For the next couple of days we made our way up north into Chile, passing through the small port town of Punta Arenas into the even smaller Puerto Natales. It was here that we started to prepare for a 4 day hike through the Torres Del Paine National Park.
We decided on the “W Trek”, the most popular route within the park that covers around 75km over the course of 4-5 long days and prayed that our youth would carry us along despite the lack of training and heavy packs!
Day 1
After a 2.5 hour bus trip into the park, we eased ourselves into it with a half day hike to see the famous rock towers, the "Torres". Unfortunately we had to turn back half way through due to poor visibility (we could barely even see the towers amongst the cloud) and constant, strong rain. It just wasn't worth killing ourselves over so we decided to conserve energy for the second day.
On the way back down, the weather began to clear a little and we got our first glimpse of how incredible the scenery was with rich autumn colours, striking rock formations, mountains and crystal clear lakes.
Day 2 – The “Easy" One
The 2nd day was supposed to be the ‘easy’ day, so after a sleep in and breakfast we slowly began the hike to the next refugio under perfect conditions - sunshine, no wind and mild temperatures. A supposed 4.5 hour hike turned into a long 6 hours for us due to picture stops, MANY tricky creek crossings, heavy packs and a finger repair (Elise somehow managed to get a shard of rock stuck in her finger).
Although the last hour or so was in the pouring rain we considered ourselves pretty damn lucky to get an almost perfect day in a park that sees some of the most extreme weather in the world.
Day 3 – The “Tough" One
The following day was a doozy but unbelievable at the same time. We got up at sunrise to make a start on the longest and most difficult day of the trek - 10 hours in total! After around 3 hours of flattish trekking we started to climb through the French Valley in what was yet another strangely perfect day. We got a little lost on the way up, but eventually spotted the right track and ended up at a look-out with spectacular views of the nearby glacier, forest and distant lakes.
Not long into starting the final section of the trail, Ben slipped on a rock and sprained his ankle : ( He carried on with huge pack and all for the final 12kms and we made it to the next refugio before sunset. It was lucky that Ben could use his walking sticks as crutches! I don't think we have ever felt so completely drained of energy in our entire lives. We literally couldn't have taken another step and every muscle ached liked crazy!
With what was considered to be the most beautiful sections of the trek completed, we headed back to town the following day to get Ben's ankle X-Rayed and rested up. Even though we didn't quite finish, we both felt a sense of accomplishment that we got as far as we did given that we had no training.
The thing that amazed us most about TDP was the variety of diverse landscapes and how you can pass through forest, glaciers and flat plains all in the one day. The scenery was constantly changing, but stunning all of the time!
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