Trekking in Ushuaia

Trip Start Feb 10, 2006
1
6
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Trip End Feb 01, 2007


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Saturday, February 25, 2006

Oh how foolish are we? Decided to start our trekking with a beautiful five day hike out to the north of the town - didnīt think about the implications of the word "demanding" - to my cost. Started by getting a taxi the 35km to the start of the walk, which was through a forest not "a meadow" as stated in the Lonely Planet. Managed to wobble my way across a log which doubled as a bridge and was heading up the track when I started to smell gas, great, our stove was leaking. Tried to turn it off properly only to find the handle broke, so now we were totally stuffed - loads of pasta and soup and no way to cook it, yuck dry spaghetti. Only option was to go back to Ushuaia and since your chances of getting a lift are significantly increased if youīre female I drew the short straw. Got lifts easy enough but spent a few hours running around town trying to find a pair of pliers (not so easy on a Sunday when everything is closed).

So, at last we were off and it was stunning Allan in the river
Allan in the river
 ! All towering mountains, cascading rivers and beautiful red and green valleys.

The track disappeared almost immediately into a wide spongy bog which we tried to circumnavigate - that trick didnīt really work. Then we hit beaver land. Thought they were amazing at first, creating these huge intricate dams but after trying to fight our way round the thousandth dead tree and getting soaked as we waded through the marsh land created by all that damning and I would happily have strangled one if Iīd actually caught sight of it. The path was completely non-existent, only the odd footprint in the mud to tell you that you might be going the right way. My favourite instruction from the Lonely Planet was to "head for a large boulder on the ridge" what he didnīt mention was that you couldn't see the boulder from the bottom of the hill and you had to fight your way through a forest first with absolutely no way of spotting this boulder till you were an hour above it and way off to the right. After chatting to other travellers we met back in Ushuaia it turns out we all managed to get lost here. Then there was the drizzly rain which left you inside the sauna of a raincoat for hours, the freezing cold rivers which came straight off the glaciers and had to be waded through, the endless bogs which were like thick snow to walk through and the lack of chocolate (very very important!) I donīt think Iīve ever sworn so much in my life! Allan kept saying "But look around you, itīs stunning" hmm, if someone thumps you in the face then the bruise may be beautiful blues and purples but IT STILL HURTS!!!!!!!!
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