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| Hello Puerto Natales! |
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| Carpark with a view. |
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| Look at those clouds! |
So let's go back to Christmas time, the 21st of December to be exact. I had just found a fantastic deal for a bus from Castro in Chiloe to Punto Arenas - but it would also turn out to be the longest bus journey I have ever taken, surpassing even the marathon 26 hours from Ho Chi Mihn City to Hue back in 2011. This one was a mammoth 2,300kms and 37 hours hours - with a stop for dinner and one for lunch the next day. I got on the bus at 7am on Monday the 21st of December, content with finding a hiking partner for the Torres in the German girl I met in Chiloe, but little did I know that I would also join forces with two other awesome people for the next 3 and a half weeks. Rob from Alaska, Alicia from (the German speaking part of) Switzerland, and along with Stephie from Stuttgart and myself, we made a pretty awesome team. After sitting down on the bus, Rob had the seat behind me and Stephie one back and was sitting next to Alicia - we started talking to each other immediately, and just hit it off, with none of the usually travellers fake interest. Neither I nor Steph had a tent, and the others did - but we liked them for their personalities really. The bus trip was made much easier having these people along to share it with, and didn't seem that long, and none of them snored so we had found good hiking buddies. The man next to me, however, snored like a runaway 2-stroke chainsaw on speed.
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| Absolutely stunning landscapes down here! |
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| Puerto Natales - cold and windy but very beautiful. |
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| Bird life around the Torres. |
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| Bird life around the Torres. |
Getting to Punta Arenas, we had to get another bus (this one only 3 hours) to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the Torres National Park. Along the way, we were quite lucky and saw some of the rarer local wildlife - Guanacos and Rheas. The Guanaco (which comes from the Quechua language in South America) is in the camel family but look much more like llamas, and are found in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The Rhea is a flightless bird related to emus and ostriches, and are very hard to spot amongst the scrub in a bus whizzing along the road. No pictures unfortunately, but I really did see them! We had one day of preparing in town before heading out on the 5 day 'W' trek. Sleeping bags to be renting, mats, last minute things and of course the shopping for what we would eat for the next five days. We did the groceries at the end of the day, just before dinner, as we knew it would be the toughest thing to do all day - and to make it worse, it was the 23rd of December, and the 24th is the day celebrated here for Christmas (not the 25th like in Australia), so it was normal Chilean slow service in supermarkets combined with festival time stocking up. Nightmare! Luckily my shopping/tent buddy was organised and we got it all sorted out fairly quickly. Tomorrow was the big day, and so after dinner, the packing (and re-packing) was the last thing to do... this took hours, and we didn't get to bed till 2am.
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| Leaning into the wind at Grey Glacier. |
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| The view from the ferry. |
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| Family day out at the lake. |
Fresh faced (more or less) we got on the bus to the Torres National Park, paid for the park entry of 17,000pesos ($35), booked our campsites for the next five days, then jumped back on the bus to the ferry port. The Ferry would take us to the start of the 'W' trek - there are many ways of doing it, and you can even do the 'O' trek (because after 10 days all you can say is 'ooooooooohhhhh'), but we decided to go from West to East. The ferry trip was another 15,000 pesos ($30) for a 30 minute trip to the other end of the lake, which I thought was a bit steep, but hey, what are you gonna do, swim? We enjoyed it though, a bit windy and the mountains were half covered by clouds, but still a nice little trip. Reaching the other side there is a hotel and the last piece of civilization that we would see for the next few days. We also saw the casualties of the trek - tired, hagged and and half-starved trekkers who 5 days ago looked just like us, fresh and hopeful. We won't look that bad. We're young and fit (and I had given up smoking 3 weeks ago just for this!), we'd stick together and help each other out and the weather would be fine. Ah well, at least we were positive! We did 11kms on day 1, and I was tired already. We did stop just over half way to see the Grey Glacier. I've seen a few glaciers in my day (2 in New Zealand), but this was still something to behold. The wind on the other hand was more impressive - it was blowing so hard that you could (and we did) lean right into it at nearly a 45 degree angle and not fall over! I was told that winds here get up to 220kph, and at this point I became a believer.
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| Enjoying the view of Glacier Grey. |
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| Cute little bird at Camp Grey in the National Park. |
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| A little mouse out for a bit of sun. |
Camp was great, if only because we could dump the 'beasts' that had attached themselves to our back and were slowly sapping our strength. We set up tent, and went for a (much lighter) walk to get closer to this glacier. The weather in Patagonia can change, and often does, every five minutes, and this was the case today - wind, rain, followed by a glorious bit of sunshine and a rainbow. We were alone, and just sat (in the rain then sunshine) enjoying the view, and were very lucky to see a small mouse peek out from behind the rocks - if you are quiet and still, it's amazing what you can see! Back at camp, we prepared our Christmas Eve dinner of salmon and 2 litres of wine... and a bottle of champagne that I had bought in town and carried all the way just for this day. They called me crazy, it will be heavy and warm by the time we get there - nobody complained when the cork was popped and the bubbly was being poured around - Merry Christmas! The first day was over, we'd survived it and felt very confident about the next four days. Oh how innocent we were! We went to bed in a great mood, although with slightly wobbly legs and slept like babies, ready for tomorrow.
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| Young and fresh-faced - Day 1 and our first (cloudy) view of the Torres. |
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| Grey Glacier. |
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| Getting into Camp Italiano. |
Day 2 on the trail was a little tougher, and something nobody was prepared for, not even the rangers in the park. It was drizzling when we set out from Camp Grey, but our spirits were up and we weren't feeling too bad after the wine and champagne celebration from last night - it was Christmas!! We retraced the 11km back to Salto Grande, the starting point and were we disembarked from the ferry the day before, and stopped for lunch at 2pm already wet and tired. It had been raining non-stop since setting out, and over lunch we debated whether to camp here or to keep going and to Camp Italiano. The vote came in to continue as we didn't like where we were, far too many people and not very pretty, and we figured that the rain would stop. The rain stopped alright - it turned into a cold and damp snow which went through the afternoon and into the night. This night stands out in my mind, along with the other people who were at Camp Italiano that day - it is now mentioned as 'The Night In Italiano' by it's survivors, and we now share a kinship that you just can't fake. I thought I was going to die I was that cold - I could barely get changed out of my soaking soaks for the shaking. Huddled in the tent, Rob and I shared chocolate and almonds (as cooking was out of the question), trying to stay cheery. It's said that just before you drift off into a hyperaemia death-sleep, your body gives up and stops shaking - so shaking as I was, I knew I was safe. The shaking did stop eventually, but at this point I could feel my feet (just) and went to sleep... only to wake up and need the facilities. It was still snowing when I stumbled out of the tent, started shaking all over again and use the nearest tree, not caring where I went as there was no way in hell I was walking anyway in that weather (yes, still snowing). Rob and I became close that night. Real close. Spooning is normally something a couple do when they are in love and can't bear to sleep facing opposite directions - this however was two grown men that thought they would die if we didn't. Luckily the weather for Day 3 was much better - but I will have to leave the rest of this story for the next entry!
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| Camp Italiano - survived! |
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MyUncleTravellingMatt. December 2015.
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