After a great time in South Argentina, and after chatting to quite a few people we decided to head to Chile for a short while and then hop back and forth between both Argentina and Chile. When we arrived in Puerte Natales in a lovely hostel run by a Swiss-German woman and her sister in law (great toddler, cat, and home made bread seem to come as part of the deal, and the most amazing comfy beds) it soon became apparent when I said "so what tours can you offer from this hostel into the national park" that the only reason people come to this place is to take part in SERIOUS trekking either a 4-6 day trek (the W) or a 9-12 day trek (the circuit). Nick had realised this on the journey to the small town and had been keeping it very quiet, scared I think of my response, but having never camped in my life and only treked a bit I was actaully stupidly excited! We began to buy camping food and rent loads of equipment ready for the trip, we even attended a talk done by a freakish american (who became known as the guru, he looks like his bones are about to pop out through his skin, brags he ran the circuit in 18 hours (my arse), and had perfectly hairless legs) whereby he told us what to expect and what to do etc, and before we knew it we were about to leave. We bumped into a lovely girl called Dana from Canada who we had met in the last town in argentina, and went out for some amazing veggie food the night before the big trek (at a place which makes really english food for the home sick traveller like cottage pie, lasagne, cheese cake, hot chocolate, it even has the guardian!) we ate a stupid amount between us and after 3 puddings felt brilliant.
We arrived at the park at mid day and took a boat over to where Nick and I had agreed to begin the trip, (there are two ways to do "the W" west to east, or east to west, but we decided on the former).
On the first day we walked up to the glacier which was beautiful, the trek was cool and the good weather and reasonable ground kept us optimistic and nick put up with me talking inane bullshit for a long time. I hope the photos do it justice because it really was amazing. Our first night was brilliant and I actually freakishly enjoyed our tepid pasta, peeeing outdoors, and freezng tent (this novelty soon wore off)
The next day we went back on ourselves and then headed for our second camp site, the weather was grim this day and when we set up tent I doubt either of us were optimistic of how long it would stay upright. We woke up to torrential rain and began our trek up to the middle of the "W" the path was impossible to find, the rain was coming down heavily, and the wind was knocking us over, so basically we pussied it and went back to the camp site, packed up the tent which was so covered in mud that I got a histerical fit of the giggles that didnt really help much, we then headed onto the next camp site and sat there chatting to other trekkers (not sure if that is how you spell those who walk or whether this is referring to those who love Picard, sorry if the latter)and catching our breath and waiting for the rain to subside... it did not!
Only some of the campsites were free in the park and being stubborn and tight we decided to do a 4 hour uphill hike to the following camp site to get it out the way. The walk nearly killed me, I made some amazing tennis player style noises along the way and felt really really grim but with hindsight it was a good idea. The wind was so strong it lifted me clean off the ground on several occasons, and considering I was wearing my backpack
the whole time this was a feat! We had to walk through rivers and streams and climb over rocks that health and safety in the UK would have gone crazy over, but it was kinda fun and after a while we just waded through rivers rather than trying to find a dry alternative because it was time saving and pretty funny.Nick and I arrived at the campsite we would be spending our third night at, soaked to the skin and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves, the excitement of the first day had pretty much fucked right out the window. Luckily this campsite had a shower which was an amazing treat, and whats more we got chatting to a group of Brits, Danes, and frenchies who made a great open fire which nick and I dried ourselves over (and Nick managed to burn a hole in his shoe by getting too close). Oh one more thing our 2 person tent was the smallest thing in the world, we could just about both fit into it but our bags could not, and both of us had to scrunch up our feet to fit in it, also as you know I am a big claustrophobic mess and this tent did not help! also our burner broke so we had to beg matches of people to get the fire going in order to eat the packet crap we brought with, which actually tasted pretty good.
The next day I dont think either Nick or i made a big secret of the fact that we were desperate to go and see the main attraction of the park(the torres, or towers, three huge impressive rocks whick stand above a great lake and you have to rock climb to get to) and then go home pretty sharpish. Thanks to our 4 hour uphill mission the day before we had time to take it easy this day and we made our way up to the torres, and admittedly they were pretty spectacular, although Nick looked less than impressed when we got to the top after and hour of almost vertical climbing he said "how long do you want to stay here im ready to go NOW!"
On our last night we actaully had the best night in my mind, we got chatting to a Brit, some New Yorkers and a couple of Isrealis in a hovel like shelter which I have taken a photo of, it was freezing so we nearly sat on top of one another to keep warm, and had a real laugh, and one of the guys gave me some of his Snickers bar, so I was the happiest bu
nny ever!The next day we set our alarms for about 6 and nearly trampled over each other to get out of the place. We got back to the hostel yesterday and had huge piece of beef last night to make ourselves feel better. Lomo....is there anything it cant do?
Summery:
Big bits of ice are cooler than big bits of rock. Nature is all well and good but only when it is sunny. People who just go round hiking for fun all year round are weird! Camping is fun for a night at a time when it is sunny!!!, I dont like tents, and nick should not go near fires. Chocolate should be carried at all times. I love the lomo!
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