Torres Del Paine

This leg of the journey, from Ushuaia to Santiago, is where we do a lot of the hiking. There are 3 big walking destinations; Tierra del Fuego (which we only did a short 2 hour walk to the beavers dam), Torres Del Paine and Los Glaciares National Park. We have told ourselves that this is the leg when we are going to get fit and stop drinking so much.

We had 3 days in Torres Del Paine National Park. The approach was spectacular. The mountain range is the end of the Andes, which is a 7000km long mountain range that spans pretty much the whole of South America. We cross it and climb it and slide down it many times in the next few months. The Torres Del Paine range sticks out of the landscape like giant mr whippy 99 ice cream which could be seen for miles away. We sat on the roof on the way in to get the full effect of the size of the range. It was pretty cold up there but it was worth it.

When we got to the campsite we got a good spot in a little hut to protect us from the wind then 3 of us decided to climb up a hill overlooking the campsite to get a better view of the mountain range. The walk was a tough uphill stuggle followed by some rock climbing at the end to get right to the top of an out crop. We were knackered but proud of ourselves and figured it was good practice for the next day.

How wrong we were. The first walk was to see the 3 towers, which is the main walk of Torres. We were enthusiastic when we set off, wearing our walking boots for the first time, with my hydration bladder in my bag, thermals, fleece, goretex jacket, packed lunch and bar of chocolate. The walk was in 3 parts. The first was a steep but boring incline up the side of a mountain. My lungs were burning after about half an hour and to make it worse the sun had come out and it was boiling hot, completely the opposite of what we expected. Who climbs a mountain to see a glacier and expects it to be hot? We had to take all our layers off and then carry them for the rest of the journey. After the first hour we didnt appear to be any closer to our destination, and everyone in the group had gone ahead of us, but the route changed to a more foresty and less steep walk. After over an hour walking uphill, walking downhill felt gooooood.

The second part of the walk took an hour and went by a river. The views werent very spectacular, but most of the time we were looking at our feet anyway and wishing it was over. The third part of the walk was a boulder scramble to the top. When the glacier had melted hundreds of years ago, it had left huge boulders which were very hard to climb over. By the time we had crawled to the top it would have to be a f··king amazing sight to make this pain worthwhile. Fortunately the 3 towers had been covered in cloud all day and had just cleared as we got to the top. There was a little glacial lake and a waterfall and the rest of the group were there to greet us. It was nice and quiet and we had a chance to chill out, put down our stuff and enjoy the view. The relief was only sullied by the fact that we had to pick up all our stuff again and travel another 3 hours down the mountain to get back. By the time we got back, Dees feet had turned to bloody stumps and my legs felt like jelly. We collapsed on the grass and people cheered as we arrived. It was one of the worst experiences I had been through, not just on this trip, but ever. I dont think me and Dee are natural ramblers.

On the second day everyone set off to do the French Valley walk, but we decided to go horse riding instead, with the rest of the blistered people. The views of the range from the plains were amazing and we even got the horses to canter, but me, dee and a couple of others had the older horses and eventually everyone else had trotted off and left us with the retirement party horses to slowly amble the last hour and refuse to go any faster, no matter how hard we kicked them.

We were tempted not to go out on the third day, but I really wanted to see the glacier so I forced Dee to come on another walk to the Grey Glacier. As soon as we set off Dees blisters were in pain and she was in a bad mood. She refused to talk to me until we got to the first viewpoint for the glacier, 2 hours into the walk. We had lunch and headed back to the bar at the bottom of the mountain. She cheered up after a buy-one-get-one-free pisco sour

We left Torres with the understanding that we are not good hikers...