Wandering Around the World

Never one`s to sit back and do nothing we decided to fit in another 2 day trek in the gorgeously green lake packed Parque Huerquehue. We had two days before heading over to Mendoza, Argentina which made the days pretty long. The walking was all under the shade of monkey puzzle tree forests around numerous blue lakes. Extra insentive came from the natural geothermal pools based at most campsites at the end of the trail. The nearby volcano Valarica,just outside Pucon, helping to heat the springs. After a days walking the pools lived up to expectation with steaming hot water to soothe aching muscles and bones. We went in more than once just to make sure we were relaxed enough before putting our heads down.

We got up before dawn and make porridge in the moonlight. Just to make sure we were heading the right way the farms dog decided to follow us along the cow track. We thought he`d stop once we got back into the park but 8hrs later the dog "Mut-mund" as we named him was still by our sides. We let the park rangers know about Mut-mund`s wandering antics to which they just nodded and said he`d been seen around before.

Realising we weren`t going to be able to make it down to Ushuia (the most southerly city in the world) and back before christmas we headed inland to El Calafate then over the border to Chile for our first attempt at multiday trekking.

We picked up a map, some previsions and booked our early morning coach journey to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Whilst waiting outside our campsite in the cold for the coach we had chat with an English couple, Mark and Maria, (the M&S bag giving their nationality away). They were heading to Torres to do the "W" a large route that covers most of the valleys and look outs in the park. Being a bit doubtful of our walking abilities we chose to only do a small section of the main route but still get the chance to camp near to Glacier Grey and it`s blue lake.

After a bumpy and dust bus ride winding round hairpins at speed we arrived at the park administration and set off on the first leg. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery even better; snow capped mountians and milky blue lakes. The head-wind picked up slightly but we made it to refugio grand paine for mid-afternoon.The refugio was more like resort with hot showers,a grocery store and a windproof communal kitchen. A friendly french trekker who was leaving that day gave us first dibs on her lovely sheltered and flat spot so we were sorted.

The next day clouds had smoothered the mountains in the distance but we set off along the sometimes steep and craggy trail towards glacier grey. We certainly go enough decent views of the glacier during the day and were amazed by the amount of icebergs floating in the lake. We bumped into Mark and Maria halfway along the trail and were pleased to see they`d made it despite their heavy load. Refugio Grey provided an opportune stop for lunch as we took in even more white and blue (a weird toilet cleaner blue) icebergs sailing by driven by the strong winds. Refueled we pushed on and made it to refugio Los Guardas, a campsite with a basic facilities but only 200 metres from glacier Grey. Sarah and I made camp then went for a wander to sit back and marvel at the glacier close up.

After a night of keeping annoying little midgies out of our tent we dead chuffed to be on our final days walking. With perfect weather, bit of a breeze and not too hot, the kilometers rattled by. By early afternoon we`d made it through the nasty long climbs and we back for a we deserved shower. To top it off the sheltered spot we`d left was still free.