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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