Suzi 29/10/06

Torres del Paine was wonderful. On day one we walked up to our refugio for the night, Chileno, then on to the base of the Torres themselves. As I said, the scramble up for the last hour was exhausting but well worth it for the view of the Torres once we reached the base. We were really lucky in that the fog cleared as we were on our way up and it didn´t start snowing till we were on our way down so we had a clear view of the whole mountain range and the lake below. The climb up is signposted by red dots every 5 metres or so and I have to confess I didn´t think I´d make it with only 4 red dots to go but I am really glad I didn´t give up as it was really beautiful and peaceful to just sit down and reflect up top for a few minutes! That was one thing we really noticed as to how truly quiet it was. Even in NPs in the UK you can normally hear a motorway in the distance, or a campsite close by. We could hear nothing whatsoever for the majority of the time, unless we actually met other people. Very relaxing experience.

Have to also add that Thorsten was amazing as he carried all our food for our breakfasts and lunches all the way up to Chileno and so his rucsac was really heavy but he didn´t complain and didn´t even need as many breaks as me! We celebrated our climb with a bottle of wine (Concha y Toro of course!) which Thorsten had valiantly carried. Couldn´t have asked for a nicer evening as we sat in our PJ´s drinking Merlot from our camping mugs in the cosy refugio whilst it stormed outside. Absolute bliss!

On day two we enjoyed a really nice walk for only 5 hours (days one and three were 7 hours) along the side of Lake Nordenskjold from Chileno to refugio Los Cuernos. We were lucky enough to see condors again and we watched them for ages circling on the air currents overhead. It was amazing that they look so graceful as they are absolutely enormous. We had booked dinner at both refugios and were really impressed when we arrived to get 3 courses. It wasn´t gourmet (and the only time in my life I´d have thought of serving a beef steak with cheese sauce!) but was warm, tasty and served with a smile, which was everything we wanted. The refugios themselves are lovely. They are absolutely freezing cold everywhere but the dining room (where we sat and played cards and chatted with our room mates until we collapsed in bed!) and look like a shed but inside they are comfy, the bunk bed dorm rooms are cosy and the showers are piping hot. Our aching legs appreciated the latter more than anything! They are also very friendly places and was nice to compare notes, routes and advice with other walkers.

Day three was probably the best for Thorsten as we´d eaten almost all our food and drunk the wine so his rucsac was about 5 kilos lighter and he had a spring in his step as we set off! We walked along the edge of Lake Pehoe to refugio Pehoe, including a crossing on the swingiest suspension bridge over Rio Serrano! The antartic wind was whistling along and I was petrified, felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie, but we both made it across in one piece! We then left our stuff at the refugio and set off up to the Glacier Grey viewpoint. The glacier was amazing. We´d already seen Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers 3 days before (and even had a pisco with glacier ice in it, truly living the tourist dream!) but Grey was better than both. It forms the southern tip of the Patagonian ice field so was truly spectacular to look down at as, as far as the eye could see, there was ice, ice and more ice! Managed to take some pictures from the top of the viewpoint with Thorsten holding on to my legs to stop me being blown over! It was that windy that you had to have one hand on a tree at all times when in an exposed space or the wind literally knocked you over so, without exaggerating, was pretty scary to not hold on to anything to take the pictures! We then walked back to refugio Pehoe and caught the catamaran to the bus stop back to Puerto Natales.

Was a fantastic trip and didn´t even notice the messiness of our hostel when we got home and fell into bed. We are now wearing our sandals for a couple of days, despite the cold, to give our feet a break. Only one small blister on Thorsten´s toe though so we are super happy with our hiking boots too, it´s a cliche but, even though they were expensive, they were well worth the investment.