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Published: March 24th 2009
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It took two days of rest in Ushuaia before I was ready to head to Torres del Paine.This place near Puerto Natales is a mecca for trekkers so I was about to test out my fitness havinggiven up the fags for two weeks on the ship. The idea was to get there and have a look at it to see whether I would go for the 'W' or the W plus the circuit. About 10 days was recommended to put by for the whole lot in case the weather turned against you. The major factors are the winds and then the cold on top of them. The winds in this area are an entity unto themselves.Normally at home the wind is generally a part of bad weather. Here the wind just turns up on its own and tries to blow civilisation off the landscape. Some of the traffic lights have ropes tied to them so that pedestrians can hang onto them in order to avoid getting blown onto the street!. I stayed at a rather ropey hostel having screwed up my booking but I met and interesting girl called ? who was cycling all around chile and other parts of South
America. Fair play to her- I couldn't imagine trying to travel long distances on the hills around here with the wind or out on the open plains where very little changes mile after mile. Anyway she gave me plenty tips along with those from Graham and Magda who'd hared around the trek a few weeks earlier. Having purchased a weeks food and a cooking stove I was off that afternoon on me tod. The bus ride there was really beautiful and I was really looking forward to the trek and set off at the bus stop as soon as I worked out which direction I was supposed to go.This only took ten minutes so things boded? well for the next 100 km. The weather was lovely for about one hour and when it started to drizzle I mistook it for a passing shower (which they all are only some pass slower than others😊 As a result my idea to forego my wet wear turned out to be mistake so I ended up setting up tent like a drowned rat.
Having spent the previous few weeks being very sociable I had a vague notion of doing this trek as much on
my own as possible so I spent the first few nights chilling (literally) in my tent. To overcome the chill I tried out my new camping stove inside the tent. This is a high risk activity- you have to account for the rough ground - the fact that the stove and whatever I was boiling in my pot was an inherently unstable stack and add the fact that the tent was blown flat at regular intervals. I was amazed at the resilience of the tent poles and their ability to right tent - at least I was until one of them cracked,but even still! Anyhow cooking involved keeping an ear out for the gusts blowing down the mountain,one hand on the pot and the other on the knob to turn of the gas. This constant state of alertness was tempered somewhat by the carbon monoxide so by the time the food had been eaten the tent had been warmed and the occupant anaesthetised I was ready to brave the night in my light weight sleeping bag with all my clothes on.
The next leg from serano to dickson kicked off nice and early . There was a symbol on the
map indicating wind (here be wind - must be dead good forcasters here that you can print the weather on a map)and a rise up to a higher level and they weren't kidding. By the time i reached the top of the path I was able to lean with my 20kg pack at an angle of more than 60 degrees into the wind . A few times I had to hit the deck to avoid being blown over the side which would have been a long roll down to the lake. The scenery was amazing despite the overcast conditions. The rest of the trek passed through forests,across plains at the feet of mountains,along rivers and then up into mountains. The highlight was the trek up the John Gardner pass.As I approached it I could see other trekkers and I figured they must have been using ropes it looked so steep. I was praying it wasn't my route but no such luck! I needed all the breaks i took on the way up and there were many but the sense of achievement on reaching the top was great and the reward after walking along the top for a bit was having
the view of the Grey Glacier open up in front of me. It was amazing - I hadn't imagined such a sea of ice (and this is only a fraction of the Chilean ice field of which it is part). The wind at the top of the pass attempted to flap you cheeks off and whipped the moisture from your eyes while trying to throw you all over the place. The trek continued for a few days by which time I managed to meet up with several trekkers most evenings and after a sedate few beers around the tent one evening the night at the next refugio gout out of hand and had me leaving the warmth of the refugio late in the evening , hopping my pole of a rock after tripping over a low bush in the pitch dark and eventually finding my tent by falling into it. The only light source i seem to have found was the camera so some dodgy photos resulted - what a handsom fella 😊 The next days trek to a point up towards the actual Torres was a rough one! I managed to crawl out of my tent and start at
1.30 and it took til 7 to reach the campsite by which time all the good spots had gone and I ended up setting up tent on a slope of gravel and roots so the night was spent slipping down my sleeping tent into one corner of the tent. Yet one more reason to utter never again- will I ever learn!
The idea of the towers is to set out in the middle of the night to watch the sunrise light them up but I was in no fit state so i didn't bother which was just as well as i met people who did do this who reported that they were hidden in cloud so yet again lazy al lucked out. They were lovely in the afternoon 😊
A few days were spent in Puerto Natales recovering and waiting for the only bus to Santiago in Chile at a hostel -Alma Gaucho- of a a gaucho with an Irish name- Johnny Callahan. I must find the words for his song ' I love wine'- Me gusto Vino which he played for us one night.
The next stop was santiago for a few days and then Quito and the Galapagos
- hoping to catch upwith myself one day 😊
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Els
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looks amazing....
....the ice fields - not you! :) Can't wait to see photos from Galapodos (?) but not the shark v seal ones :( Spring has sprung over here. Soon be another birthday for you and Jan; we'll celebrate with you in mind, but will miss the Carrigaline party venue. Hugs xx