Torres del Paine....

Hi again everyone!

Just arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche (just on the Argentinian side of the Andes - about half way up Argentina) after a 33.5 hour bus ride. The journey was made extra long because we had to go South East (back to Rio Gallegos!!) before we could head the 1500 odd km North again, but we must be getting used to the long hauls because we both zoned out and before we knew were in the final couple of hours leading into Bariloche.

Anyhoo. The last week or so was spent in the Torres del Paine national park (a designated `biosphere' - however that differs from a protected national park). The hiking actually took us a lot less time than we anticipated due a combination of fast walking, closed trails and running out of food.

DAY ONE

As you'd expect we commenced the hiking on Day One. On arrival at the first bus stop we noticed a sign saying 'for your own safety and comfort the maximum pack weight should be no more than 20% of your bodyweight'. A few calculations later we realised we were carrying close to half our bodyweight each (all that damned tinned food!!). But nothing could be done now so we set off walking on a dirt road towards the bottom of the first set of peaks. We arrived at the bottom of the first main trail after almost two hours of getting whipped by dust storms and we had developed a fair idea that we would most likely perish half way up the mountain in these winds and with that weight on our back, so a tin of tuna later and we were on our way up the hill. After another two hours of steep ascent and almost being blown off the side of the mountain I decided I had discovered the true meaning of pain when we eventually arrived at the first camping site. A attempt to put the tent up nearly saw the tent pole and the two of us get snapped in the ferocious winds, so we gave up our dreams of being rugged mountain adventurers and were forced to stay the night in the cabin.

DAY TWO

We awoke the next morning and found not only were we in Day Two of the hike but that the wind had vanished and clouds dropped (or should that be the other way round?). We took our lighter day packs and hightailed up the rest of the mountain to see the Three Towers for an early morning tea. A three and half hour round trip and we were ready to set off on the '4 hour' hike to the bottom of the second valley. The jist of this hike was that I discovered the remnants of my quads from the day before during the first hour, and then realised that I had only really discovered the meaning of a 'slight twinge' the previous day, as the day wore on I was sure I had finally crossed the boundary from Pain into some other emotion not yet defined by mankind. The hike actually took 5 hours in fairly clement weather and we got the tent up that night and wolfed down big dose of tinned veges, tinned beans and spam (with a tomato soup mix thrown in for added flavour) before passing out in the tent.

DAY THREE

The next day conformed with the chronology of our numeric system and confirmed itself as Day Three (I could continue this joke for.....infinity). We woke up to a chilly morning with rain pattering on the tent, so we went back to sleep until midday - when the rain stopped. The extra sleep must have done us good as we powered through to the bottom of Valle Frances and had the tent set up in under two hours. We then set off with our day packs to the Mirador at the top of Valle Frances. Probably one of the best views of the park from here. 360 degree veiws of the peaks and the turquoise lake down the bottom, all the while being surrounded by thousands of perfectly formed natural bonsais.

DAY FOUR

After discovering that the back trails of the park were closed due to fires we had revised the duration of the hike down to 6 nights. A stocktake of our remaining food supplies suggested that five nights would be the limit, so we set off across to the bottom of the third valley of 'The W' that characterises the park with the intention of spending two nights camping at the top near Glacier Grey before heading back down for a morning Catamaran out of the park. With slightly lighter packs from all the food we'd eaten (and slightly heavier due to some waterlogged and sweatlogged garments) we made the dash to across to the bottom of the third valley and decided to leave our big packs there and strap the tent, sleeping bags and remaining food to our day packs. A plan that seemed foolproof until we arrived at Glacier Grey and discovered that we had forgotten some of the vital elements of our eating plan (ie. something other than trail mix and apples). Having done the hike up to Glacier in about 2.5 hours (suggested duration of 4 hours) we realised that we could make it back down to where we dropped our big packs before nightfall and camp there the night. A couple of things to note at this stage is that there were some large clouds looming on the horizon, and the last catamaran leaves the park at 6:30pm. We left Glacier Grey just after 4:00pm without ever really entertaining the idea that we could make it to the catamaran in time, especially given the bruised and blistered state of our feet. Either way it was a race against the clock before nightfall and we set off at a brisk pace. About halfway back the rain started to fall, just heavily enough to gently soak into your clothes and hair, this actually started to give me flashbacks of childhood runs in Indonesia, through the gentle rain in the dying light with cool air of being at a little altitude. This enveloped my thoughts and after I while I was feeling like the BFG as every time I looked up away from the track (having to concentrate the whole time on not rolling my ankle again) I had passed by valleys and great lakes on either side. As we finally rounded the corner of this main valley we noticed the catamaran was starting up its engines to leave for the end of the day, still not thinking we could make it we laughed off the idea of getting home before the storms set in for the night. But as we got closer the boat still hadn't left, so lucas took my pack and went to where we had left our big packs while I dashed the last few hundred metres towards the jetty as the crew were untying the last of the catamarans ropes, at first they waved me away when I got their attention, but one of them (must have been the captain) noticed our sodden appearance and took, waving us on. So I belted pack up the path and grabbed my pack from lucas and we hightailed it again down to the boat and flung ourselves aboard in a frenzy of cold saturated ecstasy, a perfect crescendo to finish an amazing few days.

ps. I don't think I spent anytime describing the varied and astounding scenery of the park, our fairly poor cameramanship (if thats a word) doesn't do justice to the amazing shapes, colours, reflections, condors, avalanches, rock slides, sunsets, mists, stars, sparkles and everything else that you see in Torres del Paine.

Bariloche is more an alpine area, reminds me of Kosciosko a bit. Am looking forward to some more outdoor adventures here (less strenous here though I imagine - only day trails to the highest peaks of about 2400m).