We thought we´d do this entry a bit differently and do separate accounts of our trekking adventure. Neither of us has read the other´s yet so we hope there isn´t too much repetition! This is Sarah´s version...
Day one (Wednesday). 6:30. The alarm goes off. First thoughts - what on earth are we doing??? As most of you know, I´m not very good at mornings! However, we got up and went downstairs to have a hearty breakfast to prepare us for the day ahead. Our driver is a cousin or something to the bloke who seems to run our hostel, where we booked our bus ticket, and was floating around looking a bit agitated. The bus was due to leave at 7:30 although the guy who runs the hostel (I think his name is Javier) said that if we were a bit late, that would be fine. He seemed to think I was joking when I suggested leaving at 9 though! Anyway, the driver was floating around and when we went up to get our stuff, also came upstairs and started saying we should go at about 7:25 - talk about eager! So, off we set. Just the three of us in the minibus. The drive to the national park took a couple of hours - the normal 20km on paved road and the rest on a dirt track...although, as dirt tracks go, it was quite a good one. I actually got a little bit excited as we were on our way!
We arrived at the administration place to the park, paid our entrance fee, signed in for 4 days - eeek! - and got on another bus to take us to the campsite - Hosteria and campsite Los Torres. On the bus, we met an English couple that we had seen in the shop where we had hired our tent and cooking stuff the evening before. They had decided to take their stuff up to a free campsite, a 3 hour hike away and camp there for the night...more of which later. We arrived at the campsite and found a nice pitch for our tent, just next to the little river and set about putting it up. It didn´t prove too much of a challenge to put up thankfully and by 11:00 we were ready to set off on our first day of trekking - a leisurely 8 hour round trip! The trek that we were intending to do was a `W´, walking from east to west.
So, off we went...for about 10 minutes until we realised that we didn´t really know if we were going the right way - good start! It´s really easy and impossible to get lost the guy in the hostel had said, and we managed it in the first 10 minutes! We therefore turned round to go back to the hostel (although I use the word lightly - it was more of a hotel and very expensive to stay in!) to ask someone. A very helpful lady told us that we were indeed heading in the wrong direction and pointed us the right way so off we went again. The day was split up into a 2 hour stretch to the first campsite - El Chileno - another hour to another campsite - Los Torres as well I think - and then another hour to the viewpoint to see the `Torres´ that the national park is named after (haven´t mentioned that, have I? The park is called `Torres del Paine´ which apparently means towers of blue, although towers of pain may be more appropriate!). The first part of the walk wasn´t too bad - a couple of ups and downs and across a river...to the bottom of a VERY big hill! Oh good - that was that path! Now those of you that know me know that I´m not exactly the fittest person on earth and the first few minutes us certainly brought that fact even further home! I think it probably took about an hour to get up the hill, by the end of which I think Chris was sick of hearing `I can´t go uphill any more!´. My calves and thighs were already starting to complain rather loudly and we´d hardly even started really! After the up, we got to a downhill part...which would have been good apart from the fact that I knew that I was going to have to go back up on the way back. I very nearly turned round and went back to the campsite at that point but Chris the slavedriver wasn´t having any of it and on we pressed. The path was a bit tricky in places - very shaly along the side of a very steep hill with a very big drop to the side. I don´t get too worried about heights but it made me feel a bit dizzy if I looked down at all! We managed to negotiate it quite successfully though and soon(ish), the campsite came into sight. I was already very tired and not relishing the thought of having to go all the way back but Chris seemed fine so after an extortionately expensive can of Sprite to revive me a little bit, we set off again.
The path got interesting again, with one bit where they had actually attached a rope to help you get down a drop of about 10 feet as there weren´t really very good footholds. I had´t thought we were going to be abseiling as well! I managed that bit quite well though, although Chris looked quite worried. The rest of the path to the next campsite was quite up and down - and they were steep ups and downs - and I nearly gave up a few more times. At one point I was close to tears as I really didn´t think I could go any further and I was quite worried about having to get back again. Although Chris was sympathetic to a degree, he was very eager to get to the campsite so I didn`t have a lot of choice.
We eventually reached it, to my huge relief, to see a sign that said 45 minutes to the viewpoint for the Torres up a very steep and rocky looking cliff! There was no way that I was going to be able to make it so I said that if Chris wanted to try it, I´d wait for him where we were so off he went. I´d been sat there for about 15 minutes when James and Nicola, the English couple from the bus, turned up looking absolutely shattered. How they managed to get all the way there with all of their gear, I really don´t know but they did. I was actually sat about 5 minutes away from the campsite so they went on to set up their tent. It was quite strange really but normally, the thought of having to sit on my own for an hour and a half, waiting for Chris with nothing to do wouldn´t be an attractive prospect but I don´t know if it was because I welcomed a break so much or whether it´s just that while we´re away, each minute doesn´t seem quite so important as it does during a weekend when you´re working for example, anyway, the break was quite nice (sorry for the long rambling sentence!). About half an hour later, James and Nicola returned, having set up camp, to avoid the many mosquitos that were apparently around the campsite, so we had a bit of a chat which was nice. After the allotted hour and a half that it was supposed to take to get to the viewpoint and back, Chris appeared coming down the last bit of the path. As he approached, I could see that he was now shattered as well! He said that he was glad he´d done it though and apparently the view was quite nice but I just wouldn´t have made it.
After a couple of minutes and a few swigs of water, we set off on our way back with Chris not seeming quite so enthusiastic as before! The walk back was also quite hard as our legs were now really starting to feel it. I managed to find a bit of a solution for getting up hills - by setting myself a targtet not too far away, getting to it and then stopping for a couple of minutes to catch my breath before going for the next target, I was able to make it up the hills without it killing me! The last hill was especially hard on the knees as it was a long way downhill and Chris then got a bit fed up of hearing `I don´t think I can go downhill anymore!´. :0)
We eventually arrived back at our campsite about 8 and a half hours after setting off I think and I have never been so pleased to see a tent before. Both of us were hardly able to walk any more! After a really nice hot shower (luckily, it was quite a nice campsite, although it cost more to stay there than at our hostel (which is incredibly cheap) in Puerto Natales!) and some supernoodles, we collapsed into bed.
Day 2. 10:20. All packed up and time to set off for our second campsite. We were going to try to get to a campsite called Italiano, which was a free campsite in the middle of the `W´. It was supposed to be about a 6 and a half our walk and although I wasn´t exactly relishing the prospect, it felt a bit better to have a goal to get to rather than a `there and back´ walk. The first point to head for was a campsite called Los Cuervos, which was a 4 hour walk away. This time, the path took us along the side of a lake, although it was by no means flat! My new technique of getting up hills was a lot better for me and cries of `Oh no´ as I spotted the next hill and `I´ll see you at the top´ as we reached the bottom of it and Chris started plodding up it, became very familiar. There were a couple of particularly killer hills, which were very steep. Again, some of the paths were a bit dodgy, with lots of loose stones etc., meaning that it could be quite easy to slip on some of the up- and downhill bits. We also came across quite a few streams and are now experts at stepping stones! Unfortunately, the walk was made more difficult by the fact that we were both very tired from the day before. Also, Chris started to get very sore shoulders which wasn´t much fun for him. I got off lightly because we took one big rucksack and one little one, which I had, which only really had the food and some water in it and Chris had the big one with the tent and the sleeping bags etc.! One of the advantages of taking little breaks as I went up the hills was that I got to have a bit of a look around eventually and some of the scenery was certainly beautiful - lots of mountains and lakes (again!). I´ve never done any trekking before and as we were doing it, it struck me as a bit of a strange thing to do really as it was hard going and I didn´t particularly enjoy the walking, at least for the first day and a bit, and as you have to watch where you´re putting your feet so carefully, you don´t even get to enjoy the place you´re trekking in much!
Anyway, back to the second day. We eventually turned a corner and were able to see the roof of the hostel based at the Los Cuervos campsite - much to both of our reliefs! Unfortunately, we got to the sign that said welcome to the campsite and there were 2 paths, without a sign telling you which one to go down...and we managed to pick the wrong one, meaning that we did quite a steep downhill bit and then had to go back up and then down another steep bit, which wasn´t what we needed at all. By this time, the weather was starting to turn a little bit as well with a few more spots of rain than we´d had during the rest of the day...We eventually found our way down to the campsite and went into the dining room type area to have a bit of a rest. It had taken about 4 and a half hours to get there. Chris´ shoulders were very sore by this point and we were both quite tired so we were discussing whether we should just stay where we were for the night when we started to hear horror stories of the next part of the walk, which was supposed to take 2 and a half hours, being really horrible and would probably take about 4! A lady that had come from the other direction was saying that there was a particularly horrible hill to go up that might take about an hour and a half on its own! That decided it for us and we booked into Los Cuervos for the night. Unfortunately, it meant that we had to pay again but we didn´t care. We weren´t the only ones to change our minds, as a group of 6 Brits, who were also on their way to the Italiano campsite, decided against it too. It meant that we had an afternoon of resting, which I think did us both good. The campsite didn´t seem to have a lot of decent spots to put your tent and the ground was quite hard and stony, although better than nothing! The weather had started to get a bit worse and was quite windy and cold so we paid a bit more to use the little cooker they had in the dining room so that we wouldn´t have to cook outside. Supernoodles for dinner again. We also treated ourselves and had a hot chocolate each!!! We went to bed quite early again and despite the ground not being particularly comfortable, we both managed to get quite a bit of sleep although we were both cold, despite me wearing two tops, pyjama bottoms, socks and my hat!
Day 3. 9:20 - we´re getting earlier! We set off for the last campsite - Camping Pehoe, which is where we would do the last bit of the `W´ from and could catch the boat back afterwards. We had decided against doing the middle bit of the `W´ as it meant quite a big up- and downhill climb and didn´t really seem to take you anywhere apart from another campsite - there didn´t seem to be a lot to see or anything. Again, the walk was made up of 2 halves. First of all, a 2 and a half (or 4 depending on who you believed) hour walk to camping Italiano, then another 2 hours onto Camping Pehoe, although according to the map, this last bit had a difficulty rating of `easy´ as opposed to `moderate´, like the rest of the walks so we were quite looking forward to it! I wasn´t relishing the prospect of the first bit at all but off we went. Each hill we came to, I kept thinking that maybe this would be the one that was going to take an hour and a half, but then, although a couple were quite steep and not exactly easy, it wouldn´t take that long to get up them and I´d be dreading the next one as well! The walk was a bit different to the previous couple of days as it went through quite a lot of woods, which was quite nice as a bit of a change. We saw a few birds, none of which we know the name of, which was nice (South America must be a birdwatcher`s paradise!), but not a lot of wildlife...except flies! We had reckoned that the walk would probably take us about 3 and a half hours, due to the stories we´d heard, so after 2, we thought we´d probably be over half way through. You can imagine our surprise when after about 2 hours and 20 minutes, we saw a sign saying `Camping Italiano - 300m´! It turns out that the hill she was talking about must have been one of the quite steep but just about manageable ones we´d already come up! Much relief all around! As we´d arrived much earlier than we expected, we thought we´d go up the valley for a little bit as it was supposed to give you quite a nice view so off we set. It was quite uphill and although Chris left his rucksack at the bottom, I still had the little one, which suddenly seemed to weigh a ton! We clambered up for about 10 minutes and got to a point where we could see a reasonably small glacier, and back down the valley, and then returned to the campsite to have lunch - standard lunch of cheese sandwiches (although the cheese was starting to smell a little bit!).
After a bit of a rest, we set off again, relishing the idea of the easy part, although it was 7.6km, which was longer than we´d already done that day...It started off OK - nice and flat, quite good path and even some boardwalks across some of the wet bits which was a bit of a novelty - previously, we´d just had to traipse through them! Then the rocky bits and the hills started. Although the hills were relatively short, there were a couple that were quite steep, which was a bit hard on the old legs, which were already a bit tired! Needless to say, we didn´t find it particularly easy!
After about 2 hours and 10 minutes, we eventually caught sight of the hosteria at the final campsite in the distance - phew! We had to go down a reasonably gentle but quite long hill to get there and by the time we did, we were both shattered, although Chris was even tireder than me!
We found a spot for our tent - luckily the ground was a bit softer at this one - and set up camp. The weather was again turning for the worse with wind and rain coming in and unfortunately, our tent wasn´t quite as sheltered as it had been the previous day. We decided that we`d try to get up early the next day to try to do the last bit of the `W´ up to a viewpoint of Glaciar Grey and back in time to catch the boat at 12:30. The alternative was the boat at 6:30, which would have meant that we´d get back to Puerto Natales at about 11:00 at night, which seemed quite late. However, the weather during the night was horrible - lots of wind and rain - and more than once, we were quite worried about the tent! We were convinced that the cover bit of the tent had come unpegged at the back at one point and as Chris wasn´t feeling very well and was quite shivery, there was I at 1:30 in the morning, torch in hand, inspecting the pegs. They were all intact somehow. There was more wind and rain for the rest of the night, meaning that we didn´t sleep very well, and Chris also developed a bad sore throat, making it even worse for him. We managed to get a bit of sleep, although when the alarm went off at 6:30 and we could hear that the weather still hadn´t improved, we decided that maybe it wasn´t such a good idea to go after all.
We eventually got up at about 8:30 and went over to the little kitchen that they had at the site to have breakfast (again, staple breakfast of porridge!). The kitchen was full of people who had stayed intending to go up to the viewpoint but who had changed their minds and were now going to get the 12:30 boat back. We thought about it and decided that maybe we´d give it a bit of a go and see what happened. We set off at about 10 and thought that we could walk for just under an hour and depending on how we felt, either turn back in time to get the 12:30 boat, or carry on and get the later one. Chris wasn´t feeling particularly well but said that he´d like to try it as well, especially as we didn´t have anything else to do for a couple of hours, so we set off in the wind and rain with people sitting in the kitchen thinking we were mad! The first half an hour was quite horrible, with headwinds and rain driving into our faces, but after that, it sort of cleared a bit and it wasn´t too bad. It was quite uphill though, which was tough as our legs were very tired by now! Chris was also losing energy fast so when we got to the top of one bit and could see across to the general direction of the viewpoint where there was quite a bit of low-lying cloud, we thought it would be sensible to turn back. As it turns out, we don´t think we were far from the viewpoint but I really don´t think we´d have been able to see much and I don´t think Chris would have made it all the way back either!
The walk back was really tough on Chris as he was feeling quite rough and energyless but we made it back in time to pack up our tent and get the boat at 12:30. We eventually made it back to Puerto Natales at about 4:00 and that´s the story of our trek! We didn´t quite do the `W´ but we had a good crack at it. Final thoughts:
1) I did actually quite enjoy it in the end and even enjoyed most of the walking on the last couple of days. I´d probably do it again.
2) Having said that, I´m not sure if I´d be able to manage one that entailed any more walking...unless I get more practise in I suppose. Following on from that - I´ve heard that the train´s a good way to get to Macchu Picchu!!!
3) One great thing about trekking is that it gives you a legitimate reason to eat chocolate!
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