Torres Del Paine

Hi everyone hope you are all well. We have completed our walk around the 146km circuit of Torres Del Paine and are now about to start our journey to Macchu Picchu from Lima airport. Chile was a little cooler than it is here in Peru. 

Punta Arenas is the main or only city that connects Santiago with this area of Chile via aeroplane. It's in the Antartic region of Chile. The American airbase at Tiere Del Feugo on the tip of Chile is only a short distance away. Torres Del Paine was then a little further north in the Magellanas region, just a 5 hour and two bus ride away! The scenery on the journey was magnificent with wide open plains and ragged tall mountains penning everything in around the edges. Our arrival in the national park was met with a change in weather conditions from sunny, arid flat grassy plain to stark black volcanic stone and of course the ever present rain drops. The first evenings walk was a short one into what later we would describe as a little windy gale. Arriving at Campamento Carrettas round 8pm. Thankfully in the morning the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Our first view was as you see below.

The day turned out to be hot and with our packs at their heaviest for this journey we were quite warm. The evening before we had discovered that our schedule needed a little amending as one of the campsites had been closed due to deteriorating conditions. So our first full days walk was going to be approximately double the intended distance. 

View from our first full days walk, near Lago Pehoe

Campamento Italiano the revised end point for the days walk was a little scruffy with the usual class of composting toilets however they did have a flushing system! Sarah thinks they're great! I have to agree with her. After a day's use in a campsite they do tend to be something you don't look forward to using. As we had done double distance the day before we stayed at Campamento Intaliano for two nights and walked up to Mirador Britanico and back during the day. Views were tremendouse with glaciers to our left. One interesting aspect of sleeping near a glacier is the loud cracking and groaning that occurs regularly throughout the day and night. At first you wonder if it's going to break apart and come crashing down the mountain perhaps taking out the surrounding area where you're staying but after a while you become accustomed to the loud intermittent breaking sound. 

View back down the valley to our camp site. As viewed from the trail up to Mirrador Britanico

This is a little artistic work on my part looking at the glacier and mountain from Campamento Italiano

On waking morning three we found ourselves in the middle of a water bath. Although there were many other people worse off than us it was still a shocker to find your tent taking in water. Throughout the night the rain had been pouring.  As we were under the shelter of trees it had not been so bad. However,  the water was running through the site like a fresh river and the rain poured down throughout the rest of the day, in torrents. So we packed up wet sleeping bags and just about wet everything and walked for the day with downcast thoughts of an up and coming wet nights sleep. So on arrival at Refugio Ceurnos we took the 'executive' decision to have a bed and attempt to dry our gear. Good job we arrived early afternoon as the place later got packed out with a bun fight for warm positions near the stoves for drying clothes etc. The place looked worse than a chinese laundrette. 

By morning things had improved a little and some stuff had dried out but not completely. We moved on and as the day progressed the weather improved somewhat. By the time we arrived at Los Torres we managed to hang our gear out across trees and benches for a few hours and dry out the rest. 

Sunset at Los Torres

It was later in the evening when the wind started to blow and the rain came that we noticed our trusty Hilleberg (that's the tent) had developed a drip at the front. This was soon followed by a second one. So with two of our pans underneath to catch the drips and the wind howling outside we slept a fitful night. The following day we left the tent and bags while we walked up to the definitive view of Torres Del Paine, the three towers. 

Inspiring views of the Torres Del Paine rock towers from Mirador Los Torres

The images probably don't do it justice but if you like majestic scenery this is truly it!

And the views not to bad on the way down too

The two following days were easier and somewhat dryer. You never really escape the wind and rain here it's just part of every day's experience. Along the way we have seen (lookup birds name Cocobula), rabbit or hare, fox's barking and there clubs yapping, alpaca lama things Gouncho, and at a distance condors plus many others that I either don't know the name of or didn't recognise. 

Perhaps the nicest place in terms of friendliness and location was Refugio Dickinson with Glacier Dickson behind it and across the lake. We had a pleasant night and woke up to snow falling with the surrounding mountains starting to look like frosted cakes. 

Camping at Refugio Dickson and waking up to sugar frosted, icy mountains

The next two days were all up hill. Accending finally to the John Gardner Pass high above the Central Patagonian Ice Field. The day we crossed the pass, which is the highest point on the trail the wind was doing its best. At points on the way up we were both blown over several times. In the pass itself the wind easily topped 100km per hour but I am sure you could add an extra 20% on that and it still may be a conservative guess. 

Paso John Gardner

A torrid looking Sarah and Dave at the pass. We didn't hang about for to long the wind was at its strongest here

Just over the top the snow deepened and remained above knee height for a good part of the descent.  Following this we slipped down a muddy none existent trail until making the camp site at Paso. Dave got the lions share of the mud all over himself after slipping and sliding flat on his back or side down the muddy mountainside on three of four occasions. Campamento Paso was perched on the side of the mountain directly above the Grey Glacier providing extensive views over the vast ice sheet as it makes its way down into Lago Grey. 

Dusk over Glacier Grey

The following day we made our way down to Refugio Grey passing the glacial morain on the way

Three nights left and this one did its best to destroy the tent. We lost a guide rope and the tent zipper was pulled so much it has had a problem since remaining knitted together. The local animal life also took shelter and sustanance in the tent on several nights eating there way through several dry bags even when we had put them inside our backpacks. So when we get to the U.S. we'll have to do some repairs and replacements. 

Just letting you know we are both OK

We're back in one piece after a very wet and windy two weeks walking in the wilds of Chile. We start our travel to Peru in 5 hours from now, so we'll blog in the next 48 hours and let you know what we've been upto. 

But for now have a look at this short video of our +100km / hour windy camping!

We are in Chile and just about to start the Torres Del Paine Trek

Just letting you know we safely crossed the international date line so we landed in Chile before we took off from Auckland! How strange is that. Sarah forgot to change the date on her watch, so for 24 hours we both thought it was a day later than it real was. How easily you get confused when you start to get older...........

In about an hour we jump on the bus to Puerto Natales and then another to Torres Del Paine National Park. We are walking for 2 weeks so we will have no contact at all. Hope to be back in touch on 19th March. 

The language is a little harder here it took us about 15 mins yesterday to buy the bus tickets as no one speaks English so hand gestures and broken Spanish had to suffice. It's all fun. 

Hope you all keep well. Speak or email / blog in 2 weeks time.

Love Sarah & Dave

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Auckland and off to Chile

Our last few days in NZ were spent in Auckland. The only real big city in NZ. The first full day being the best as Dave got his wish to watch the final film in the Hobbit series here in NZ. We had looked earlier in the trip but nowhere was showing it so he didn't think he'd get the chance but luck would have it that one cinema out of Auckland City had it on. It also gave us a chance to further explore surrounding areas of the city. In the evening we were fortunate to be in town for the end of Chinese New Year celebtations. Lots and lots of Asian people live in Auckland. So we sat in Albert Park at 10:30pm for the fireworks display from the Sky Tower. 

Gung Hai Fat Choi!

(Happy New Year in Chinese)

View of the Fireworks from Albert Park and the Chinese Latern Festival

Seems you just can't get away from bingo - even in NZ

We ate Dunking Doughnuts to just help pass the time! Do you like Daves new hat? Not quite the Statue of Liberty! 

The following day we went up the Sky Tower (tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, probably!)

We returned in the evening as well. This is from the bottom up

The Kepler Track

Another of New Zealand's Great Walks this time in Fjordland, down on the south west coast. We said earlier the Naked Bus let us down so we had to get another on the spot. Thankfully the local tourist info site were very helpful. Queenstown was our hub to gain access to the fjords and wow what a busy place. Pretty laid back though. 

The journey through to Te Anau from Queenstown takes around 2.5 hours, the buses don't travel so fast here and the roads are single lane. Our first days walk had us stop by the lake at Brod Bay. We seem to have spent many nights either next to the sea or a lake! The following day was supposed to be a stiff walk upwards all day but without walking fast we got to the hut around lunch time. So in the end it was an easy one. 

First nights camp at Brod Bay

I took a walk out in the afternoon to the local cave network and managed to get quite deep down. Thankfully my light held out as I thought after about 20 mins of moving further inside the cave it would be quite scary if I had no light to navigate back by. Sarah sat in Luxmore Hut admiring the view from the warmth of the hut and reading and left me free on the mountain so I wandered off making my own way around the mountain top. In the end I climbed to the top of little Mt Luxmore and enjoyed the views and the wind. 

Images from Mt Luxmore

The following day was a complete white out. This was a real shame as we should of had expansive views across the fjords. Instead visibility was down to about 10 metres, see pictures below. Later in the day around 12 noon the mist and cloud cleared somewhat and we found ourselves walking in 'Mordor' in the steps of Frodo Baggins. 

Walking through Mordor with Mt. Doom in the background

The image below probably doesn't show it but on either side it's a steep drop of hundreds of metres and the wind was blowing like nobody's business. 

Windy Wet and only a thin trail to walk on with visibility down to 10m ..........

By the evening we had come a good distance down again and near the campsite I found this waterfall, running straight off the glacier. 

Glacial melt water, you need to be brave to bathe in this one

Early morning and a gap in the beach trees, frost on the ground and tent

Close to the end. The Iris Burn River

Finished the walk a day early and headed for the car park hoping a bus would arrive but a friendly American girl we had spoken to earlier offered us a ride. Saved us a load of hassle. 

Once we had returned to Te Anau I saw this fella strolling around. Just like cats as soon as I took this picture he turned his back to me and couldn't of cared less.