1. Surprise, we're going to the end of the world

29th Oct 2013

     I like to surprise Andrew, whether that be jumping out from behind a door when he is innocently wandering around the house looking for me or not being angry at him for taking more than a year to finish the renovation of our en-suite! Birthdays are for surprises, I don't bother with little gifts for birthdays, x-mas, anniversaries, fathers day etc I just save them up and go the grand gesture once a decade. Last decade I surprised Andrew with a motorbike

Andrew and Harriet the Chariot 

      This year, for his 50th, I surprised Andrew with a trip to the end of the world, three weeks in Patagonia. To this day I'm astounded that Andrew didn't get tipped off early as I spread to word far and wide in the hope that someone I knew had been there and could give me some pointers, no one had and information was hard to come by. So knowing that I wanted us to hike the  Torres del Paine circuit but lacking any more information and lacking the time to find it ( only 2 week before Andrews birthday and during a busy work period )  I headed into Noosa & Cooroy Cruise and Travel where Natalie got me a good deal on flights and Veronica gave me some little gems of information that made making our plans once we reached Chile much easier. I did find out in the weeks before we left that 2 of our mountain biking friends had actually met and fallen in love in Patagonia, so I was right it was a romantic place to go. 

2. It's just a hop, step and jump away.

19th Nov 2013     

 Patagonia

     Andrew and I were up at 2am so we could get a 5am flight to Sydney, I'm feeling a little nervous as all I have organised is our flights, bus tickets to Puerto Natales and 3 nights accommodation...3 nights out of 20. Life has been a little busy and during our 1st flight I gave the e-tickets a quick once over. Turns out Patagonia is just a hop, step, jump, leap, pirouette and bound from Queenslands Sunshine Coast, this involved stops Brisbane - Sydney - Auckland - Santiago - Puerto Montt ( this stop involved some people getting off, people getting on, people changing seats and much confusion - especially if you don't speak Spanish ) - Punta Arenas. We arrived at Punta Arenas airport on a cold and rainy evening and easily found the bus for the 3 hour journey to Puerto Natales, let me tell you now that this is a boring trip just miles of undulating grassland. 

Patagonia is highlighted in green

We had organised bus tickets via our hostel so were surprised when the conductor made us buy tickets. I should have been suspicious that he put the money in his pocket and didn't give me a receipt -  they are obsessive about receipts in Chile and this was the only time I didn't get a receipt and I ended up having to pay for the tickets again when we got to the hostel ( they had a receipt and tickets ) fortunately bus travel is very affordable in Chile and two tickets only cost $20. This was also about the time we realised that being able to speak Spanish would have been very useful, very little English is spoken in Patagonia, the only other place we have been where English is so infrequently spoken is South Korea. 

Hostel Alcalzar - Puerto Natales

Arriving in Puerto Natales at 10.30 pm we found a map at the bus terminal and shouldered our backpacks like a couple of uni students and blundered around dark back streets trying to find our Hostel. Now as any Adventure Racer knows it is always a little difficult to get your head around the map initially and mistakes are often made on the way to the 1st checkpoint and this was no exception, it took us 30 mins instead of 5 to make our way to the Hostel and we were within spitting distance of it more than once.

Hostel Alcalzar foyer with Spanish speaking laptop

Hostel Alcazar is a short walk from the bus terminal and the center of town, at $70 a night it is good value with clean rooms and showers with good pressure and plenty of hot water. Manuel who is part of the team at Hostel Alcalzar speaks reasonable English and did try to sell us a tour at 11pm when we arrived! 

The rooms are quirky and comfortable, just like my hubby

     

     The beds are hard but this was not a problem as we always travel with our Thermarest NeoAir mattresses so we just popped these under the sheets and were as comfy as can be. We didn't make use of our mattresses till the second night as after 34hrs in transit we just fell into bed and were asleep in no time.

                           

3. Time to Plan

20th Nov 2013

You know how it is when you are in a new and exciting place and you don't want to waste any time, well so it was with Andrew and I. 

Vegemite -  Breakfast of Champions

We got going around 7.30am ( not a bad effort after such a long day the day before ) and headed down to breakfast which is included in the $70 per night. Breakfast was ... interesting and I have had worse (cold chips, stale white bread and jam, this being a 4 star Chinese hotels idea of a European breakfast) and I have certainly had better but the cardboard bread was made edible by the addition of Vegemite. This is the 1st time we have included Vegemite in our travels, now it is one of our travel " must haves ", it is something that I always crave when travelling overseas and I have always worried about taking it into other countries but there was no need for concern as Australia is the only country that considers this black paste to be a food! 

   


  The days begins very early in the north of Patagonia in the summer with sunrise at 5.30 am, as we walked along the very quite streets of Natales at 9am we discovered that the sun is the only thing that gets going early, shops open 10am and stay open till 1pm then it is siesta time until 3pm with closing time around 8pm. 

The first order of business is to find a good coffee, fortunately for us our wanderings draw us down to the waterfront and we spot a likely establishment " The Coffee Maker " Once we get past the confusion of dos cafe with dos shot we get two very nice coffees, coffee order confusion is a reoccurring issue for us and note I say " get past " not overcome - getting coffee is one of our bellwether experiences indicating just how far from " home " we really are; more on coffee later. Turns out it is very cold in Patagonia in summer and I had left my windproof fleecy vest at home so the second order of business was to buy a pretty puffy jacket to keep me warm.

The Coffee Maker and Adventure Shop were this blue jacket was purchased.

Coffee machine - a thing of beauty.

Every good holiday has an Itinerary 

     So now we have found good coffee it's time to plan our holiday. We knew we wanted to do the " O Circuit " of Torres del Paine which according to my research would need between 8 and 10 days so with that in mind we headed of to a travel agent and came out with tickets on an Expedition Cruise from Ushuaia ( Argentina ) to Punta Arenas. With this in place we put together and itinerary and after another coffee went back to the hostel where I used the Spanish speaking laptop to pay our Reciprocity Fee ( required by Australians wanting to enter Argentina ) and to book accommodation in Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. The key to using a Spanish speaking laptop is lots of experience with the windows operating system and the Alt Grt key, without which it is impossible to get the @ symbol.

Just some of the many stray dogs on the streets of Puerto Natales

Funky rubbish bins - lots of the bins were baskets on poles, to keep it out of reach of the dogs.

The waterfront Puerto Natales

Lots of street art

Not sure if this house 'settled' or was built by a man with one leg shorter than the other

All good we can rest easy we found the Tsunami evac route

Almost sunset - 9pm the days are long this far south!

10pm

4. Giant Sloths

21st Nov 2013

     Day two in Puerto Natales and after yesterday we knew we didn't have to get moving early, so it's coffee then a bike hire shop where they speak no English and we speak no Spanish but none of us see that as a real barrier and we get two bikes for 6hrs for $20 so we can ride out to the Miladon Cave. This is a 48km round trip via quiet country roads with beautiful scenery and I was luck enough to see an Andean Fox some 50m away. It rained on us on the way back but in typical Patagonian fashion it soon stopped and we were dry by the time we got back to town. Once back in town we sat around waiting for 1/2 an hr for the bike shop to open, when the owner arrived he explained via charades that he went home for siesta and slept in!

Sign Photo!

Always got to have a sign photo or two

One of many Gauchos we saw along the way. 

Andrew loves a good sign photo

The snow caped peaks in the distance had me wondering if we were going to be warm enough.

The wide open road

The Miladon ( pre-historic sloth ) in all his glory

Inside the Miladon Cave

No need to worry about getting lost

     Puerto Natales is a lovely town, the bars and shutters that all businesses have belie how safe the town felt. The stall holders and shop keepers are not pushy, there are no beggars, as long as you don't count all the street dogs. The main area of town is a collection of small business including many adventure shops, none of which are one stop shops each seems to have a small and eclectic array of items so be sure to come prepared for any adventures you intend to undertake as there is no guarantee that you will be able to find what you need in Natales. We were setting out on our 8 day hiking adventure in the morning so it was time to stock up on the necessities. We brought 10 dehydrated meals with us from Australia ( which we declared and had no issues with bringing through Chile customs ) and thank goodness we did because there were no good camping foods to be found in Natales and very few foods that we recognised. Thank goodness we found some Lindt chocolate, ( the main brand available, Costa is revolting )  milk powder, porridge, lollies, nuts, baby belle cheese, water crackers and dried fruit. Getting a gas canister for our Jet Boil stove was easy but getting batteries for our Steripen ( UV water purifier ) was a challenge but eventually we found them in a cheap shop. We booked a boat tour up to the Torres del Paine National Park for the morning and we were all set to go.

5. Navegacion a Los Glaciares

22nd Nov 2013 

     Time for the Patagonian Adventure to really begin. It's an early morning start, pick up at 7.30 am to board the 21 de Mayo for the trip along the Senoret Canal and into Fiordo Eberhard.

Really felt like an adventure with the crusty old sea dog doing the meet and greet 

Beautiful sailing conditions

Balmaceda Glacier

 Serrano Glacier

Giving Serrano Glacier a bit of scale

Time to taste some Glacial Ice

     After the short walk to the Serrano Glacier viewing area we jumped into a zodiac to head over to Serrano homestead which looks out at the Glacier where we shared a meal of delicious pan fried salmon and too much wine with a small group that we're also heading up to the Torres del Paine National Park.

Off the zodiac and about to get in a bus - Torres del Paine in the background

Time for a selfie...Andrew does sign photos, I do selfies

    This was a lovely tour but somewhat overpriced for what we got. We were very surprised to find that the driver was going to leave us some 7km from where we expected to start hiking from. We had been told there were buses all the time ( we would have to wait 2hrs for the next bus ) fortunately for us there was an Italian couple that spoke Spanish who were also doing some hiking, they negotiated with the driver to take us into the park to Las Torres where we could camp since it was too late to set out hiking. On arrival at Las Torres Hotel Andrew thought he would see if we could get a room for the night, " sure " said the lovely young lady in very clear English " that will be $600 " Hmmm...maybe not, $12 for camping sounds more than reasonable.

6. Rainbow, cows, icebergs and a scout camp

23rd Nov 2013

     A very cold night dawned to be a beautiful warm day, the 1st and last warm day for our entire 3 week holiday. The night was cold enough that as well as my 0 degree C sleeping bag, thermal liner and multiple layers of wool clothing I had to use my SOL Bivvy bag ( this is a silver emergency blanket that is fabric rather than foil and stitched together so you can get inside it like a sleeping bag ) I lay it over my sleeping bag and that made all the difference. We have recovered from a scare last night, thinking that he had left his pocket knife in Natales Andrew opened the dehydrated meal packaging with my Kathmandu nail clippers only to find his pocket knife in the morning, crisis averted. Las Torres camping area is very large with plenty of flat sites on soft lush grass next to tables, There are hot showers and as with all the camping areas in the Torres del Paine NP toilets. 

A very comfy night - better than a $600 hotel room for-sure. 

Nothing like a rainbow to make a place feel magical

Andrew - pretty pleased to be camping here

Map showing todays hike in green from Las Torres to Dickson - 28km

     We had a big day planned so got going by 7.30am, Andrew had asked around the day before and been pointed in the direction of a road and told to follow the markers, sure enough we found the orange markers that were to be our guides along the entire route. These markers were well placed and easy to find - no chance of getting lost.

1st part of the day was a hike through herds of cattle on private land.

The entire day is spent hiking along this river valley, making for easy walking and beautiful scenery

A combination of our favorite things, a selfie sign photo - now that's how to keep everyone happy!

Lunch stop at Seron

     The days 28km route took us along a beautiful river valley with a lunch stop at Seron Camping ground where we had one of our dehydrated pasta meals. We decided on the beef and pasta hotpot, it wasn't great, we put that down to being out at practice at preparing them, maybe we hadn't let it soak long enough, maybe we didn't shake it up enough...nope when we had the 2nd one some days later it turns out that it just isn't any good ( sorry Back Country Cuisine this one is a dud ) but it was edible and we knew we would need the energy. Andrew and I had not done any preparation for this 120km hike and all we had was our base level fitness, a new pack for me, a sense of adventure and brand new hiking boots. I know I can hear you all saying ' make sure you wear you boots in before the hike'  but when Andrew pulled his hiking boots out of the cupboard and the soles were starting to part company with the rest of the boot and with my boots being of a similar age we had no choice but out to the adventure shops a week before departure to get shod. We both got Salomon Elios 3 Mid GTX boots and all I can say is Salomon shoes were made for my feet, I love these hiking boots, light, comfortable, waterproof and did I mention comfortable. They have flexible soles which allow for a natural gait and much better stability than traditional rigid soled hiking boot. I am never wearing a rigid soled, death trap, high cut hiking torture boot again...just sayin'.

The only creek crossing we needed to take our boots off for

Andrew making it look easy

Me making it look really difficult - it was extremely cold! Think ice cream headache in your feet!

Out of private land and into the National Park

Time for a quick rest and some more layers as it is getting cold

Most creek/steam crossing involved a little bit of a balancing act

Finding a comfy rest spot is important - it makes you happy

But don't get too comfortable

Or the crazies set in

Having forgotten our gaiters we were glad someone had extended the board walk

Some creek crossings were more leap of faith than balancing act.

This was a welcome sight - Camp Dickson looking very much like a scout camp ( I kept think ' Moonrise Kingdon' ), with and iceberg to boot

     When we crested a rise around 6pm and saw camp Dickson in the distance it was quite a relief, having not done any hiking/tramping for over two years and Andrew carrying 20kg ( he was still carrying way too much water - blame many years of hiking in Australian for that habit ) and me carrying not the 10kgs I'd hoped for but 15kgs we were pretty tired. Once again we found a nice camping area with grassy flat sites and tables, there was also a shop were Andrew bought us a snickers each and before I knew what I'd done I'd scoffed 3/4 of it and reluctantly gave the last 1/4 to a still hungry looking Andrew ( mind you Andrew is a bit like a Fox Terrier - he always looks hungry ) I was tired enough that even a generator starting up at 9pm was not enough to keep me awake.

Being shoulder season the camp was fairly quiet with only six others campers in residence

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