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Whitneys on Tour
We left Ushuaia on the 29th and had to travel over a day to get to Puerto Natales, the Gateway town for the Torres Del Paine National park in Chile. We stayed at a hostel who supplied us with all our camping equipment. Despite the fact that Stuart had earmarked us to come here some time ago, he was getting considerably nervous at the prospect of camping, particularly as he had never put up a tent in his life! Fortunately, Jo was considerably more confident with all her Kiwi camping experience to fall back on. Both of us realised though, that with all the camping gear, plus food and clothes that we were going to have to lug around a fair load for a few days. The stories about the unpredictable weather and potential cold and rain didn't help the nerves either!
DAY 1
We caught an early bus to the park and took the catermaran to the western side of the circuit where we set up camp (or should I say Jo set up camp!!). We then walked around 6km to the huge Grey Glacier which was a spectacular site. The weather was incredibly windy, almost to the point of blowing us off our feet but joyously it didn't rain! The views were superb and it was a great start to our hike.
DAY 2
The real hard work started as we had to carry all our packs and gear around 7.5kms to the base of the valley which took us around 2 3/4 hours which rather wore us out. However, our mood was considerably brightend by the unbelievable view of the Principle Mountain in the sunlight. We walked up the base of the valley, leaving our packs for around an hour and took some great shots. Then it was back to collect our packs and walk another 2 1/2 hours or so with them to the next camp site where we arrived, pretty tired at 6pm or so. Putting the tent up was a right struggle after that but again, we counted our lucky stars that the weather stayed fine and the superb views made the hard work worthwhile.
DAY 3
This was on paper, the hardest days walking with the packs. In the morning we walked 11kms to our lunchtime stop then another 5kms or so in the afternoon with a pretty steep hill to climb at the start. However, we were not going to be defeated and the site of our camp site in the distance and the excellent weather and yet more awesome views were keeping the spirits up. However, in the evening we noticed that the weather was turning distinctly colder.
DAY 4
We woke up early to walk up to the highlight of the park, the close up views of the three granite towers. Last nights cold weather wasn't a fluke as it started to sleet a little which turned to heavier snow as we made our way up the mountain. It took us a couple of hours to scramble our way over some pretty steep boulders to make it. Sadly though, because of the weather there really wasn't much of a view of the towers so cést la vie!
As we made our way down the snow got heavier but it made for a fun walk out of the park and some great photo's. We finished our four day hike tired, sore but totally exhilerated by what we had achieved and seen. It's a totally amazing place, with mountain views that are beyond words.
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