Anyone following this as a strict and accurate record may have noted days and dates out of order on last entry. It's simply because we have no idea what day it is half the time, this is our only reference - really !

150 kms

After two days relaxing in the comfort of a room it was time to enter the National Park Torres del Paine and forgo most luxuries. The park has little in the way of facilities - unless you want to pay through the nose in hotels - and so you need to stock up before entry. There are no real shops after Puerto Natales and so we shopped before leaving to get the supplies for a few days, not easy as we have very little room on our bike as we're fill to bring and I don't want to strap stuff all over loosely. In a strange quirk the food we bought managed to go in the panniers and Bev's rucksack. Supplies for a few days, but no room for excess or luxury.The ride out of town and too the park varied, but the common thread was that the road was bloody hard, bloody hard. Real vehicle destroying stuff. OK it's not the same as you'd expect in say Bolivia, but bad for here. From excellent repio capable of 80kph to suddenly deeper gravel at 35 to chassis breaking corrugations that were hard on the riders as well as bike. It's scarey stuff when you start to think about the bike, so much hammer. I guess you'd say just go slower, but it isn't that simple as on corrugations the slower speed is hard on bike and people too, higher speed works better.

We got towards the park and the views were stunning, absolutely amazing, more than I ever would have expected. The Torres live up to all the tales.

Torres

A Powerful View

The road into the park was pretty atrocious too, and the entry fee of £10 each almost as bad, but, you can't escape it, so you have to pay it.

I guess it's the views you're paying for, but at least we can still have them for free in the UK and most of the places in Europe...consider ourselves lucky....it might not always be that way.

As we arrived outside the camping Peter sprang out of the field opposite and we had a great reunion as he and Martina were camped on site. So too were Pierre the French Canadian, Norman and the Venezuelan Richard. Once again our paths were all crossing.

The camping is in a great location, and ironically this is far warmer than Puerto Natales which is good. The water is hot in the toilet block and the views sublime, so even at £3.50 a person it's good (I know, I know, but £3.50 here is about £10 at home as far as I see it)

Thursday 12th January 2006

Hosteria Los Torres, camping
0 kms by bike 21 kms by foot !

Well firstly I should paint the scene for how today’s entry comes to you. Bev and I huddled (in comfort) in our doss bags with me typing by head torch - light too dim now to see keyboard - with rain hammering down outside. But what a day we’ve had up till this evening !

We rose early, 8.30 is early for us, remember we're on 'holiday', mainly due to fact the sun was slowly building the heat in the inner tent to atomic levels. It wasn't clear blue skies outside, and it was still a bit nippy, but tents superheat with any sunshine. Anyway, ironic that now eh !

We had expected to try and get out on the 'hills' today, but weather dependant, seen some poor forecasts. Anyway obviously it was looking OK at moment even though the towers were part obscured by cloud.

The supplies we brought in included one of our favorite camping breakfasts....no not bacon and egg....something much better. A great way to start the day is to boil the water for coffee and take the spare with some milk powder and chuck in some crunchy muesli and wait for an excellent warm start to the day. Bev made up some rolls and we have some snack bars so along with a litre of water we were fit for the walk. We have only a small rucksack and bumbag with us, and only some cagoules we use over the bike gear as waterproofs, but at least we have some wind-proof pullovers and light trekking trousers and fleece hats and gloves.

Today was a first real opportunity to try the boots out. We bought lovely made Altberg bike boots as they have a walking last and are extended for m/c use. This means you can use them as walking boots too - no way you’d have two pairs of boots on a biking holiday.

I say all this by way of the fact we can't have all our favorite walking gear that we'd use say at home, but we did manage to bring stuff we could use.

The walks here are very popular and the accents you hear are from all round the world, US, Japan, UK and most other European countries as well as South American of course. The park gives you a map with your £10 entrance fee (very big of them) and they are marked up with walk lengths and times and details of wild camping and refuges.

Leaving the camp site we walked a kilometer to the start of the actual walk. Here were lots of folk about, and it was obviously a popular route (lots of international groups on our site too). We could hardly expect have it to ourselves of course.

Initially the path lead up hill, then a little steeper as it climbed the valley but had to go high to avoid erosion and slips caused by the river. Very reminiscent of walking in to the hidden valleys off Glen Coe. The wind would gust occasionally, without warning, and blow dust straight at us, especially higher when it was a right pain.

After I guess an hour of so we were at the refuge, or would be if we crossed to it, which we never. You can get food and drinks etc there, but they're expensive so we didn’t' bother even calling in.

The next section was more gradual as it followed the river and wound mainly through deciduous forest with some steps and little rustic footbridges. The weather was mix of sunny; of partial sunny, even with the breeze is was warm going.

Following this was the ascent proper to get the view of the towers themselves. This was harder going as we had to ascend a boulder field and the path wound around and over stones of all sizes. It was definitely the hard part, and a few of the faces around showed whether they had this sort of experience or not. A note on our fellow walkers here, we had no one with us, I mean the other people on the hill. What a generally miserable and ignorant lot they were. The locals walk like they drive and shop, no moving over, no grace, and no manners, not all, just 95% of them. You can generally tell the other nationalities by their manners, let's face it, generally the Brits are pretty well mannered, Americans generally too, and he Japanese faultlessly so. Other European nations lived up to the preconceptions generally, funny old world.

As we reached the top the wind and cold built, like it always does, then suddenly the first views of the giant fingers of rock loomed into view. Let’s just say they weren't disappointing. As we crested the climb they revealed to us in all their glory. I hadn't realised there was a turquoise lake at their feet so that was a surprise.

Bev reflecting on the View

Torres

Torres

The view was stunning.

I've seen these towers features in many a climbing article or film, and I've been to a couple of lectures were people have described their ascents of these towers, so they have always held a strange fascination for me. As with most things I never thought I'd one day be stood looking at them. It was a time to be savored so we walked but 50 yards from the crest and found a lovely little shelter amongst the rocks were we could be comfortable and enjoy our lunch and admire the views.

We could hear the sound of fairly frequent avalanches or rock falls, but otherwise it was quiet - it's amazing that all the time we were there only two people bothered to walk that 50 yards to where we were, people are so unadventurous generally (and we're not complaining at all).

Sticking all our clothing on to be comfortable whilst stopped we were able to enjoy lunch and really spend some time looking at the towers in more detail through the binoculars. They are immense. I can't remember how long it takes to climb them, days and days of living on portaledges suspended over shear drops of hundreds of meters. I may be wrong, but I think I recall that they are nearly a kilometer vertically high, and they look it ! Through the binoc's you could see the formations and slabs of rock on their faces. They are way beyond my climbing capabilities and I'll never be closer than this.

We were lucky the cloud had lifted, from campsite their tops were obscured, but we had the advantage of the tops occasionally 'smoking' as clouds formed around them. When the sun shone (briefly) the turquoise lake came alive with colour - obviously at that point we had our lunch in our hands and the camera's away - obviously !

A few piccies were taken, and we couldn't stay all day anyway so we had to leave after about and hour and a quarter. It had taken three and three quarter hours to get to the top, so we had quite a walk ahead to return.

The descent was more of a pain due to the amount of people coming up. We had hardly set off early, but these folk must had set off very leisurely to be coming up at gone 4pm. We replenished our water bottle from a stream and got much fresher, unchlorinated water in exchange.

The descent was basically a reverse of our route up, but still enjoyable until about the last third when we were flagging a bit. To add to the fun you can also get horses to trek up to the refuge and back, great, except they use the same path as walkers, and in fact, on descent, are slower than a fit walker. They passed us and then we had the scent of horses arses for a good distance before we decided to break and let them get ahead. Stupid idea that is having them on the same path. In general the paths are surprisingly narrow, and not too eroded. And it was very welcome (and a bit astonishing to be honest) to see no litter anywhere, a very pleasant surprise.

The last bit of descent though not steep was a bit tiring and we were pleased to get back down to the valley floor. The wind had picked up substantially after the refuge, grit blasting us from behind, and the rain that had been very intermittent on the last bits of the descent was now getting stronger. There were still people going up, but in main those going camping to do the longer walks, but their faces were understandably long.

We called at the 'kiosk' to get some supplies. Had no pasta left. We knew it would be costly, but it's still a surprise to pay £1.50 for pasta and £2 for a loaf of bread. I know its difficult getting stuff here, but someone’s doing very nicely out of the park thank you. The last beer (£4) had been sold though so not a chance to toast our day on the hills.

At the campsite it was raining proper and apparently the wind had been getting up during afternoon and taken a few tents out. Ours was OK I'm pleased to say, and we set about making some food. another good word for a good product here, the Hilliberg Nallo GT. Great for this weather and cooking. We climbed in side and unhooked the first part of the inner and pushed it back to create a huge vestibule to easily sit and cook in comfort. A simple meal and some bread and we were happy bunnies, a quick shower before dark, and retire to bed to listen to the perpetual hammering of the rain on the tent.

Friday 13th January 2006

Hosteria Los Torres, camping

0 kms, rained off

Well we woke to a warm tent, but still rain. Off to the East it was grand weather but the Torres create their own weather and we were in it. Not a day for doing much, in fact, until afternoon there was no point even thinking of going out for a ride.

One thing I haven't mentioned, but should be obvious from the pictures, is how often we are traveling in company. In fact somewhat surprisingly we haven't actually traveled on our own at any point on this trip yet!

We were with Nik for 6 weeks odd, arrived in Ushuaia together with Andy and Maya, who we're still camped with at present, and also traveled with Alec from Ushuaia to Rio Grande.

It's not the fact we have actively sought company, it's just the way that it has turned out. In past travels, simple holidays, we have rarely had company, and in fact would avoid it, but here it is different. After time you find you will bump into people, and then you meet again on the road. There is really a 'circuit' here, however we like to think we're all global warriors cutting our own paths we're generally like minded and traveling through and too the same points of interest, or someone is riding the same path you are and your paths will cross.

As mentioned, it is very rare you get to meet the wrong people so it is welcome. This afternoon we had two Brazilians on step through 100cc bikes pull up, we first saw them (not to speak too) on the road from Ushuaia, them heading south and us north. they gave us huge waves in passing. They recognised the outfit and so came to say hello. Although on their way to Calafate, they decided to stop. Later on Martin and Silvia turned up, they didn't expect to see us here (any of us) but in the way of the world here we all are.

It seems completely a surprise to spend so much time in other peoples company, but I guess it's the common kinship that bonds the friendship and makes it so good to spend time together. Every time we think we'll be off on our own we seem to end up in company, and with no regrets.