Hiking..........never again! Well, till the Inca .
Trip Start
Aug 16, 2007
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Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
Puerto Natales,
Chile
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
We arrived in Puerto Natales and it was pissing down, freezing cold and late in the day and we wanted to start the trek the next day if possible. So in a mad hurry we landed at the ´Kaweshkar´ hostel, owned by the totally insane, ´Omar´. We were crammed into small dorms and asked to share beds (with each other, not strangers) because he had overbooked. We then had to try and sort out food and clothing, pack our bags and equiptment, work out what the hell we were supposed to be doing, book bus tickets to the NP and get somthing to eat. All with a hangover from the day before and after another big bus trip and drawn out boarder crossings inot Chile. The last thing we needed was a crazy Eastern European esq hostel owner who was one of the wierdest people we´ve ever met. I can´t really explain on here what he was like but he shouted at us, wouldn´t accept money till we were about to leave (or at other inappropriate moments, despite me trying at other times), made us breakfast when the bus was leaving and other things like this
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. He was completely nuts and hard work after a long day. It all truned out OK in the end though and we did get our gear together and went to a meeting at another hostel which was really helpful. Going into the trek the next day we were felling less than confident. We had four days of trekking and camping ahead of us and it was cold and wet and the people we met who had just completed it had had a terrible time of it. Anyway we mustered on and the first day wasn´t all that bad. We were cold at night and a little tired but pretty fine. Day 2 was a longer day, with a 8 hour hike and being the only lad with 3 girls (we picked up a 3rd member at Omars), I had to take responsibility as Team Leader and cheif motivator. Everyone rallied though and we did OK, even the Vikster failed to produce one moan all day and my fears of a Table Mountain reapeat were starting to subside. Day 3 was even longer again but we were lucky and the weather was OK. We also met a group of cockney lads, all my age, who were sound and a bit quicker than us so I walked with them and left the girls to get on with it themselves, which they did pretty well actually. On night 3 we camped about an hours walked from the Torres (which is basically the highlight of the walk) so we could get up before dawn and watch the sunrise there. After anight of trying our best to get through all the cuppa soups, pasta, porridge and hot chocolate we had left (which I needed due to feeling pretty weak after day 3 and it was freezing), we got got up as planned and trudged across a huge boulder field to the summit
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. Th sun rise was cool and we all sat there for a couple of hours admiring the view from the warmth of our sleeping bags that we took up with us. We then had to get back down to the base camp which should have took about 4 hours but I nailed in an hour and 25 mins, I was practically running it coz I just wanted to get down as quick as I could and have a well deserved beer.Tired, smelly and cold we finally got back to Omars and showered and got ready to go out for a big big dinner! We did go in a bar where they served 3 litre funnels of beer that they put on your table and you pour your own pints, which went down a treat.
It was a good effort all in all and we´re glad we did it. The views were amazing and it´s something we don´t normally do so we were quietly pleased with ourelves. I won´t be doing it again though until the Inca Trail in 2 months time.
One slightly horrible thing we saw in Puerto Natales (avert your eyes Mum), was a dead dog on the street. They have a big problem with strays here and I´m assuming due to lack of food and the cold it had just croked it. It wasn´t a very nice thing to see to be honest. Poor little bastard.
That´s Chile done now, back to Argentina till the start of April.
