Adventures in 2010

It was raining this morning - the Japanese guy, Todd and Sara all decided to leave. The French guys and me were gobsmacked: how can you get this far and decide to leave ? Torres del Paine is just up there !

Dramatic mountain valley with ice and watery scenes, a wonderful place to camp. Ughh! Mice ! Time to beat a retreat.

Going up the Valle de Frances was a special treat - this has to be the best part visually of the W trek. It was so windy and wet, we campers dried and packed our tents in the common room at the refugio as it was nigh on impossible to do so outside.

The W track places a feature at each apex of the W. The first being Glacier Grey. Glaciers are solid waterfalls of ice and are, like their watery counterpart pleasing on the eye and senses. The rainy start is no dampener to my visit.

Last night I booked the bus to Torres del Paine, because I was heading into off season they wanted an extra 10000 CLP to guarantee a seat back to Puerto Natales, as they would have to specifically send a vehicle down ie. normally 10000 for return trip, now it's each way.

I spend the day travelling to Puerto Natales and getting ready for my trip to Torres Del Paine. A building proudly states that we are 51 degrees 43 minutes and 39 seconds south. Not quite being aware of the currency I got overcharged for my camp stove fuel (US$20 for a litre of methylated spirits !) and I am bemused by the unpreparedness others are when it comes to hiking in the extremes of this area.

It all begins with a flight from Melbourne to Punta Arenas.At 5:00 am Melbourne time it´s time to rise. The flight was at 7:00am, I left 5:15am, tired as I never sleep well before flights. The drive to town was slowed to 40kph by roadworks on the Tullamarine, but I made it in time for the big haul.