A short (only 6hrs!) bus ride took us over the border to Puerto Natales, Chile, a little seaport town that is close to Torres del Paine National Park. Getting food for the trek proved to be a little harder than anticipated – the main supermarket had a terrible selection and we had to visit a couple of smaller stores to get everything we needed. At the same time we were trying to sort out onward travel after the park, which was equally frustrating!
We had dinner at a great vegetarian restaurant with Lauren, an Australian staying in our hostel. There was a lot of talk about exactly what we were heading off to do – Torres is famous for beautiful scenery and infamous for its Patagonian weather!
Day 1
That night the wind started to really pick up and in the morning the weather was anything but promising – driving rain and very cold when our bus picked us up. It wasn't quite so bad when we arrived at the park. By the time we had signed in, caught the catamaran across the lake to where we were going to start, the wind had dropped and the clouds, although threatening, were not actually raining.
There are a number of treks in the park, including an 7-8 day circuit around the Paine Massive itself. That sounded like it was going to be a little tough considering the weather conditions so we opted for the more popular W trek, so called because of the shape it makes.
Off we set from Paine Grande, to do the lefthand part of the W, up to Glacier Grey. The walking wasn't hard (except for the 5 days of food in my pack) and we made good time.
The camping at Refugio Grey was a pleasant surprise – a spacious grassy area amidst the trees, with a cooking shelter and hot showers! Well worth the price. It's a very popular campsite so there were a lot of people – but that's the case everywhere on the trek.
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| Glacier Grey in the distance, the refugio is the tiny silvery roof on the righthand side |
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| The ferry showed the true size of the ice calving off the glacier |
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| Only 10mins from camp you could get much closer to the ice |
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| Lovely but cold |
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| Interesting ice shapes |
Day 2
Overnight rain stopped in time for breakfast and packing up the tent. We retraced our steps back to Paine Grande for a quick lunch break. Then we headed across the bottom of the W, to Campamento Italiano. The walking was pleasant, with good views across the lakes, but still pretty overcast. The weather was starting to change with the wind rising and clouds coming and going.
Italiano is situated under the beech trees, tucked at the bottom of Valle France (French Valley). It was very sheltered but quite damp, and very busy! We wandered around for a while before finding a tent site to put up the only non-dome tent in the park.
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| Returning the same way in better weather |
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| An extensive fire ripped through the park last summer, leaving huge areas of burnt trees |
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| The changing weather gave us glimpses of Los Cuernos |
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| Los Cuernos later in the evening |
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