The trek to the Towers of Pain.

The boat trip on the way over. I told you the water was blue!

More sights from the boat across the lake. Pretty amazing eh?

My first glimpse of the glacier. There was also the strongest wind I´ve ever experienced on this ridge.

Kat enjoying the view.

The bluest blue!

Guess what my favourite colour is.

Kat really enjoying the walk.

One of the few moments it wasn´t raining on the third day.

We did it!

The walk back to the bus.

As much as I was expecting to do a bit of walking during our time in the Torres del Paine National Park, I never imagined that our 3 days would turn into one of the hardest, wettest, sometimes scariest yet also the most amazing period of walking I´ve ever done. We left the hostel bright and early on the Monday morning with our back packs brimming with food, tents and sleeping bags eagerly looking forward to what to me was going to be a pleasent stroll around some nice looking scenery in the sunshine. I was very wrong about the weather but very right about the scenery and what we saw. Maybe better if I go through it briefly day by day.

Monday (Day 1) - Take the 3 hour bus to the entrance to the park, sign in and collect our maps then take a 30min boat ride across a lake to the first ´Refugio´or camping spot from where we´d start our walk. Already on the ferry ride I knew that we were in for something special. The lake was the bluest blue. A very ´mineral´blue which makes sense as it is apparently the minerals in the water that causes it. The colour of the lake against the backdrop of huge white mountains was breathtaking. Already though the wind was a hootin. Very windy indeed.

We met a nice Belgian couple on the ferry who were going to do the same trek as us up to the glacier the first day so we tagged along and it was nice to have some company for the first day. They happened to have both been sent to Santiago for work reasons and so decided not to waste the opportunity to come and visit the park. We chatted while we walked, saw an owl on the way and before we knew it (actually 3hours walking later) we came over a ridge and spotted our first ice berg. It was so exciting for some reason! The colour of the ice was incredible, the bluest bluest blue. Yes! Even more blue than the lake we´d just been over!

As we carried on our walk we finally made it to the end of the glacier. Again we came over a ridge and there it was. A huge flowing river of ice coming down the valley and just ending suddenly in the lake. It was a fantastic sight. Look at the photo.

After a nice dinner of some sort of rice soup thing we´d found in the supermarket and a few beers we collapsed into our tent excited about tomorrow would bring.

Tuesday (Day 2) - Our plan had originally been to trek the short 3 hours down to the first Refugio (where we were dropped off by the ferry) , have lunch and then a short 2.5hour trek over to the next refugio, pitch the tent and go have a look up the valley at the mountains. The first part went swimmingly, we must have bolted it down as we arrived early for lunch but just as we were arriving the heavens opened, and they did not close for a long time. We donned our waterproof trousers and jackets (lucky I actually packed them!) and headed off to the next campsite. 2.5hours later we arrived and it was still pouring and the clouds were low. There was no way we were going to see anything up there. We thought ´no point in going up the valley, what shall we do?´. What do you do after treking for 5.5hours with 2.5 in the rain? You trek another 2.5 hours to the next campsite of course! That´s what we decided to do as it would save us time the next morning. At the time it sounded like a reasonable thing to do but I think in hindsight we´ve come to realise that it was absolute madness. Still it was pouring, still we walked. The photo of Kat by the lake is an absolute classic and captures the feeling at that time, still with about an hour to go.

Finally we arrived at the campsite, pitched up, took our sodden clothes off and headed into the warmth of the refugio cafe. I´m not sure we said a word to anyone or each other for a good half hour. Just sat, staring into space and thinking ´what have we just done?´. We saw on the map that we´d walked 23km. Maybe doesn´t sound like much on a road, but with a heavy bag, horrible rainy weather and hard terrain it felt like 123km!!

Wednesday (Day 3) - After the heroics of the day before, this day turned out to be a lot easier and shorter than we firstly anticipated. Again the rain was pouring so within 15mins of leaving the camp at 10am, after waiting a good hour to see if it would calm, by feet were sodden with 6 hours of walking to go. We got a bit lost leaving the campsite, ending up on a horse trail until we finally found it again crossing a bridge over a river to see a tent wallowing around in the white water. Someone had a very unlucky night!

We battled on, being joined by Kath a fellow Brit we´d met in the refugio the night before, crossing huge overflowing rivers ´stepping stone´style (very scary) and doing our best to get through bogs with our feet reasonably dry (not so scary). A couple of hours up the trail we caught up with what at first looked like an absoulte mad man of a camper, dragging black plastic bin bags full of pots and pans and with more bags stacked high on his backpack. Turned out that this ´madman´was a local Chilean and some kind of a Sherpa fellow who was transporting the gear of 7, yes 7 Italians from one Refugio to another. The more impressive thing was this guy was going at a fair lick, not stopping for any river or big puddle. Straight through thank you very much. This is how we trek in Chile. We lost him just as we were heading up the final big climb of the day to the campsite.

The purpose of the final trek was to see the famous ´Torres´up high in the park. 3 granite pillars carved out of the surrounding mountain by a descending glacier. As the weather up to now had been so dreadful we´d all but given up hope of seeing anything but as we arrived in the campsite the weather finally began to clear and you could just about see the tips over the surrounding mountains. However, after the hard day before and another hard day today in the rain we had absolutely no more energy to get up there. We decided to risk it and hope that the weather stayed half descent for tomorrow morning, our last chance.

Thursday (Day 4) - After a good nights sleep we woke up to see that finally, our luck with the weather had broken. Clear blue skies!! So at 8am, still half asleep we sped up the mountain as fast as we could, drinking water from the streams Ray Mears style as we´d forgotten our water bottle. We felt so close to nature, we had become one. Up, up and up the trail went and the closer and closer we got although it did feel at a few points that we would never make it. It was one of those classic ´Just over that hill´moments, where over that hill lay another hill obscuring the view.

Í cant do anymore Rhys´ Kat said.

Ýes you can´I replied. ´This is what we did it for, this is what we live for!!!´ ´FFREEEDOOOOM¨!

Finally, after the 500th hill we made it to see the most amazing sight. 3 huge pillars of granite standing proud over a glacier lake. We thought that after what we´d battled through the previous days we thoroughly deserved it. It was a fantastic ending to the trek.

So, after a quick descend back to the camping we made it back to the bus stop with half an hour to spare. Walking back in blazing blue skies and knowing how lucky we´d been to see those pillars, our legs didn´t hurt anymore (mine didn´t, kat´s did) and our bags felt lighter. Although our bags were actually a lot lighter. Less food you see.

We had a great huge pizza with lots of beers in the evening to say farewell to Kath before collapsing on our hostel beds ready for the bus the next morning. 30hours of busing later and we´ve made it to the small Welsh colony town of Gaiman (no funny jokes please). Strange to see Welsh written around the place and even stranger to be speaking Welsh with the hostel/hotel owner. I´ll write more of our experiences here at a later date. I think the words and photos of Torres del Paine will suffice for now!

Late edit : Sorry but the computer here doesn´t seem to want to upload anymore photos. I promise that I´ll get them up as soon as I can so you can see the bluest blue and also the bluest bluest blue!