We are now back from going \"local\" in the wilderness of Patagonia so have time
to resume diary entries and break the radio silence of the last week or so.
The last entry we were in Puerto Madryn seeing the penguins. The day after that
we had a more restful day catching up with emails, taking time over lunch and
then catching the bus back down to Trelew ready for our flight down to Ushuaia.
We arrived in Trelew with a couple of hours to spare before our flight so
thought we would have a meander around town for a while. Alas this was not to
be. The town was settled by the Welsh and in true Welsh and one could perhaps
say Willis (as in the Trevor variety) style most of the town was shut for early
closing. It seems this is where Trev gets his habits from ! [seems a bit harsh - Trev]
Anyway, we found a nice cafe to have a drink at and passed the time researching
Ushuaia. The flight down there was great, if a little queasy on landing. We
landed late in the afternoon and the views as we were coming down at what
seemed like an excessively steep rate towards the sea, were spectacular. I
managed to look out of the window for once, well I was feeling sick anyway, so
thought I might as well take note of the views. The mountains and whole area was
beautiful. I didnīt continue to look out of the window though as we had seen
how relatively short the runway was from the air and given that the wheels
must have almost been dragging in the sea as we came into land it was all
a bit hazardous.
The pilot though obviously had done it once or twice before and stopped us well
short of the end of the runway, I had already checked out the lifebelt
situation and the emergency exits and was cursing my short sightedness of not
wearing my swimming costume as well !
It took an age to get through and get our baggage, finally arriving in the town
at about 10pm. We headed for the tourist info to find a hostel and ended up
staying in a very bizarre place. It was like rooms tagged onto the back of
someones house. The room was clean enough though and it was late so we crashed.
We were yet to discover the curious arrangement, that although it was a double
room, our room lead through to three others ! Effectively it was like a
corridor. I had visions of us waking up and saying hello to the world as they
passed through in the morning on the way to the shower. We decided that we
would move on in the morning and find a more hostel like place. We duly ate our
brekkie in the morning though and then made a hasty retreat.
We trotted along and bumped into another Trevor, an english teacher, who was
also looking for a hostel. We settled on El Jardin, although it was dorm rooms
which wasnīt ideal it had a nice feel to it and some other Canadians, Aussies
and Brits there. Trev was relieved to know that I would have other people to
chatter to ! [too right! :-) - Trev] We dumped our bags and headed straight out to see
about going to the Antarctic and then about the walks in the National Park. After
discovering that the trip to Antarctic takes at least 9 to 11 days and costs about US$2500
per person, we gave this up as a separate holiday idea, as this was our budget
for the rest of our travels almost !
So instead we trotted along to the bus stops to
head out into the park to do the coastal walk. Some lovely scenery there and
nice to be back out using our limbs after the car journeys in Puerto Madryn and
the hot city air before. After the coastal walk we meandered along the peat bog
walks as well which was grand before heading back to catch the bus back. We
were quite pooped as it had been a warm day. Out for dinner and then a quick
chat with the Canadian girl there, you will note my distinct lack of memory for
names throughout. She had done the walk we wanted to do the next day so we
chatted about that for a while and then caught up with her travelling tales as
well. Nice to be able to converse easily for once.
Unfortunately during the night Trev wasnīt very well belly wise and by the
morning I was feeling a little sweaty and sick as well. Still we got up for
brekkie and toddled off to get the bus back to the park. The walk we were going
to do was 10Km, 5km up and 5 back. The grading of it was difficulty high and as
we set off we began to understand why. Trev was still suffering and even before
I headed upwards I was dripping with sweat. Clearly something a miss with us.
Still we had given ourselves a challenge and so up we went and up and up and
up. It was almost a vertical climb through woodland to begin with until we
cleared the tree line. We were then given a restbite of flatter bog and
heathland, before making the final ascent to the peak to get the views over
Ushuaia. The last and steepest part was up loose shale - which was grim. It was
rather windy and by now my legs felt like they were made of lead. Still we met
a couple of English guys coming down who said it was worth it. So on we went
and it was superb when we got there. The views were fantastic. The hike down
didnīt seem as short as it possibly might of done. We stopped to fill our water
in a stream and then were beginning to dream of a nice cuppa at the cafe before
catching our bus. It was worth doing but with both of us feeling a bit under
the weather it took all the energy we had. We had a nice dinner that evening to
refuel and even managed to find some veggies to have as well - so I was a happy
girlie.
Early the next morning it was bus time again - oh goodie !! Another 11 hour
trip up to Puerto Natales to get ready to go into the Torres Del Paine National
Park. We passed the bus journey listening to tunes and sleeping. We arrived in
Puerto Natales late afternoon and found a nice hostel to stay at. Headed into
town to book our trip into the park and reserve our refugios in the park as
well as they get busy at this time of year. We decided to have 2 nights and 3
days in the park and not do the final days walking up to Glaciar Gray. The
reason being is that we want to do an Ice Hike on the Moreno Glacier, a much
bigger one in El Calafate and our original itinerary hadnīt really left us much
time for that. This still gave us a lot of time for walking though and meant we
would see Torres as well as the valley Frances in the middle of the infamous W
trail.
Early the next morning we hopped on the bus and headed out to the park. The
views from the bus were amazing and we were keen to get out into the
spectacular scenery. We had to transfer from our coach into a mini bus for the
last half an hour of our journey and got chatting to a smashing English couple.
They were doing the full circuit, hiking and camping for 9 days. We felt
amateurish for our 3 days but we had a good few giggles which passed the
journey away. We had managed to leave some of our stuff at our hostel back in
Puerto Natales, but other than that we had our full packs on, which seemed far
heavier than we were hoping. We donned them and then headed to the loos before
setting off. While Trev was waiting for me, he got chatting to a smashing
Canadian couple who had just completed the circuit. They gave us a good few
tips and then passed onto us their walking sticks that they had found and used.
We took them not knowing if they would be an asset or not and headed off. The
sticks proved to be very handy!
The first part of the walk up to the refugio seemed like hard work as we were still
feeling the effects of our walk in Ushuaia [especially me - Trev]. But we soon
offloaded our packs and headed off up the trail to see Torres. Words canīt
really describe what we saw, the scenery was amazing, I hope the piccies will
reflect at least some of it. The last part of the walk was scrambling up
boulders which was great fun and didnīt seem like such hard work. We spent a
while at the top, hoping the cloud would clear as we had seen it clear from the
road earlier. Sadly it was not to be, well not until we were down at our
refugio late in the day and it cleared for the final part of daylight - damn
it !!
As we cooked our dinner there at night we met a couple of German girls who were
also cooking. The refugio was full of a lot of Americans who were obviously
there doing it in style. They looked at us with our boiled rice and gubbins and
said \"isnīt that neat\". Not patronising at all I can tell you. Anyway, we
supplemented it with a beer - which helped it go down easier !
The next day we headed off to our next refugio. The walk took in the views of
the lake as well as the mountains and entailed some rather hazardous river
crossings as well. Must get better at balancing with a pack on ! Anyway,
remained mostly dry and although the walk wasnīt as challenging as the first
day it was nice to arrive at the refugio and have some time to relax and
unwind. At this one more people were on the budget lifestyle. We saw the same
German girls as well as 3 more Germans. As well as a nice American Dad and
Daughter Duo and a fun Aussie as well. We gained lots of info from their
stories and then crashed early as the next day involved a 5am start, to do the
hike we wanted to do and get to the catarmaran for 6:30pm to get back to Puerto
Natales.
Trev and I set off under torchlight at about 5:15am, it was a little hairy in
places as we had some rivers to cross in the dark, but the main difficulty was
finding and remaining on the path ! [I had the only decent torch so was in the lead
calling back warnings like log!, rock! etc. unfortunately I missed the odd one which
became a topic for a certain amount of īdiscussionī :-) Trev] We reached our target
though of getting to
the next campsite in 2 hours. From here we headed up the valley to see the
spectacular views of glaciers and huge peaks. This again involved clambering up
some boulders with our packs on. Not long into our walk we were caught up by
and Australian couple, someone and Will. They were cracking, in their fifties
and the lady treated us like her kids. At the first viewpoint she gave us some
dairy milk ! The first choccie we had since leaving the UK. Then at the top she
gave us a cookie as well. We tried to refuse, but when you have been living on
crackers and jam for brekkie and lunch, chocolate and biccies was too good to
pass up ! We had a great natter with them at the top as we waited for once
again the clouds to clear. Fortunately it did so many snaps later we started
our descent. It was a great walk and although my knees were killing me from the
descent we headed off on the next 2 hour section of the walk to get to the
boat.
After 11 hours of walking we arrived and had time to feast up on a yummy egg
sarnie and sit and relax with a coke. Our limbs and feet were throbbing but it
had been a truly exhilarating day and we were sad to say goodbye to our sticks
as well as to the superb scenery that we had been in for the last 3 days. A
truly fab experience !
We arrived back in Puerto Natales in time to shower and then sleep. We had
already booked our tickets for the bus to El Calafate today so we just relaxed
and slept.
Well, that just about brings us up to date. We are now in El Calafate ready for
our trip to the Moreno Glacier and our hike on the ice there, something Trev
and I are both really looking forward to.