13th Feb 2015
I GOT A WHOLE PACKET OF BLACK WINE GUMS !!!
It was a lovely morning when I woke up – Light cloud and
no wind at all. By just after 8 am I was
heading towards the start of the walk to Mirador Las Torres de Paine, right at
the base of the towers, and about as close as you can get without crampons and
all that stuff !! I passed a gaucho and
his mate getting the horses sorted for the day, wearing their Patagonian berets
pulled down to a peak at the front. Then
it was off towards the Hotel Las Torres where I bought another bottle of water
from the little store, just in case – After all, it is written as a 4 ½ hour
hike one way, so I was kind of planning about 10 hours total for me.
It starts out relatively flat – And that was about the
last of any flat ground I was to see all day !! After crossing the first couple
of bridges, you start climbing – And it doesn’t stop all day !! An hour into the hike and there is a sIgn
suggesting you book a horse rIde back as you will be so tired – Me on a horse
? I don’t think so`- I would be even
more sore than walking, and it would be far more dangerous both for the horse
and myself !! The trail is incredibly
narrow in places, and is just part of a gravel side to a mountain – You don’t
want to step to the
right or you would go all the way to the bottom ! Quickly !
After going up hill for about an hour, suddenly the trail goes all the
way down hill again – Grrrr – I have spent all that time going up, now I am
going to have to do it again !!! It goes
down hill all the way into Refugio y campamento Chileno – A place where lots of
back packers camp, and there are some basic amenities for them. Looks a bit like a Hobbit town, with little
round tents of varying descriptions hiding amongst the trees. Some are almost on the trail itself and you
have to be careful not to trip over guy ropes sometimes !
From Chileno the trail starts to climb again, crossing
ice cold rivers on rickety little wooden bridges, and then climbing up first
through trees, and then onto an incredibly rocky trail that is really just
scree, and the guides have just stuck orange poles in it as a rough guide – But
basically you are just scrambling over rocks.
Not easy. I was now 4 hours into
my hike, and as I started to approach the summit (one never seems to reach it
!!), I took a few photos of the Torres as they
started to come into view, just
in case I didn’t make it to the top ! I
needn’t have worried – some 4 hours and 10 minutes after leaving the camp site,
I got to the top and saw the Torres del Paine in their full glory, over the ice
blue lake below. And to get there on a
day with a clear blue sky just made it perfect – Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. And the self-satisfaction you get from
getting yourself all the way up there is immense – Well, it is for me, anyway
!! After finding someone to take a photo
of me to prove I had done it, I sat down, soaked it all up, and ate my soggy
rolls for lunch. Perfect – Apart from
the fact that the extra bottle of water I had picked up at the little shop as I
left was “con gas”, not “sin gas”, and when I opened it it promptly spurted
everywhere and soaked me ! I was too
pooped to care !!
I spent about 45 minutes at the top just soaking it all up,
like the others up there. Knowing you
will probably never return always makes it that much more special. I tried a couple of panorama shots – Never
done them before – and I have left one of them full size just to give you an
idea of the full view. Then I turned to
head downhill, and smile at all the poor buggers who were still struggling up
the hill !! My knees were not enjoying
the journey down, but somehow I kept going.
The altitude markers only show a height of 880 metres, but with all the
ups and downs, we probably climbed more like 3000 metres, because we kept going
down, and then up again !!
The rocky trail was hard work – In several places you are
almost on your hands and knees trying to get across the boulders. Hard work.
Eventually the steepest and roughest part was out of the way, and it was
just “normal” hard work !! Back down
through the tents in Chileno, with lots of people now sitting beside the river
enjoying the sunshine – Still not a cloud in the sky. Horses were waiting to take “tired people”
back down the hill – I kept well clear of them so they couldn’t kick me !! Then it was more up and down until
eventually I came out on the flat at the bottom of the mountain at about 4 pm,
and it was another 30 minutes back to the camp site, so about 8 ½ hours Troopie
to Troopie. Not bad considering they
reckon it is a 9 hour hike from the hotel, and the camp site is about 1 km past
the hotel – So about 20 kms all together.
I must be getting a little fitter because I certainly felt a lot better
than I did after the hikes last week, although I was (and am) still well and
truly buggered !! But what a hike, and
what a day. After so long of dreaming
about it, I have now seen the Torres del Paine in all their glory, and it was
fantastic.
After a cold beer (which didn’t touch the sides), I
staggered down to the shower block ready for a cold shower – I mean, it is a
free National Park camp site ! But when
I turned the shower on, the water came out hot !!! Oh, bliss – I think I was in there just
letting the water hit me for about 10 minutes before I moved !!
Will chat with the two lads from NSW once they get back
form their outing for the day – They airfreighted their bike from Aus into
Buenos Aires, so are just starting their trip, and not planning on going all
the way north. There are also 4 Dutch girls in between us, and they have just
been here two days, having flown in to Punta Arenas and rented a Wicked camper
van. Apparently on their first night in
Punta Arenas the wind was so bad they couldn’t pitch their tent, so all 4 of
them had to sleep in the van !! This
wind sure causes fun round here !
I am going to drive right through the park tomorrow to
the end of Lago Grey. I may even take a
bot trip on the lake as several friends have said it is worthwhile – Geoff and
Wendy Longshaw in Perth for one (two ?).
There are also several shorter hikes around the end of Lago Grey which I
might try.
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