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Published: January 13th 2006
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We were up bright and early on the second of January ready for the 8 o'clock pick up to start our kayaking trip. About 9.30 I wandered down to Antares to find out if they had forgotten us, and after a bit or rearranging we finally set off around 10.30 / 11 o'clock. We really should have learnt by now that Chilean time is different from Australian time.
I became slightly concerned when I found that our main guide (German) didn't speak English, but the assistant guide did, so all was well. I became concerned again two hours later when we stopped at the park to pick up the other two South Africans who were coming with us, only to find that there were actually four people waiting in the park expecting to come on the trip. The maths of eight people and six boats didn't quite add up, two stayed behind. I think they were a little unhappy.
Already on edge about the kayaking company we'd been handed over too, I became really concerned when we unloaded our boats from the car, I climbed into the first one and found that even with therudder foot pedals fully extended,
I physically could not fit into the boat as my feet were resting against the bulkhead whilst my backside was still on the back deck. I climbed into the second boat and just managed to fit in with the rudder fully extended ... and I mean just.
I was starting to grumble to Christie about all this when the guide starting unloading copious quantities of beer, wine and Pisco Sour ... A smile came to my face and I decided I'd just go with it and see what happened.
What happened was a kilometer down the river I was numb from my waist down because I was so tightly wedged in the boat. The only fix for it was to completely dismantle the rudder system (which I did) and proceed on with dreams of Pisco Sour to keep me sane.
With those traumas out of the way I began to enjoy the trip. The peaks of the Torres del Paine ghosted in and out of cloudy skies and the river flow was strong so paddling was pretty easy. After about an hour we portaged around a small waterfall and then coasted down the river for another hour
Camp
Sitting around the campfire (notice Angelica in the background fly fishing for our dinner) before we settled in to drink Pisco Sour, Wine and eat fresh Chicken Fillets ... OK so Angelica didn't do so swell on the fishing front. as we followed the river out of the Park through a constantly changing vista of mountains, forests and glaciers.
We camped the first night at the base of Glacier Tyndall. German got a big fire going and cooked us the most amazing meal consisting of giant Chicken Snitzels and enough potato salad to feed the whole population of Bolivia. We wrapped this up with fruit for afters and it was all washed down with as much beer, wine and Pisco Sour as we could drink. Bliss.
Over the campfire we also got to hear some of his tales of kayaking. In April 2005 he completed a 78 day solo paddle from Puerto Natales to Cape Horn. He set off with 150kgs of weight in his boat and lost 13kgs of body weight during the trip. I'm trying to get his story as his wife wrote an English account and I think it would be an excellent read. We also discovered at around 11pm that there were no thermarests for Christie and I due to a communcaition mix up between Antares (who we booked through) and this company (www.tutravesia.com) so we got to spend the next two nights sleeping
Christie - No Paddling
Christie liked the no paddling bit of the River Sorrento, but she was not so sure about those rapids just in front of her. on the ground. Lucky I recently became a tough Patagonian adventurer I say.
The next day we drifted down the rest of the river arriving at the river mouth around lunch time. At this point Derek and Angelica (The South Africans) left us with the assistant guide and Christie and I set off with Herman (and our Lonely Planet Spanish Travel Dictionary) into the Fjord ... we hoped he knew where he was going because we had no idea.
The Paddle that afternoon was amazing. We covered another 18kms to our campsite which was at the very end of the Fjord. The water was almost dead flat with amazing reflections of the mountains in the blue-green waters. We passed a big glacier and lots of watefalls. We saw lots of bird life and even a couple of seals near camp. I can't recommend this paddle enough.
Christie decided she'd had enough for the day at this point, so she stayed at camp and German and I continued on in the double. We fought our way for about a kilometer upriver into Laguna Azul and then probably another 3 or 4 kilometers to the very end of this
A Perfect Day
Out in the Lagoon on the second day, the water was perfectly flat with a slight mist as we left the river. Laguna. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, it was one of the most beautiful places I'd been and after the crowds of Torres del paine so nice to have it all to myself.
Back at camp we had another amazing meal, and to our shame, we never did manage to get through all the alcohol they had brought.
The final day we retraced our steps back to the mouth of the River Serrano but this time we had the wind and waves behind us to push us along. It was a quick trip back, even though I spent most of it sweeping to the right as without a rudder the following sea kept pushing me around. I would like to take this opportunity to say, Yes Allan (Lee) I should have spent more time practicing paddling without a rudder.
Whilst waiting for the ferry, we went and visited the ice bergs in a nearby laguna (you can actually paddle in this Laguna but it costs an extra $US70 and needs to be prearranged) then jumped on the ferry back to Puerta Natales. It's a very scenic trip back to town, but for me the highlight was
the stop for lunch at Estancia Perales where we were greeted with mountains of meat, salad and beer. The quantity was fanastic, although I have to say the meals cooked up by German over the campfire knocked them dead for quality.
All up, I can really recommend German´s trip (www.tutravesia.com) to anyone considering paddling in this area, even with his few words of English and our smattering of Spanish we had a really great time and he went the extra yards to make it pleasant for us. He even chased us down the next day to give us a CD with all of the photos he'd taken on the trip. It was a great touch and nice to have photos of ourselves.
Now we're just killing a day before setting off tonight on the four night / three day ferry trip through the Patagonian Channels to Puerto Montt where we plan to get back on the bikes and ride back up to Temuko where we've heard you can get a train to Santiago.
We're on the way home ...
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Baldrick
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I'm so jelous John. Glad u had a fun New Year. Keeping up tradition?