Patagonia: Who said this was a holiday!

At the start of the hike with Yvonne & Hargen
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We flew into Punta Arenas via a short but relaxing stop at the small lake side town of Puerta Varras.

From Punta Arenas we went to Puerto Natales where we got a room in a Chilean family home where everyone spoke in Spanish to us despite the fact that all we kept saying was Si.

Well worth the effort and me playing football!

Pod had decided the only way to see Patagonia was on foot. I thought that the 7 day trek was too much and so we compromised on the 4 day W route which takes you to lake grey and the famous Grey Glacier and to the three towers of Torres Del Paine.

By Lago Grey and the famous glacier Grey
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We took a two hour bus ride and one hour boat trip to the heart of Patagonia. Our journey took us through the snow capped mountains of the Andes, passed crystal clear lakes and grazing llamas.

The first day we left our tent and backpacks at base camp and started off on the 22km trek to the glacier. We were accompanied by Yvonne (a Dutch girl) and Hargen (a German guy). We reached the glacier by 4pm got the cameras out and the heavens opened. It continued to pour the whole way back, all night and was still raining all of the next day.

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Not to be deterred we set off the following days with backpacks on in the pouring rain. We walked for 2 hours when we met a couple of walkers who told us the path was closed due to the rivers overflowing and we had to return to the base camp to stay the night. The following day we had to get the boat to the next part of the walk and miss the middle section of the walk.

Pod was gutted. I have to confess I wasn´t too disappointed as my pack was killing me, I was cold and wet and the whole expedition was beginning to feel more like boot camp. On the boat we met a Scottish and Australian couple who were great and as everyone was disappointed it wasn´t so bad. We also got to trek to a wicked waterfall and as we were climbing to our next camp the sun came out.

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For the fourth and final day in the mountains we were told to get up to the towers by sunrise. At 3.30am Pod, the Scots and I were up (yes it was madness) and armed with torches ready to trek through the forest in the dark. It was quite scary because a few times we couldn't´t make out the path and we had to pass a gushing river and walk through running streams.

The last part of the walk to the towers takes you up over huge boulders that you have to climb. At this point we were exhausted and trying to be as quick as possible to catch the sunrise. People have called Patagonia the end of the world and facing the mountain in half light with no one around felt like some kind of Sci-fi end of the world scenario. When we did get to the top at 6.00am we found about 20 other people all watching the towers turn orange by the early morning sun. The sight and relief at being at the top was amazing and was worth all the effort a million times over.

Pod in front of Torres Del Paine (the 3 towers)
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We returned to camp for a bowl of porridge before packing up our tent and hiking down the mountain for the bus home. Whilst we waited for the bus we were enrolled in a game of 5 a side football with me as the Scandinavian sides goaley! As you can imagine Pod and I were the worst representation of English football that you can get. It was a good end to the trip!