0209 Las Torres back to Puerto Natales

17^th Feb 2015

Woke up to find that today was a good day to be leaving Nacional Parque Torres del Paine. It was very overcast, low cloud, was raining a little, and it was cold.  Looking up at the little bit of the mountains that were visible, there was a good dusting of fresh snow quite low down.  I have seen what I needed to see, walked more than I thought I could, and thoroughly enjoyed my visit.  Even the winds, although very annoying, are just part and parcel of the Pategonian experience.  And I have left enough undone that should I ever have the luck to be able to visit here again, I ould not have to do the same things again.  So a quick pack up and breakfast, (no bananas for breakfast today – Supplies are running low after 6 days !) and I headed out of the park – I WILL be glad to see the back of these very corrugated dirt roads !!

0208 Pehoe back to Las Torres

16^th Feb 2015 

Last night I was sitting over at the camp office with several other people using the wifi, and a fox trots up, not 20 metres from us, does a No 2 right in front of us on the grass, then sits down and looks at us for about 5 minutes as if to say “What are you lot looking at ?”, before wandering off nonchalantly into the scrub behind us.  Naturally I had no camera, so you will just have to take my word for it, but none of us could believe it.

When I got up at 7.30 am the sun was just appearing over the hills to the east, and slowly lighting up the Cuernos del Paine and the big Cerro Paine Grande to the west – Just a beautiful start to the day.

0207 Lago Grey to Pehoe

15^th Feb 2015

Well that was like being at sea last night – I have never rocked and rolled so much in a car before.  I was awake most of the night because is seemed the car would tip over, it was rocking that much.  I should have parked more head on into the wind, but the car park was limited, and I had thought that nestled up beside Steve and Gilly’s big truck I was better off.  Not so !  And talking to Steve this morning, they hadn’t fared much better !  Ho hum, the joys of Patagonia.  So I was up, dressed, ablated, breakfasted and on my way by about 8.30 am – The wind was still so strong that I could hardly stand at the back of the van to make my breakfast – The cornflakes were blowing away !  And when I got up in the morning, not only had my little plastic footstool blown about 100 yards into the scrub, but even the toilet, which is not that light, had blown about 10 metres from the car and was resting against a bush !!  So as soon as I could I headed round to Hotel Lago Grey, only about 500 metres down the road, to try and get some shelter from the howling and non stop wind blowing off the Grey Glacier and down the valley. 

0206 Torres del Paine to Lago Grey

14^th Feb 2015 

What a dramatic change in the weather  from yesterday – Patagonia strikes again ! Grey, overcast – You couldn’t even see the Torres behind the camp site - See photo on left.  Photo below is from yesterday.  Soooo lucky to have done the hike up to Torres yesterday.  But that was OK – I had other plans for today, and after eggs for breakfast (no (recognisable) bacon in this part of the world unfortunately -  And giving some of my old tourist info to the Dutch girls, I set off up the road to head to the end of the park at Lago Grey. On the way out of the camp site I saw the French lady I had met briefly yesterday on the way up the mountain – She was standing by the road so I pulled over to say Hi.  Turned out she was waiting for a bus to take her up through the park, so I said I would give her a lift – As long as she could wait 10 minutes because I had just realised that, along with the old tourist info,  I had given the Dutch girls my current map of the park, so I had to go back to get it.  When I got back to the camp site, I collected my park map, and then Dwayne and Jerry came over (the NSW guys on bikes) and we had a bit of a yarn, so by the time I got going again it was half an hour later.  But the French lady was still there, so I picked her up, her name is Eva, I found out, and we headed off up the dirt road through the park.

0205 Hiking to Torres del Paine

13^th 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. 

0204 Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine NP

12^th Feb 2015

Odd little camp site – Only room for 3 cars, so everyone very squished in –Mostly back packers though.  Apart from a Chilean family next to me from Santiago who were towing a small caravan Dad Julio had made himself.  Had a chat to them, and Julio very kindly gave me a bottle of my favourite local merlot – Gato Negro ! Very nice of them.  They have driven down, but are going to take a ferry back up through the islands from Punto Arenas to Puerto Montt – 3 days on the ferry – Should be fun, and rather like the Alaskan Marine Highway, I would think, travelling up through all the islands in SW Chile. 

0203 Perito Moreno Glacier Argentina to Puerto Natales Chile

11^th Feb 2015

Interesting day – A bit of everything really – Except warmth !!  I must still be recovering from all my hiking over the last few days, because it was 9 am before my eyes even opened !!  And it was raining – And blowing, of course. Rain wasn’t too heavy, but it did mean I had to jiggle my normal pack up to make sure I got everything in without either my stuff or me getting too wet ! After 9 months on the road, practice makes perfect, and it all got done, and by just before 10 am I was back on that dirt road, headed back towards El Calafate.  Boy, am I get sick of dirt roads, and the bad corrugations they always seem to have !  Last night I had to spend an hour or so replacing screws that had fallen out of various places, vibrated loose over the recent pounding over the dirt roads.  There are still a few more that I cannot reach easily – They will have to wait till I have some time in one place, and some fine (and wind-less) weather.