Wandering Around the World

Settling in Bariloche
So we arrived into Bariloche after a mammoth 33hr bus journey and in need of some luxury we found this great little hotel run by the craziest grannie ever. The decor was dated but had the comfiest bed, well anything beats a semi reclining coach seat. During the day we made our preperation for the 3-4days trekking ahead of us; got our food together, popped into the local mountainering club for a map and status of the route then picked up some trekking poles due to the potentially snowy conditions on some of the route. As we were returning home from dinner it started to rain and didn`t let up for 15hours!

Bad weather sit out
Calling the next day a right-off, due to the weather ,we managed to find two beds in a cosy but outdoor adventure orientated hostel. The perfect place to sit out the bad weather. After a look on the internet for the local forecast we decided to make our way to the mountains the following day.

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 1
We woke early to find the rain had eventually stopped and made our way to the bus stop. After asking a bus driver and a helpful Dutch couple we rushed to the right stop, chucked our bags in the boot and jumped onboard along with 20 other trekkers with standing room only. The coach was so heavily laden that it scrapped the road as we swung round corners up hill.

After our human sardine tin of a bus journey it was a joy to be making the most of the suns rays and taking in the scenery of the surrounding lakes and mountians. After 4 1/2hrs of passing through dense green forest and scrub our nights stop over come into sight. After our fist experience of walking over snow and crossing a fast flowing river we managed to find a great spot for our tent at the edge of the nearby lake. An interesting dinner of ham and pea soup, pasta and instant potato flakes was soon followed by a well deserved nights kip.

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 2
Early to bed early to rise and all that. Yet again the weather had the upper hand and we spent the day:

• diverting mini rivers away from our tent
• listening to thunder rumble around the valley we were in
• keeping warm in our sleeping bags
• eatting crackers, salami, chocolate and rasins plus - anything but leave the tent in the biblical downpour
• making runs down the side of the lake and over the river for the essential loo stops at the refugio

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 3
As the weather settled it gave us the window to make a break for it. The only thing to left to decide was whether to return back down the path we had come up on day 1 or push on up out of the snow covered valley slopes and down and out of the next valley. The snow was all too inviting and were soon walking up the snowy and rocky slopes, following the all important trail "red dot" markers. 2 hours and some scrabling up rocks later we were on top of the 2000m high exposed ridge looking down across scree slopes, meandeering rivers and our next set of snow dusted slopes to climbed in the distance. It took us another two 1/2 hrs of forest trails, boggy areas and a few river crossings to reach the mountain slopes we had viewed earlier. For our efforts we were rewarded with the largest rainbow I`ve ever seen, spanning the entire valley now below us.

As we climbed higher the weather closed in, turning the sky a grey/purple colour and eventually giving way to the expect down pour. From this point we could see refugio Jakob far away down in the valley. Having our end point in sight made the evil scree slopes easier to negotiate but with thickly packed scrub and worsening conditions we lost the trail. Not hard when the trail is through a huge boggy area. We pushed on, following rivers down slope, until we reached the main river next to the refugio. Now that light was fading fast there was no point in trying to pick the trail up again so waded across the river and soon found the refugio, our lifeline for the night.

After a hearty meal of pasta, instant veggie soup and potato flakes we put our heads down for the night with the rain pelting it down on our poor tent.

Nahuel Haupi Traverse: Day 4

We packed our soggy selves up and headed out from the refugio down into the adjoining valley before coming to the crossing point just after a huge waterfall. We presumed there would be a simple bridge of sorts but we presumed wrong. What we were confronted with was steel cable spanning width of the river. Yet agin there was no choice. We had to wade through the torrent of water and hang on for, litterally, dear life until we reached the other side. Sarah`s bag got a little wet but apart from that we survived unscathed.