambigu and checked into our first hostel of the holiday, Hostel Patagonia. James was far from impressed by the décor in the bathroom, the curtains that fell down when he touched them and the fact that towels cost extra. He was also worried the sheets weren't clean and that they may start charging for each sheet of loo roll we used. I am not sure our plan to stay in hostels will last very long. I, on the other hand, judged it more on the comfort of the bed (we had 9 hours of sleep) and the strength of the shower (very easy to wash my hair).

3 November (day 10) - Punta Tombo and Trelew

Our sit up and press up regime began today in a desperate attempt to keep in some kind of physical shape. I haven't done a press up since university and could barely move afterwards.

We stopped to buy water on our way out of town and stupidly didn't read the label so ended up with a 2 litre bottle of agua con gas. I proceeded to spend most of the 2 hour journey to Punta Tombo shaking the bottle to get rid of the fizz. Even when it was flat it still tasted disgusting, we won't be making that mistake again.

The penguins at Punta Tombo were quite incredible. It is nesting season so there were tens of thousands of mums in little burrows sitting on their eggs. The dads were mainly waddling up and down to the beach making for great photo and video opportunities. We spent about an hour getting up close to them and discussing if they have penguin real estate as there were some areas where they were all on top of each other which for anyone who knows Luton we thought was like the Marsh Farm of Punta Tombo and other areas which had great views, were out of the wind and the penguins had much more spacious accommodation! We also saw some tinamous (look like grouse) and what we thought was an armadillo but was actually a cuis (like a rat).

One thing we have noticed in Argentina is that the locals are all very friendly and keen to get into conversation. The man at the service station started asking James all sorts of things about where we had been, where we were going etc. The one thing they all ask is 'de donde son?' (where are you from?). We are having great difficulty understanding this as the question always comes out of nowhere.

As it was still early afternoon, we couldn't resist making a visit to what the Lonely Planet describes as a quaint Welsh village called Gaiman! After a quick stop in Trelew for some water (sin gas this time), we followed the Lonely Planet map, which took us into a rubbish dump in the slums of Trelew. About 30 minutes and a lot of potholes and speed bumps (they are everywhere in this country) later we found Gaiman. One third of Gaiman's population claim to have Welsh origins and visitors flock here to enjoy traditional Welsh tea. This place couldn't be further from the Lonely Planet description. It is basically one road with a load of Spanish not Welsh people and some very expensive cafes with Welsh memorabilia on the walls. We couldn't resist trying the Welsh tea though which was 45 pesos each (quite pricey at £7.50) but consisted of bread, scones, 10 different cakes each and obviously a huge pot of tea with a colourful tea cosy. James thought it was rude to leave the tea so drank 3 cups of it while I put 2 teaspoons of sugar in mine and could still only manage one sip. The cakes were a different story though and we didn't have a problem polishing them off.

Back in Trelew we checked into our top end hotel (Hotel Libertador) which was really not at all top end but had a good deal if you paid cash. We got accosted by an old English couple who wanted to know all about our car and moaned about the food, the hotels, the lack of car hire places and how expensive things were. They then suggested we met for dinner which we politely declined. It is true that Argentina isn't as cheap as we thought it would be and we are definitely over-spending our budget at the moment.

Despite feeling sick from the cake eating, we dragged ourselves on a very hilly run through more slum areas with rabid dogs at every turn. Stray dogs seems to be a bit of a theme in Argentina. We then went to dinner in a converted flour mill which reminded us of a church hall. The meal was nothing special, mainly as it was predominantly a BBQ place and we chose fish and pasta. We did however spot a French couple on the table next to us pouring 7 up into their red wine (so Linda you are not the only one who does this).

Final job of the day was to google some questions we had like what is a rhea? - flightless animal like an ostrich (now we know we haven't seen one), where do the penguins migrate to? - Southern Brazil and who is out of X Factor? - if you care you will know the answer to this already.

4 November (day 11) - To Puerto Natales

We raced to the airport for our 8.30am flight to El Calafate and got a nasty surprise at the total car hire charge which included an additional 77 cents for every km over 400km (we had driven 878km in 2 days) and they also lumped on airport tax and an additional 21% tax on the whole bill.

There were good views of Lago Argentino as we came in to land in El Calafate. We got a transfer into town to pick up our rental car which will be our mode of transport for the next 16 days. This was another Corsa. We stocked up on food for our 350km journey to Puerto Natales (James got very excited and claimed it was the best supermarket yet) and then hit the road. The scenery for the first 150km was very boring with nothing but a few rocks and hills for miles around. As we got closer to the Chilean border the scenery started to change. I spent most of the journey tapping away at the keyboard. This is definitely the best blog writing time and gives James a break from listening to me nag him to drive slower! Generally here the speed limits are pretty conservative, sometimes going as low as 20km/h on an open road with a slight bend where 80 is perfectly safe (but James' 120 is not)! On these occasions, James also becomes chief wildlife spotter and on this journey he found us some rhea and flamingos. It is absolutely freezing down here and we hit our first snow storm en route with James still wearing just a t shirt and me in 2 fleeces and a woolly hat.

I wrote the last paragraph before the following happened and we have now decided that leaving James in charge of directions and wildlife spotting while I look at the laptop may not be the best idea in a country where the sign posts are terrible and often non-existent. The road turned to gravel soon after the snow storm and gradually there became fewer and fewer cars. After about 30 minutes I asked James how far we had driven since the 148km sign for Rio Turbio (the border town). When he told me we had gone 190km we realised the full extent of our mistake. Without a map and no mobile signal we were a bit stuck and we weren't even sure which country we were in - thinking we may have driven through the border without noticing! Being reasonably stubborn though, it took us another 10 minutes of discussion and attempts to work out how we missed the turn before we finally agreed to turn round. We knew we had hardly passed any buildings on the way so when we spotted a police station in the middle of nowhere with 2 men outside I jumped out to ask directions. They were very helpful and I understood enough of what they were saying to get us to a different Chilean border so we only ended up going about 20km out of our way.

The excitement didn't stop there though. On reaching the Argentinian side of the border, we were told that Chilean customs were striking and so we wouldn't be allowed in. The very nice man said that if we wanted to try anyway then he would stamp us out of Argentina and we could drive 3km along the road to check. We did that and arrived to find a big padlock on the gate. The good news was that there were customs officers there so we came up with a sob story about it being our honeymoon and me not being very well and entered the building. Luckily no sob story was required as our arrival prompted them to take down their strike notices and let us through. We filled in the usual customs form declaring that we didn't have any fruit etc and then on the way to the car one of the men asked me in Spanish if we had any fruit. My automatic reaction was to say no even though I knew we had a satsuma and a bag of apples on the back seat in full view. Unfortunately the customs man had spotted them and made us eat the fruit before he let us through. With hindsight, I am not sure lying to a striking Chilean customs officer was the best idea.

We were most relieved to arrive at our B&B (Erratic Rock II) with no further incidents. Our room was lovely and warm and the lady who runs it, Marcela, was very welcoming and friendly. We were starving so headed out to a place run by an African-Chilean couple called Afrigonia. We ordered our first bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and tucked into delicious and very different food. It was great to be eating spicy vegetable soup and seafood curry rather than bread, meat and salad. The service was very relaxed, unlike most meals where food has arrived too quickly, which gave us time to enjoy our second bottle of wine. With wine inside him, James was keen to practice more Spanish and got another complement from the waitress that his Spanish was very clear - why does noone tell me my Spanish is good?! We got a shock when we left the restaurant as it was even colder (well below freezing) so we decided to run home.

5 November (day 12) - Puerto Natales

We had a lazy start to the day, catching up on internet, washing and taking our time over breakfast. It wasn't snowing, so we forced ourselves on a 12km run all along the Seno Ultima Esperanza (the water passage that the town is on). It was a pretty bracing run and definitely woke us up for the day.

We had a late lunch at a cafe called El Living and given one of the things I am missing is humous, I was very excited to see it on the menu. Over lunch we wrote our shopping list for our 3 day camping trip to Torres del Paine to walk 'the W' and headed to Erratic Rock for a 3pm briefing. Although you can go in an organised group, most people do the walk alone so the briefing is a great way to find out what it is all about. Coke (can't work out what she must really be called) gave us a very thorough 90 minute talk on the route, accommodation options (which range from very basic campsites to one luxury hotel), clothes, weather and food. James' favourite bit was when she said we should take loads of snacks and eat as much as possible including chocolate at all times of the day and just before bed to keep us warm. We rented sleeping bags, stove, roll mats and a tent and by the time we had put up our tent to test it out (which we needed quite a bit of help with) it was 5pm.

I went into panic organisation mode realising the amount of shopping and packing we had to do before bed time. James was much more calm as we set off to try to buy him some kind of leggings or long johns (mainly because I thought he needed them, he was quite happy without) and me another jumper. James didn't have much success, probably because Chileans are all 3 ft tall, but he insisted he would be fine without.

It was now 7pm and we needed dinner and still hadn't bought any food or packed or booked our transport to the park. We visited 2 different supermarkets trying to find the tasty snacks we have become used to in Argentina - namely Oreos and these milka Oreo snacks which are like a massive penguin biscuit. Unfortunately Chilean snacks are not as good but we stocked up on what they had and I insisted on taking some apples and carrots with us so I could feel a bit healthy.

Dinner was a rushed affair at Asador de Patagonia and then straight back to our room to unpack our rucksacks and repack everything we were taking in plastic bags. James took control of food and made us chorizo, philadelphia and green pepper rolls for the next 3 days, all neatly wrapped in foil. This was the first chance he had had to use the big knife he brought with us and he managed to take a slice out of his finger when he was washing it so there was a bit of drama mopping up the blood and bandaging it up. I took to work packing the bags which given that the sleeping bags, tent, food and cooking equipment took up most of the room, meant really cutting down on clothes.

There are numerous options to walking the W (so called because of the shape of the route). Other people we know who have done it have camped for 3, 4 or 5 nights, so earlier in the day we had decided to do it in 4 days and 3 nights, leaving at 7am to get to the park ahead of the buses so we could get a lift to the catamaran that takes you to the start. Lying in bed at midnight, I suddenly had an idea of how we could do it slightly differently. The positives of this new plan were that we would only be camping for 2 nights, we would not need to carry our camping equipment so far and would not need to get up until 8am, but the downside was we would need to walk 85.2km on 3 rather than 4 days. We both agreed to go for the shorter option.

6 November (day 13) - Torres del Paine

We heard other people in our B&B crashing about at 6.30am to get ready for their 7am bus to the park and were very happy to still be tucked up in our nice warm bed. We had a leisurely breakfast and set off just after 9am to drive the shorter route to the park (110km on gravel road). Another badly signed turn (well actually there was no sign) saw us go flying past the catamaran pier but this time we only went a mile or so before turning back. We hid our laptop with the spare tyre and left the rest of our possessions which weren't coming on the walk with us in the boot in various bags and boxes. To get to the start of the walk you need to take a 30 minute catamaran trip across a glacial lake. We clambered on board with our backpacks and daypacks and enjoyed the free hot chocolate and biscuits they served on the crossing.

It was here, surrounded by quite a few others about to start the walk that I started thinking it would be good to do something a bit different from everyone else. As the route is pretty much what it is, we were going for the more challenging camping option rather than staying in refugios (dorms and bunkbeds) and we had already agreed we would do the little extra bits on each prong of the W to get to the very top, the only real thing to change was the time it would take us. So here is where the Endurance W plan was hatched and we decided to do it in less than 48 hours.

Our first challenge on arrival was to put up our tent. It was sunny but very windy so we chose a vaguely sheltered spot and 10 minutes later had a tent erected, our big backpacks inside and we were ready to go. Now in the briefing Coke had assured us that the paths are all very well marked and you really can't get lost. We set off in the direction we thought was right, did a big circle and ended up back at our tent. Attempt number 2 was more successful and at 1.23pm we started the first part of our journey, a 30km hike up to a glacier and back which the map said should take 10 hours.

James describes this part of the walk as our race to the glacier. I always lead the way when we walk so I can set the pace. The first section had a slight elevation and we realised as we raced past everyone that we were going at quite a speed. The other sign was that we were soon stripping off layers down to shorts and t shirt as we were sweating so much even though it was close to freezing. We reached the mirador (lookout) and got our first glimpse of the glacier after about an hour. We sat and had our lunch and realised that although it is very hot when moving, it is very windy (gusts up to 80km/h) and therefore cold when you stop. We set off again, this time a little slower as we realised that we could slow down a bit and still finish by the time it got dark (about 9.30pm).

The views all along the side of the lake up to the glacier were spectacular and we stopped for plenty of photos. We hiked past the refugio by the glacier and up past another campsite to the lookout over the glacier. The last few kms were hard going but definitely worth it as the views were stunning. We also heard some ice breaking off which sounds like a shotgun.

On our way down we walked down to the lake and sampled the ice from the glacier - I should have put my gloves on before picking it up! I have a habit of tripping over lose stones and generally being a bit clumsy on the paths and as these paths had loads of rocks this walk was no exception. I must have tweaked a muscle on one of these trips as my leg started hurting on the way down. By the time we reached the campsite I could tell it was starting to seize up.

We made it back at 8pm and I got our bags unpacked while James showered (sounds luxurious but was in a hut with no heating, tepid water and outside temperature of -6 degrees). James then got going with dinner while I tried out the showers. Luckily these campsites have shelter for cooking so he headed in to join the other campers all with their stoves, pasta and sauce. He got some strange looks using his big anaconda killing knife to chop some chorizo and peppers but it was worth it as our dinner was delicious. We even had cheese and biscuits to follow. We have decided that we are anti-social trekkers as people were discussing walking together for the rest of the walk and forming big groups but we deliberately kept our distance. Their 7am start times didn't appeal, nor did walking at the slowest person's pace.

It was only when we both got into the tent that we realised quite how squashed it was. There was no room to move, James didn't fit in his sleeping bag which was broken anyway and he spent about 30 minutes moaning about every aspect of camping he could think of, the only thing that would shut him up was to feed him chocolate and leave him some out for the night. I was toasty warm in my sleeping bag as I had my water bottle filled with boiling water - the best tip ever.

7 November (day 14) - Torres del Paine

We woke at 5am both needing the loo, not good when it is blowing a gale and still about -6 degrees. It took a while to warm up again and then we dozed on and off until 8am. I have to agree with James that camping is a real effort as it took us until 9.20am to get ready, sort out our tent, have breakfast etc and we didn't even wash. James' first comment of the morning was how smelly his sleeping bag was, he reckons they haven't ever been washed, a pretty disgusting thought!

I was in loads of pain and not sure I would be able to walk the 30.2km we had in store for the day, James had a massive blister but didn't seem to complain as much as me. We set off on a reasonably flat walk along the side of a lake, the only challenge being the gale force winds that seem to be a permanent feature of this park. It was nice and sunny and even with me hobbling we made pretty good progress. James found me a walking stick which helped a lot.

We reached the bottom of the French Valley, the middle of the W, and headed up hill. The next bit involved climbing over huge boulders. I worked out that when stepping up I needed to lead with my good leg and when going down with my bad leg, but I kept getting it wrong and James had to cope with me making a lot of noise. Once through the rocks we then hit trees and our first proper snow. The climb up seemed to last forever, but a lunch stop and lots of snacks got us to the top campsite and we knew once we reached that we would be determined to reach the top. Luckily the map timings for the last part were wrong and we got there much quicker than we thought. Views all the way up were amazing, there was a glacier to the left which was covered in snow and kept having avalanches then huge towering rocks on the right. We knew we needed to push on so after a couple of photos at the top we turned round to go down. Unfortunately going down was much more painful than coming up, but I didn't really have a choice. I put James in charge of snacks, which he was very excited about having never been allowed that privilege before. He did a good job of feeding me and giving me encouragement all the way down.

We had been toying with the idea of walking late into the night and then getting up at 4am to get to the Torres lookout point for sunrise. Luckily I do have a little bit of sense left in me and realised that my leg wouldn't appreciate it and given it was snowing there probably wouldn't be a sunrise anyway. We had our second delicious pasta meal of the trip and put up our tent in the snow. As it was quite late we didn't bother making the hot water bottle and that was definitely a mistake.

8 November (day 15) - Torres del Paine and back to Puerto Natales

We both froze all night and kept waking up shivering. By 6am we gave up and got out of bed (well got off the very hard ground we were on). It was still snowing but only lightly so we packed up our stuff and left it at the camp then headed up our final ascent. The map said it would take 9 hours there and back and as it was already 7.15am we only had 6 hours if we were to manage it in less than 48 hours.

I think I must have over-compensated for my bad leg the day before as my other leg was really painful as well now. We raced up from sea level to 750m pretty quickly, mainly to keep warm, then followed a river along a reasonably flat bit until we reached the sign for the final 1 hour scramble up hill. It was snowing properly at this point and walking in hiking boots which are not cut out for snow was not pleasant. It was a pretty steep climb which towards the top involved balancing on rocks covered, in snow in a blizzard and gale force winds. We were very relieved to reach the top. We didn't even particularly mind that the torres were covered in cloud and we couldn't see beyond the lake at the bottom of them. We didn't stay long as we were dreading the icy descent. Sure enough not far from the top I slipped and smashed my leg into a rock - very painful but I was too cold to check out my injury and kept going. (James would like to add here that I had my first tears of the holiday and I made a lot of fuss!)

James found me another walking stick so for the rest of the journey I became four legged which was actually very effective and much quicker than hobbling on two legs, although I admit I did look like an old woman. We made it down by 1.05pm, a total time for 47 hours and 42 mins. It was still snowing so we quickly packed up our tent and left the park - possibly a little too quickly as James reversed into a bush and broke our windscreen wiper. On the way out James did some more good wildlife spotting - this time condors and a Patagonian skunk which he insisted on chasing so he could get a good photo.

Our original plan had been to drive to Puerto Natales (2 hours), drop off our camping stuff and then drive to El Calafate (4 hours). We were both pretty tired and needed a good wash so decided to stay in Puerto Natales for the night instead. We were welcomed by Marcela at our B&B and luckily she had a room for us. She did our washing while we got to work soaking in the bath and cleaning away the grime from the last 3 days.

The advantage of being in the park was that we didn't need to worry about booking our next accommodation, thinking about which restaurant we would eat at, planning our next activity etc and although we didn't particularly relax, we were able to switch off and just enjoy what we were doing. Inevitably this has meant we now don't have anywhere booked for the next few days and no idea where we are going!

Marcela recommended a place to stay in El Calafate which had a room for the next night so with that sorted we headed out for food. It was snowing really heavily and yet again there were huge gales so we chose a place that talked about log fires and a cosy dining room in the Indigo Hotel. Most of our warm clothes were being washed so we sat next to a radiator and cranked it up to max. A stupidly strong G&T each and a bottle of wine also helped to keep us warm.

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Comments

[Mary Brentnall / Mummy!]

Glad all that climbing is finished
I am quite exhausted having read all about your latest adventures. I hope the legs are recovering Sarah. Fantastic photo of the skunk James.