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Trekking the Torres
del Paine Circuit in the Patagonian Andes
Page 3
Campamento Paso to Refugio Gray (9 kms)
We must have
had horseshoes up our butts because the next day was also nice.
I know people
who’ve travelled this area with less than a day of decent weather.
People on the trail behind us and ahead of us had crappy weather.
I felt like a sunbeam followed us around and whoever arranged that
certainly has my gratitude.
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We walked most
of the day on the cliffs above the glacier, slowly coming around
towards to icy blue Lago Grey with its massive chunks of floating
ice. But here I wasn't happy since the path was tiny, the winds
erratic and the fall immense. There were definitely a few vertigo
moments. There were also a number of ladders to get up the steeper
areas and climbing a ladder on a cliff with a backpack in wind is
a little alarming but we managed.f
horses galloping rough the campsite and along the river at top speed
followed by a couple gauchos.
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We evened
out and wound through pretty forests and were back into the
wildflowers for a few more hours. As we dropped down into
the campground of Refugio Grey, we felt like we'd hit Club
Med for backpackers. There were so many people! This area
is part of the much more popular W route. People had actually
bathed recently in this campground.
They
were’t covered head to toe in mud. They didn’t smell quite
the same as us.
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The
beach stretched out before us and we took a place front and centre
to get a view of the lake and floating ice. One crazy gringo stripped
down and swam out to sit on some ice. Nuts. Chilled nuts, likely.
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This
was a partial celebration night. We’d come out of the toughest,
remotest territory. Sergio,
who’d been hiking in tandem with us, dropped by the tent with
some Red Label whiskey on ice from the glacier. So I sat with
Sergio sipping whiskey and swirling the glacier grit as it dropped
to the bottom of the glass. |
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The
last few days on the W-trail
We walked amongst wild foxglove up and down the hills above
lakes full of floating ice.
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Then we hit
a dark blue alpine lake that was a lot like Canada and, finally,
we rounded the extremely windy corner to the turquoise Lago Pehoe.
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With a
little help, we pitched our tent in the prevailing winds and
said hello to the many people we now knew from the trail and
had a little party with some Gato Negro.
That night
the stars were clear and bright and the mountains were lit
up with their light.
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next day we woke to torrential rain and chose to forgo the walk in
Valle de Frances. The views would have been negligible and, to be
honest, both Pina and I were quite lame by then. |
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horses, they would have shot us as we hobbled about. So we caught
the boat across the lake and headed back Puerto to Natales.
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| Mady's
Bio |
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