Hiking the ‘W’ – Part 1

After our rather quiet New Year’s Eve we had an early start (what a change!) and got the bus headed for Puerto Natales which is South and back across the border into Argentina again. We were going to be doing the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park. After a long journey mainly due to the wait at the border control for all the buses to go through we made it to PN. Our original plan had been to arrive on 2 Jan and so we had had to book a last minute place in a hostel for tonight as our next one was full. On arriving at the hostel we thought it was closed. The curtains were closed and no sign on the door. A good start….! However. a man appeared at the doorway and assured us it was indeed a hostel! He turned out to be the most helpful hostel person on our trip to date. We dumped our stuff and headed into town for lasagne! Delish. We walked around the town which had a huge lake attached it giving it a coastal vibe before heading back to the hostel for super noodles and a night in the worlds smallest bunk beds.

The next day we checked into our second hostel and were presented with a hut in the garden. It was one of a few huts. I laughed when the guy said it was a double bed. It was barely big enough to be a single bed! It was clear from his reaction that in his mind it was a double and therefore we had to deal with it. The town is full of hiking shops and so we headed to buy the gas for our camping stove and pick up some supplies from the supermarket. The most important being chocolate! The couple of squares of ‘Golden-Nuss’ choccie turned out to be one of the highlights of our day!! We had read about a briefing on the W trek (which is the route we were taking) and so decided to pop along. A good decision as it was very useful. We picked up some sachets of hot chocolate too which were also to become invaluable. Chocolate became very important during the 5 days of camping!

Whilst in the USA we noticed that supermarkets were very well stocked with dehydrated food for camping etc. We had hoped that in one of the most popular hiking places in the world the shops would have every yummy meal available. Wrong. There was nothing. Alex and I felt a business idea coming on! So our meals consisted of porridge for babies (honey flavour), pittas with salami and cheese (incredible) and then cup-a-soup and noodles for dinner. Oh. And chocolate, amazing coconut biscuits and gummy bears. Our diet was lacking a lot of nutrition but we didn’t really have a choice.

After sleeping like pencils so as to fit in the bed, our bags were packed and the rain was hammering down. Nightmare. The bus to the park was a couple of hours and we then had a 90 minute wait for the ferry to take us the 30 minute journey to our starting point and first campsite. I’m sure the ferry is lovely but we didn’t see a thing as the windows all fogged up. The first campsite was right next to the ferry drop off so when there was a lull in the rain we rapidly put the tent up. We tried to pick a sheltered spot but the wind seemed to be coming from all directions. There was a tiny tent near us that the wind just glided over it. The owner of the tent looked like Bear Grylls and we ended up seeing Bear for the next 5 days! No idea what his name is but to us he was Bear! That afternoon the sun came out and we walked along the lake which was nice. We were surrounded by snow topped mountains. That evening we cooked the first of our soups and noodles. A table of Americans next to us had curry and all sorts of amazing looking dehydrated packs. I even heard one of them ‘I probably won’t be able to finish this’! I nearly asked for him to hand it over as we would have it! Alex and I had also made the decision on NYE that we wouldn’t have any alcohol from 1 jan until we finished the trek on 7th Jan. Whilst in the kitchen area we had to endure the popping of beer cans and wine corks. It tested our will power but we didn’t cave!

That night the rain and wind lashed down on our tent. Alex nobly gave me his sleeping bag as mine is for basically tropical climates! I was still freezing. So in the morning with a rubbish night sleep we weren’t really looking forward to a day of walking. But the rain eventually stopped. Hooray. We had our first taste of the baby porridge today. Babies eat rank food. It had no flavour or texture but we didn’t have an alternative. We added some chocolate to it which made it slightly more bearable. We shared an apple to at least attempt having some fruit.

The way to Grey campsite was a battle against the wind. At one point it was so strong we almost got knocked over. The main sight on this walk is Grey Glacier. It’s enormous. There were also are massive icebergs floating around the lake. After a quick lunch break we walked towards the glacier and over some hanging bridges which were higher than we had thought! They certainly had a good wobble on them! That night we had a repetition of dinner and with the rain and wind staying away we hoped we would get a good night’s kip.