Torres del Paine

Grey Glacier

I remember when Brother Rich and I were in St Marco Square in Venice when we were either side of 20. We were strolling around the square when this booming American voice said “Say Lads where are you from?” We turned around and there was this really fat middle aged man sitting at a table drinking coffee. He gestured us to sit down and join him with a cup of coffee, which we did. What really amazed me was his ignorance. When we informed him that we were from South Africa he replied “I’ve been in Africa, I was in Cairo”! We were blown away to think that he just saw Africa as just one big continent, and had very little idea about  the whereabouts of any of the countries within it.  As it happened he was ignorant, but I must admit I now have some idea of what he was getting at. I don’t think I would ever have seen Cairo around the corner from Cape Town, but if you asked me to draw the boundaries of the countries in South America before deciding to travel here, I think it would create an amusing picture. Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales previously they were just towns “Down there somewhere at the end of the Earth!”  Well Ushuaia is  just short of 55 degrees South and is in Argentine and about as far as roads go South in the world, Punta Arenas is in Chile and is a little over 53 degrees South, and Puerto  Natales  is in Chile and is just short of 52 Degrees South. Chile and Argentine sort of meander between the fiords down at the sharp end of South America.

Puerto Natales is the launch pad for most forays into the amazingly spectacular mountains, glaciers and fiords around this area. It is a pleasant fishing village which had a real boost to its economy from tourism, but it has not lost its simple way of life. Nobody hoots if you happen to stop your car to ask directions. No need for pedestrian signals at intersection, cars will always give way to pedestrians. There is no crime and the people are extremely friendly. Most of the houses are built from corrugated iron, and all in all it has a really pleasant feel to it. It must be pretty bleak in winter where Patricia, our lodgings proprietor, tells us it is not the cold (around -2 degrees) that gets to you, it is the incessant rain.

We were told that it was going to be cold, wet and windy. I am sure, like my self, you imagine that you will be travelling in this rather bleak windswept terrain. Well it isn’t. There is an amazing diversity of flora not dissimilar to the Western Cape. This should really come as no surprise as before the continents decided to part their separate ways, they were neighbours! This part of the world drifted a little further South, so even some UK plants are in evidence.

View from our tent at Paine Grande

Granite Capped Peaks

 As we drive west to the Torres Del Paine national park, there are fields of white daisies and lupins and Hollyhocks.  It is a rolling landscape of grassland.  The suddenness of the Torres Del Pain Massif really takes you by surprise. There are other mountains which form part of the Southern Andes, but the Torres Del Paine area is a completely separate entity, which the blurb tells you was formed about 12 million years ago when some hot stuff slipped into a crack in the surrounding sedimentary layers and pushed it up about 2000 odd meters. It didn’t manage to escape so it just caused a bit of a bulge then cooled down. It then took 12 million years to wash away the soft surrounding layers, which is what we see today. Extraordinary formations with hard dark granite peaks covered in snow and sitting on top of light coloured sedimentary layers with vertical  sides. It is a truly astounding and awesome sight.

Then there are the three Torres;  Norte, Central and Sur. These are the massive spikes that stick out between the other eroded mountains presenting an awe inspiring sight.

There are over 200 km of trails and hikes in the Park, the most well-known being the W Circuit. This is what we travelled about 40 something hours to come and walk. We could have flown to Puerto Natales which would have knocked our travelling time down to about two hours, broken the bank and robbed us of a whole bunch of stories and fun.

Ewa hiding from the wind

View from final camp 

Final Valley

We made it!

Torres del Paine
Sur Central & Norte

Not a bad stroll

Will it clear?

Basically there are three valleys. If you can imagine starting your walk by walking up and down the a the left hand  valley, around the bottom, up and down the middle valley , around the bottom, then  up and down the next valley, you would have formed and completed a W. You would also be pretty knackered, quite hungry, lost a couple of kilos, have stiff glutes, calves and a couple of other bits you didn’t know you had.

Pack Horses

You would also have a smug smile on your face as you would have seen sights of Nature that words cannot describe, walked into winds that literally nearly blow you off your feet, pushed yourself a little harder than you would normally do, met wonderful people, walked through forests, put your toes into glacial lakes, drunk ice-cold water from mountain streams, heard and felt the rumbling of an avalanche, seen Condors, felt rain on your face and cold on your cheeks. Seen horseman riding pack-horses along narrow mountain paths. You would have laughed and nearly cried, talked and dreamed. You would have realised why you sent Ewa out to work!

In 1976 five South Africans became the first climbers to climb the East face of the Central Torre. 35 years later two OAP’s clad in Motorcycle jackets, Motorcycle gloves, shorts and Takkies, put their heads into the wind and braved the last 45 minutes of near vertical scramble over screed and rocks to complete the W Circuit and gaze and wonder at the enormity of the achievement 35 years earlier.

Having done that, the OAP’s skipped down the mountain and basked in 28 degrees of breathless sunshine, finished their last stale roll dipped in “cup of packet soup”, slept like a log, packed up the tent, loaded Ewa with bags and caught the net bus back to Hostel Patagonia Natural in Puerto Natales, where we promptly devoured half a cow with salad on the side and toasted ourselves with a clinc of Coke, as I still need to check that the Liver has recovered from Malaria before sampling Chilean and Argentinian Grape juice.

What fun we have had. Weather? Damn near perfect, winds light and variable to gale force at times, Temperature 24 degrees C , none of the dire weather predictions transpired.

 Northwards we go to El Calafate, Barraloche and back to Buenos Aires where the bike finally arrives a month late on the 1^st March. It is all part of the adventure.