Trekking in Ushuaia

Oh how foolish are we? Decided to start our trekking with a beautiful five day hike out to the north of the town - didn´t 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, yuk dry spaghetti. Only option was to go back to Ushuaia and since your chances of getting a lift are significantly increased if you´re 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).

Allan in the river

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

Beautiful bog

The track disappeared almost immediately into a wide spongy bog which we tried to circumnavigate - that trick didn´t 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 daming and I would happily have strangled one if I´d 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 didn´t 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 don´t think I´ve ever sworn so much in my life! Allan kept saying "But look around you, it´s stunning" hmmm, if someone thumps you in the face then the bruise may be beautiful blues and purples but IT STILL HURTS!!!!!!!!

Beaver dam and Allan

Beaver damage

Chara and that big bag!

Glorious scenery