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After this leisurely glacial experience I headed to Torres del Paine in Chile. Here we trekked for 50 miles over 5 days around glaciers, lakes and mountains. Apparently it rarely rains in this part of the world, but obviously the expection was made for my visit! Having arrived in the local town in late afternoon, everyone else seemed to be leaving for the park the next morning. I decided to put my neuroses aside and 'wing it'. Apparently I am neurotic for a reason. Arriving at camp on the first night I realised I had left all my nice food in the fridge and was faced with a dinner of rice. Just rice. And to make things more difficult I also managed to forget that stoves require a little help to ignite and was forced to befriend people with fire. Earlier in the day, as a space saving mechanism, I had decided that only one piece of cutlery was necessary and as I owned a fork I decided that this was the piece it would take. I then forgot said fork. So as difficult as eating rice would be with just my hand, the prospect of eating porridge with my paws in the morning was too much - I had to trade some of the emergency chocolate. The view for the first 3 and half days was slightly bleak...
with some gentle rolling hills and occasional glimpse of mountain tops (all cases photographed - see below!)...
But on the fourth day, when we had been trekking for about 7 hours we reached the camp site at the base of the towers (the torres). And literally just as we arrived the clouds parted and blue sky appeared from nowhere! We, and everyone else in a 2 mile radius, made a made dash up the last scramble to the the base of the towers and we were the only people in 6 or 7 days to get a glimpse of the peaks!
and just to prove I really made it....
Now back safely in my cosy hostel I'm off to the Falklands tomorrow until mid february. We will be camping on an offshore island, without running water, electricity or bacon. If anyone knows any passing planes, food drops should be aimed to Pebble Island, West Falkland!
