A short bus ride to the bottom of Cerro Catedral skifield brought us to the start of the trail to Refugio Frey. It's one of the most popular refugios in the park, so we had the tent with us and I was hoping that it wouldn't be too cold.
The first couple of hours skirted the side of the mountain through low bushes and burnt trees, affording nice views across Lake Gutierrez and back towards Bariloche. Then the trail started to climb up through the beautiful beech forest.
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| After some climbing we started to get some good views . . . |
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| . . . so very different to our hikes in Peru. |
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| Even though it wasn't a long hike I was still rather glad to see the refugio |
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| It wasn't far from our previous outing but the mountains are very different . . . |
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| . . . extremely jagged and very popular with rock climbers. |
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| While I stayed in the warm chatting to Brazilian rock climbers, Ben waited outside for the moon to rise. |
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| The Tarptent in action on a pretty tight site. |
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| Refugio Frey and Laguna Toncek |
The weather had been much warmer than our last trip, so we weren't in a rush to head off. On the walk back down we heard some bird sounds off the trail so Ben quickly changed lenses.
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| And this was what we heard - Magellanic Woodpeckers |
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| The female doesn't have the bright head, but her crest is rather lovely |
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| The tock-tock-tock of the bug hunting woodpecker |
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| These little lizards have been everywhere on our hikes . . . |
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| . . . as are these more interestingly coloured ones |
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| Bivvies are a little more upmarket around here . . . |
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| . . . complete with cross and bell. |
The route back took us down to the shores of Lago Guiterrez and into the fierce wind that had started up. Very glad to be heading back to civilisation!
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