Fitzroy at dawn!

Already some beautiful scenery and what a fab day!
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After an interesting nights sleep in a very basic hostel (if you can call it that) we set off on our trek through the Fitzroy national park. We left Dave to sleep in and also to sort a tent and rucksack for his journey but promised to meet later that day.

From El Chalten the walks are all clearly marked so we were on our way in no time, but for the first time in a long while we had quite full packs on our backs carrying tent, cooking equipment and food. So it was slow going and the weather was really good if a little too hot!

Minus 5 my arse.........

Spotting a friendly bird.....we are officialy Twitchers
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Our circuit would take us off to the west first and over to see Cerro Torre an impressive peak at 3,128m and the highest peak in a range of 4. To view the peak we walked to a high lake and sat and had our lunch while we marvelled!! It was so good to be trekking again and in such a beautiful national park with crystal clear lakes and rivers (fresh enough to drink straight from the river!) and beautiful scenery. After lunch we headed back east again and off toward the Fitzroy peak and we met up with Dave again. He had sorted his stuff and was doing a similar route to us and camping at the same place as us that evening. Our journey to our camp took us through beautiful forest and past two crystal blue lakes, Hiji and Madre before descending towards the Rio Blanco. Just past the river we found our campsite and by this point Dave had caught up with us (he is much fitter than us!) so we all pitched our tents together.

Through the woods
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After a quick visit to the camp toilet, which was basically a toilet with a deep pit beneath, I decided that I wouldn't need the toilet for the rest of the journey!! It smelt too bad and I was sure that I would prefer to squat behind a tree and face any bugs, snakes, spiders that were lurking!

Anyway that over with we cooked our dinner.....well Callum and I cooked for Dave that is! Having only just learned how to cook pasta the night before, Dave decided he better not try his luck and cook again. So he was intending to eat sandwiches, well we couldn't have that!! As Callum and I hadn't been able to choose between two delicious flavours of dried "pasta & sauce" we had plenty for all three of us, so we got to work cooking up a feast! And what a feast it was even if it did take a while as our pans just weren't quite big enough! As we had cooked, Dave offered to wash, although he did really regret this decision when he saw the stuck on pasta pans! We finished the evening with a cup of black tea, Callum and I trying out our new Superman mugs (the business!) and then helped Dave with his diary. When he went to the toilet Callum added a little entry of his own.........."Oh I wish I could cook as well as Callum and Claire, maybe if I am lucky they will teach me!" Well we laughed and to this day we are not sure if Dave found the entry, he hasn't said anything to us!

Our first look at Cerro Torre, impressive
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That night Callum and I froze! We had been mis-sold some sleeping bags in Buenos Aires that were supposed to be minus 5 bags even though they packed down to nothing. Minus 5 my arse.........these bags were as much use as a chocolate fire guard in these cold conditions. We were not happy and emerged the next morning fully clothed, well we had to keep adding items of clothing all night before we got warm...we even got to hats and scarves! It did mean that we were up prompt for our 4am alarm call. We had decided after seeing another campers stunning pics of Fitzroy at sunrise that we wanted to experience the same beauty. So in the dark we headed off up a very steep path to Laguna de Los Tres at the base of Fitzroy and as far as we could get. The fact that it was steep and pitch black made for a difficult assent, luckily Dave was there to motivate us on, otherwise I am not sure I could have made it. At the top we put back on all the layers we had stripped off on the way up, as it was freezing, then we found a sheltered spot to wait. As the sun came up Fitzroy was light up in a warm glow, just stunning and so clear. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the red blazing colour that you sometimes get on the Fitzroy but it was just so stunning anyway, well worth the climb. Then just before we were about to leave we watched two figure appear from nowhere at the base of Fitzroy and head towards us. They didn't look to be carrying much but it was far too early for anyone to have been for a quick stroll that morning. So we waited until they came around to us and it turns out they had just finished climbing Fitzroy (3,375m), it only took a mere 30 hours!! Can you belive that they were climbing for that long, without any proper sleep and any they did get would have been clipped to a sheer rock face, amazing!! And the best thing was that they just seemed really calm about it, not jumping for joy at having conquered one of the worlds toughest climbs that only a handfull complete each year, maybe they were just too knackered!

Oh wow what a lunch spot!
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The descent from the top was a bit painful for me with my bad knee but we made it back down. After a quick snooze and even quicker tent pack up we were on our way back to El Chalten. We wanted to catch a 1.30pm bus back to El Calafate that day so we were pushing it a bit to get back down in time. Anyway Dave being the fastest amongst us set off with all our bus tickets so he could reserve us all a place on the bus. Callum and I headed off right behind him but with me hobbling it was slow going. Anyway to cut a long story short.....we made it with 40 mins to spare. Just enough time to bring joy to the local stray dog community (and some not so stray too!). On all of our travels through South America there have just been too many poor stray dogs and it was really getting to me, so Callum suggested getting some dog chews to hand out.......so we did!! Anyway it just so happened that we had the chews with us and so I handed a few out, sad I know but it made me and a few dogs really happy!!

Callum shows the Torre his Superman mug!
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The bus journey back to El Calafate was a chance to catch up on some sleep, in fact I don't think we woke until we were back. Callum and I had re-booked in to Y Keu Ken hostel for that evening and suggested that Dave come and stay at the same place too, luckily they had space and infact we shared the same dorm. After we all showered and Dave had hand washed (new skill No 2) his very smelly walking socks we chilled with a cold beer. Dave headed off to town to look at rucksacks and we arranged to meet up again and go to a steak restaurant nearby for dinner. To our surprise Dave returned to the hostel with Mel who had just arrived that day in El Calafate, yippee! So we all went to dinner together and although the restaurant wasn't the best it was really good to catch up with Mel again and chat about what we had all been up to since our last meeting.

Me and in my hat!
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The next day and another early start as we headed off on a bus to Chile, sadly saying goodbye to Argentina............