Back from the Torres

As you can see from June's video above we had quite an adventure in the Torres Del Paine!

 

We arrived in the park on Sunday in heavy rain, but gamely took the boat across to the western side and had an afternoon hike towards the Grey Glacier. The wind and rain was really strong but we made it to a look-out over the glacier - although due to the overcast weather the glacier lived up to its name and looked grey rather than blue! Luckily the rain stopped and the wind dried us off on our walk back to the refugio.

 

The next morning the rain was even worse, and we decided that we'd have to abandon our hopes of walking the 'W'. Most people staying in the refugio and campsite decided to call it quits and headed out of the park, but we thought we'd give it one more shot so got the boat and bus back to the eastern end and checked into another refugio. We had a pleasant (dry!) walk beside some lakes in the afternoon, and went to bed praying for some good weather the following morning so we could make an attempt to get to the Torres themselves.

 

When we woke up this morning, however, there was no sign of the Torres and it was pretty obvious that any walking would have to be through a snow-storm! Fortunately we had bought some woolly hats and gloves and hired some water-proof trousers, so we excitedly headed up into the snow. As it turned out it was a really good fun hiking through the snow, and after a couple of hours the sun came out and we had some great views down the valley, although not, alas, or the Torres themselves. The deep snow prevented us from getting any further, so we headed back down, and were very happy to meet Vicky, a girl who'd been on the rafting trip with, heading up the hill. One of the best things about travelling is bumping into people you last saw hundreds of miles away.

 

As we were about to climb into the bus and head back to Puerto Natales, the clouds lifted and we finally got a view of the Torres. They didn't look as spectacular as they looks in the books, but as least we saw them!

 

You can see the photos we took in the Chile set.