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South East Asia Adventure
Another long day in Peggy, we stopped on the way to visit the Magellan penguin colony at Otway. There wasn't too many penguins as it was about to close for the season, it was also freezing.
Punta Arenas we stopped here overnight. We had a really good hot chocolate in Lomits, fondly called Vomits by Judes Brother in law John - he worked in Punta Arenas sometime ago.
We left Punta Arenas early we had a long trip on Peggy and wanted to get to the campsite (yes Campsite) as early as possible as a lot of the group wanted to go Horse Riding. As we drove on we were treated to many views of the Torres Del Paine- completely stunning - I couldn't wait to get climbing yes that is total and complete sarcasm that you read because I ended up calling this place "Towers of PAIN"
We arrived at Largo Pehoe and chose our tent. Each tent was a three man tent but was kitted out for two - I think they were trying to convince us we were in camping in luxury - but we had been spoilt in NZ when we had been camping with my family and had a kitchen with a sink so I was still waiting to be impressed.
We left quickly in a very old minibus which had seen better days an awfully long time ago. I told them that I was a novice having only been riding twice before in my life and I don't think I ever had a lesson. Anyway, the horse I was given seemed to go along nice and slowly while she didn't like to get her hooves muddy she would take a slightly longer route, which was fine by me. Every now and then she would need some encouragement to get up or down a steep hill and she even took me safely across the two rivers we crossed. Everything was going ok until one of her detours to keep her hooves from getting muddy caused me to be left dangling from a tree branch. I really tried to get her to reverse but it wasn't happening and eventually I gave up and accepted my fate and fell to the ground, thankfully it wasn't muddy. As we were miles from anywhere I had to climb back up and get going again. Everything went ok for a while, I was in last position but happy there, every time we got faster than a slow walk I was being thrown about all over the place so I slowed her back down again. Once again we were plodding along nicely when another (mud) detour caused her to walk on some old fence wire she reared up and galloped off. I was screaming ¨Noooooooooo¨ hoping that she understood English. I held on for my life and thankfully she slowed down and I allowed myself to start breathing again. I have decided that if I ever go on a horse again it will be for a lesson in English so I can understand.
I found out the luxury camping included two cooked meals and a pack lunch per day. With hot showers, flushing toilets, enormous blow up beds and thermal sleeping bags.
When we were going into our tent I heard a squeaking coming from Judith, two mice had run over her feet trying to get away when she opened the tent, this set the theme for the evening. I was awake most of the night as the mice where running around on the outside of the tent, plus I was struggling to deal with the claustrophobia that I suffer from.
We were awake early ready for our walk up to the Torres del Paine viewing point. We were on our way early and started confidently, but slowly I realized that this was not going to be like the first walk in Tierra del Fuego where I managed to keep up, this was grueling. Jude left me after 2.5 hrs to continue on her own I stopped with Ingrid and ate our lunch back at the closed refugio that was about two hours into the walk. We eventually caught up with Jude who had turned back before we had finished our lunch. Jude, Ingrid and I were the only ones not to have finished this walk. I have to say it was the hardest one I have ever tried and not in the least bit fun - (I think I might need to get a personal trainer when I get home)
We slept this night despite having to deal with my two largest phobias, Claustrophobia and Earwig Phobia. For those of you who don't know the latter one is the strongest phobia. He was waiting for me on my pillow. Yuk!!!!
The following day we went on the Largo Grey Cruise. We all elected to get off half way around and enjoy a short walk. When we got there I decided to stay in the Refugio which was warm and drink coffee, read a book and allow my legs to recover from the Towers of Pain. The rest went off for a walk. The Largo Grey is a glacial lake with icebergs floating around. These icebergs are incredible, check out the pics.
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