Pretty much everyone who comes to Patagonia, comes to this Chilean national park.
It is described as one of the most beautiful in the continent with imposing towers, ridiculously blue lakes and plenty of glaciers. Adding to its attraction is it's very softie accommodating. You could just about go around it without carrying a tent, food or even a sleeping bag, as there are privately run hostels called refugios with chefs and stores. Even at the privately run campsites you can hire out tents and equipment.
To prove we aren't utter softies we elected to carry a tent and all our own food for the 10 days or so we planned to be in the park doing the full circuit, rather than the shorter more popular route called the 'w' for the shape walked.
Day one - Guarderia Laguna Amarga to Campamento Seron
We arrived with the bus loads of tourists in the morning and paid our NZ$40 park fee.
Happily, while our bags were certainly full and heavy, careful packing meant they weren't unbearable. And, being mostly food, we knew they would get lighter and lighter as we went.
Walking down the road to the start of the track, we had our first views of the Paine towers (torres)from a distance, including one vista behind a wild field of daisies, just past full bloom unfortunately.
After that it was a pleasant walk through burnt out forest/farmland next to the Paine river, which is quite wild in places, with a bed of fractured grey rock. Close to the campsite there were lots of beautiful rose-coloured grasses waving in the breeze.
It costs about NZ$10 per person to stay at the privately owned campsites, which includes use
of flush toilets and, novelties of all novelties, hot showers for all at most of them. It felt very strange but very luxurious that first night.
The other highlight of the evening was seeing our first Patagonian red fox. He was about 100 metres away, having found something to eat, with a large bushy tail. We got a pretty good look at him but then something spooked him and he ran off into the meadow, disappearing into the long grass.
We were amazed and pleased that the majority of people on the hike were Chileans . It is good when people get out and see their own country.
Day two -Campamento Seron to Refugio Dickson
We woke with a thin layer of ice on the tent. David, the Swiss guy we had met on the Naphuel Huapi walk turned up without a tent as always. He usually sleeps outside on his bedroll, but it was such a cold night, the campsite manager let him sleep inside by the fire like a cat. I was jealous I must admit.
Day two's hike started with a walk through meadows in golden light. There were little wetland lakes and birds. One had a tail like a dorsal fin. We also saw a huge hare (European)with ears so long it was amazing they remain upright.
Soon we had to climb above a horseshoe-shaped lake and came around a corner to be hit with the wind at full force as Lago Paine came into view. We sidled along it with views towards Glaciar Dickson.
After that we crossed over some flat land, and I thought I could hear the sounds of builders hammering away, but we soon realised it was a pair of woodpeckers going at their pecking business with full vigour. Mark says they have special reinforcing in their heads to stop them pulverising their brains, and they'd need it. So cool to watch.
Soon after that we climbed a moraine ridge, which is a pile of gravel and rocks glaciers push along until they retreat, then leave behind. Over the ridge we had a fantastic view down to Refugio Dickson with the lake and glacier behind it.
It was a windy afternoon but by evening the wind dropped at it was a beautiful calm evening to watch the glacier and the lake.
After wards we curled up in our tent and heard some rustling outside. We poked our heads out to see what was causing it. Less than two metres away was a beautiful young fox like the first one we saw. Such expressive eyes he had. I love the way they are like a dog but not like a dog.
Day three - Refugio Dickson to Campamento Los Perros
We woke to light rain that was to become a common occurrence on the trip. When we finally got up they were just bringing the horses into the yards next to the stables. There is some horse riding in the park but the privately run refugios and campsites use horses to transport food and supplies between the sites. I was impressed with the mastery the one cowboy showed in controlling so many horses.
The walk started with a climb up a small ridge to the sweetest, smallest peat bog and fantastic views back down to Glaciar Dickson and the lake.
The rest of the walk was through the forest, passing the Perros falls in a narrow gorge.The river is named after a herder's dogs that drowned in it.
Next we came across another moraine ridge and soon we were at the well-sheltered campsite. It had only cold showers but they did have an ingenious shelter build around a tree trunk as the central beam and when it got dark they lit the fire - oh the bliss of that. The fireplace was an old drum with a door cut into it and hinged in place and an old pipe for a chimney.
We started talking to an Americans couple that had been going around the other way and were nearly finished. They had found it great but cold and windy at times. The girl made me laugh when she said to the girl next to her 'can I ask you a personal question? Can I use your chapstick?' She had lost her lip salve and said her lips hurt every time she smiled. What with the fire and the lip balm she was so content, it was funny.
Once again the camp was full of Chileans.
Day four - Campamento de los Perros to Campamento Paso
This day is the only one described as moderately difficult. It is not that hard but you do have to climb up and over a pass which gets some pretty extreme weather - not for us though. We had barely a breath of wind at the pass of John Gardner, marked with a stake with a Chilean flag and still festively wrapped in tinsel.
The view from there was the first 'wow' moment of the trip. Enormous Glacier Grey curving down past us and becoming nearly flat for 13 kilometres. The glacier is an outlet for the huge southern body of ice in the region called the hielo sur. Unfortunately the photos don't do the immensity of the world of white justice.
From there it was a steep descent to get to our first free campsite on the track. It also had a sheltered spot for cooking but not like at Perros.
Day five - Campamento Paso to Refugio Grey
We woke again to pattering rain and walked across deep rocky river channels to reach Campamento Los Guardas after a couple of hours. From there we had a great lookout spot onto the snout, as they are called, of Glaciar Grey or rather the thinner side of it as it is split int two by a large rock island called la isla. We saw a few bits of ice splinter off but mostly it was quiet. It was Mark's thirtieth birthday and since he is such a glacier fan it was good we could sit and admire the view for an hour or so.
After lunch we headed down and around the peninsula to Refugio Grey where you camp on a pebbly shore. It's a pretty spot and cool to have icebergs washing up in front of you.
After dinner we walked to the main lookout and admired the massive iceberg seated near the shore and waited for more ice to shear off the main glacier, but the show was over for the day.
Day six- Refugio Grey to Campamento Italiano
We woke up to light drizzle after a very windy night and walked along between very narrow river channels decorated with fox-gloves. Then we walked up to the flat pass between Lago Grey and Lago Pehoé. There were pretty little mini meadows on the tops that are probably tarns in wetter months and the cute little Laguna Los Patos .
We came down from the high flat pass into a wide gully and began to be lashed by almost-toppling wind gusts that Patagonia is famous for.
Sweetening the moment were our first views of Lago Pehoé, which is an incredible, unbelievable bright turquoise blue, more striking than Lake Tekapo in NZ.
I could not believe the size of the refugio beside the lake. At first I thought it was a hotel. This is where all the people doing the abbreviated circuit called the 'w'arrive or leave from.
From there we had a two-and-a-half hour walk along to Campamento Italiano, walking towards the bizarre and imposing Cuernos peaks that are light-coloured apart from their black caps. Straight away Chileans were out-numbered by foreigners.
We walked past Lago Skottsberg. It is only narrowly separated from Pehoé but it is a completely different colour - a deep royal blue. It was being completely whipped up by the wind. Spray was forming huge drifts that looked like bands of fog being driven up the lake.
Just before getting to to the campsite,
we passed another small lake and crossed two rickety bridges over the Rio Francés.
Day seven - Campamento Italiano to Refugio Cuerno
We got up as early as we could manage to do the popular trip up the Rio Francés valley. We were almost first up and had the walk up through the forest and along small streams to ourselves. Before long we could see the small lake from glacier melt and back on to Lago Nordenskjold.
We had peak Cerro Paine Grande to our left and the Cuernos horns to our right. And the views of them kept getting better as we went up.
Dusted with snow from overnight and the sun just starting to get light through from behind them.
Another 15 minutes from Campamento Británico, you come to a rock outcrop viewpoint that is like being at the centre of an amphitheatre with bizarre and various shapes and forms of mountains all around except for the mighty Rio Francés falling down the valley. Black rock, beige rock, rounded layers, jagged peaks, fracture lines, pockets of glaciers, triangular, rectangular and obelisk towers, sprinkled with snow where it can stick. Our second 'wow' moment.
We had little wind at the lookout but coming down it came on full blast down the valley. It was the closest I have come to flying or falling off a ridge. We secretly smirked at the others heading up into it as we came down.
As I said, the 'w' is much more varied and tourist filled, with young and old, some carrying no more than a day pack. We overheard one woman say she had never done anything like it in her life. Some people's inexperience showed. We saw two people hiking in sandals, one with Vandals and funny toe-less socks and one with ladies strappy sandals, loads of people in jeans, and one girl with full makeup and mascara so thick I thought she was wearing false eyelashes at first. Maybe it was to protect her from the endless grit the wind throws around.
After lunch and a rest we packed up and hiked the easy two hours around the side of Lake Nordenskjold to Refugio Cuernos. It is actually on private land and has strange green hills behind the lake. The pebbly shore was pretty and relatively windless.
I enjoyed our rice mushroom risotto and hot chocolate on the beach but couldn't help but be jealous of all those in the refugio sipping red wine and having dinner served to them. I was also mourning the end of an era: my 10-year-old boots had finally split.
Day eight - Refugio Cuernos to Campamento Torres
What with the fear of foxes and rats eating our food in the night, we had taken to hanging it in trees and putting our backpacks in large rubber bags outside to make our tiny tent sleep-able. Mark had wondered aloud about the wisdom of hanging food in trees, 'can't rats climb trees?' Well, that night one did and found my pack hanging from it and ate doily holes in the rubbish bag and then gnawed away at my camel pack straw. We figured it must have been for teeth filing rather than for food or water. as little food was in the pack, it was right at the bottom, unopened and tightly packed. Bummer.
Again we woke to light drizzle but it stayed around all day and got stronger but there was no wind, which made the lake a beautiful clear blue-grey against the rolling rocky hills, covered with what looked like green moss. It was absolutely painter Grahame Sydney paradise.
After three hours or so we reached Campamento Chileno, which was a cozy haven out of the weather, but we started walking again in the rain and fog to Campamento Torres, tempted as we were by the pricey pisco sour available inside the shelter.
From the Torres campsite, it is a further 45 minutes to the main lookout, but given the weather when we got there we didn't bother and stayed in our tent, saving our energy for a sunrise climb the next morning.
Before we went to sleep, I asked the enthusiastic warden whether he had a weather report for the next day. (he had tied a climbing cord between two trees and was practising tightrope when I approached him). He said he didn't have a forecast but said he thought it would improve. When I asked him why he thought so, he said the weather had been equally bad for two days. Given the changeable nature of the weather in the park he thought it would be extremely strange for the weather to remain the same for a third day, 'so, it's either going to get better or be worse' he said. Hoping for the former, we set our alarm clock and went to sleep.
Day nine - remained at Campamento Torres
We got up at 5.30am and trudged and scrambled up to the lookout following the line of headlights in front of us. Mark speculated that the campsite has one of the earliest average rising time of any in the continent.
But we were all disappointed. Everything was covered in cloud and fog. We couldn't even tell which way the towers were supposed to be. We came down and spent the morning in the tent hoping the weather would change and glad we had an extra meal and food so we could stay another night.
Happily, the clouds began to lift and the sun burnt off the fog while we slept. When we climbed again after lunch, it was clear. There are three distinct towers of light-coloured rock that come together as a smooth almost vertical black rock wall that sheens in places where small streams of water run down it to the blue grey lake below. It really is beautiful. Wow moment number three.
We stayed there all afternoon, enjoying the view in the sun, me reading my book and Mark exploring a ridge.
Day ten - Campamento Torres to Laguna Amarga
We were up again at 5.30am to try for another sunrise. I thought we would be out of luck again as it felt too warm to be clear, but it was perfect with a warm wind.
Climbing up was easy third time round and we saw the sunrise and the towers turn unbelievably pink as the first rays hit them. It was only for a minute or two and then the sun was turning the rock next to it golden. Wow moment number four.
The weather was crazy coming down to complete the circuit - wind, rain, sun and grit all at once, the Patagonian special.
We felt pretty good walking down, pleased we had done it in the order we had and feeling lucky we had got to see the views, especially the Torres at sunrise.
Would I do the full circuit again? Probably not. Most of the spectacular bits are covered in the 'w'. Still, we are glad we did it and the hot showers we had along the way meant we didn't look too shabby coming out after 10 days on the hoof.
From there it was a bus ride back to Puerto Natales, which is a pretty shabby but in many ways charming town with horrendous weather. We were glad not to be in a tent the three nights we were there in total before and after the hike.
The best spot we found in town was a bookshop, book exchange, internet café called Komatt I think - a real haven with a pot belly fire and friendly staff.
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