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Published: January 24th 2007
Penguin
Penguins in Puerto Madryn, a lost looking one..so cutePATAGONIA
We eventually got back on to the traveling path and set off to Patagonia with an 18 hour journey to Puerto Madryn
The bus was like a moving hotel! huge seats that virtually lie down, 3 course meal with wine , 2 films and breakfast in the morning, we didnt want to get off! we set of with an irish girl called Naomi and a girl called Mia to meet Wez, also from ireland, and 3 Israeli boys who had breakfast waiting for us and welcomed us into their group.
It is great being in a big group, everyone cooking together is fun and saves loads on money, we all hired cars the next day and drove the circuit of Peninsular Valdes. Unfortuantely the whales had immigrated so we didnt see any ( although we can follow them to New Zealand) However it is one of the most significant marine reserves with many animal colonies living there.
It took us quite a while to get going but when we did it was a lovely drive, we stopped for a picnic by the bluest waters while the boys all jumped in then continued on to see penguins, seals and elephant
sea lions. On the way home we managed to walk to a cliff edge to watch the sunset which was beautiful.
The next mission is to Ushuaia... another 18 hr bus journey, was a great laugh with 8 of us, we are now in a town of nothing called Rio Gallegos waiting to get a bus and ferry tomorrow to the end of the earth! We have a little apartment for the night and just finished cooking and eating dinner with the family. No idea what to expect from Ushuaia so excited, we would love to go to Antartica but just dont have enough time left to see the rest of Argentina..oh well maybe next time !!!
Will let you know how it is at the end of the earth
Bye xxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Trip to the End of the World………Fin Del Mundo
We had a mad panic to leave the house and get on the bus…..late as usual but it all adds to the fun! Eventually got on the bus (disco bus again with crazy music) and welcomed with yet another cheese and ham sandwich, we thought it was going to be a 12
Wez and Naiomi
The Irish cousins we met in B.A hour journey that was abit of a faf but it turned into the never ending bus journey!We had to leave Argentina, enter chilie, then leave chilie and enter back into Argentina, 4 border crossings! Every time we drifted off to sleep we had to get up and que for a hour!We were so hungry we were eating dry frosties! If anyone ever goes..FLY there, only costs a tenner more! The eight of us arrived exhausted at 1am with no hostel booked so chaos started trying to find somewhere to sleep as we knew well everywhere was booked up. A lady from a restaurant ended up taking pity on us and let us sleep on her living room floor and fed us! Was brilliant!
Right so Ushuaia..Tierra del Fuego , located between mountains and the sea. Full of snow in the winter….but as it is summer now we just saw snow up in the mountains. After we found a hostel the next morning….as nice as the ladies floor was…we headed up to the glacier Martial, 7km behind the town. We didn’t walk up though as there were chair lifts available…. to sea the beautiful views of course! We seemed to
get caught in a blizzard though on the way up! It was freezing cold so had a hot chocolate at the top then walked a bit up towards the mountain and went sliding down the snow on our bottoms…great fun!
The next day we went for a walk in the national Park, made a pack up as kate would say( im starting to use Derby slang..sorry dad!)and had a picnic in the park, was really beautiful frosty scenery making an change from the boiling heat.
That evening me and kate went out for steak. We hadn’t had one for a while. so we went to the restaurant of ladies who’s floor we slept on, had a nice meal and found ourselves involved in a 60th birthday party, we were forced to get up dancing and do the conga!
We headed back to go to Puerto Natales , leaving 2 behind was sad but we carried on the 6 of us. Kate and I have been picking up more Hebrew than Spanish recently as travelling with Israelis, and they have been picking up Irish and kate´s Derby language. its a very funny mix of accents! And everyone keeps asking
me if im Jewish, apparently HANNAH is a very famous Jewish name, and also Rebecca is! Did you know this Mum and Dad? Am I Jewish???? I seem to be quite good at picking up Hebrew as well, it seems to come naturally!!!
The plan was to camp in the Parque Nacional in Puerto Natales,so obviously I was dreading this as I hate camping ( refer back to Rio) there was a reason why we sent the tent home!
The park is one of South America’s most famous with glaciers, lakes and grand mountains.
Anyway I decided to bite my tongue and not go on about how horrible it was but insisted me and kate hired a tent and didn’t buy one as the others did. We set off after I caused drama on then bus as forgot the tickets. Yet again holding up a tour bus and causing trouble.. Felt like I had lead weights in my bag as we’d let the boys do the shopping so had food for 3 weeks not 3 days..anyway sure id eat my way through the bag. We set our tents up and set off, it was clear we weren’t serious hikers
as it was nearly 1 before we left and we had no idea what direction to go in!
The Start of the hike............................
After much dispute about the way we headed towards the main centre piece of the park, the dramatic Torres. (Towers) These were the Torres del Paine. The view was truly amazing, especially after we´d walked for 5 hours with Wez and gill singing all the way and literally scrambled up rocks to get to the top. He towers were grey granite jagged peaks with snow and ice mixing into the clouds. Around the foot there was a beautiful turquoise lake. It was spectacular as when we arrived we could just see clouds but then they slowly cleared and one by one each tower became visible. The boys then ran off back to the camp to prepare tea for us and build a fire! Dinner was served when we arrived back with a cheap carton of Vino Tinto. Perfect!
Day 2 of the Hike! We slept in so behind schedule so had to rush our cornflakes and set off quickly to get to the next camp..we had to carry our main rucksack for the 9
hour walk..this was going to be torture..i didn’t think I could physically make it up the first hill. Who´s idea was this????Kates i believe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was ok then when got into the swing of it, managed to take in the scenery and sing a long with Wez and have many breaks for crackers. It sort of looked like scotland. It was definately a challenge though. especially when there was about 6 rivers we had to cross. Was funny to watch so many trekers trying to navigate how to cross with out getting wet. The best option was to take your boots and socks off and just get in there! The fun carried on until the rain started...Drowned rats is the best way to describe us! dripping wet. I was practically running to the next site. and it rained and rained and rained then solidly for the next 2 days! We had to put our tents up in the rain( well i actually stayed inside while the others did-i am rubbish at putting up tents) They also made a shelter for a fire..was brill so we cooked dinner and tried to dry our clothes supping on whiskey to keep warm.
Day 3...Cold wet and still bloody raining...we woke up more or less in a river!
decided to sack off seeing the glacier and make a mad rush to get the boat back home but again we were so late setting off we had to rush there, we were so wet at this point with no dry clothes and a wet tent that there was no way on earth i was spending another night in the park. And ive never seen kate move so fast as well, we did the 5 hour walk in no time at all. The path was like a river so after trying to go round it for the 1st hour we just went straight through the mud and water, straight through the rivers overtaking all the other walkers, running up the hills! My boots were fall of water but there was no stopping us!When we arrived at the boat an hour early we were singing with joy!!
Looking back now i enjoyed the camping and the walk even thought it was really hard, defiantly the most challenging id done so far, just the rain was horrible!
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Ben
non-member comment
I am..............
.............jealous as fuck. looks like your having a wicked time babe. x