Torres Del Paine / Towers of Pain!

After checking out of our over priced hostel, HI Patagonia, we caught the bus south, via Rio Gallegos (Or as I say - Gallallagaygos) and across the Chilean border to Puerto Natales. This journey takes about 22hrs, give or take a couple of hours for the big, fat Chilean Policeman to route around in your bag for fruit; which is a no no.

Puerto Natales has the feel of a frontier town and is one of the furthest south so doesn't get dark until about 11pm; its blustery and surrounded by stunning scenery. Most who come here come for one reason - Torres Del Paine, or as we now refer to them - The Towers of Pain, which is one of Chile's incredible National Parks.

Obviously being seasoned hikers and pro mountain goats we thought we'd have a crack at this and amble through the park. However, the infamous Torres Del Paine is home to some difficult weather conditions! The 'W' route is one of the more popular hikes and takes about 5 days. It takes you to three different valleys and there are various places to camp on route so you end up walking a route that resembles a W. The day before we went to a hostel in Puerto Natalas called Erratic Rock where they give free talks about the park, the different routes and what to expect, consequently we decided to do the W from left to right.

In retrospect, Day 1 was easy, a short 3.5 hour walk to Glacier Grey. Although we each had 15 kilos of tent, food, clothes and general stuff we arrived in good time and pitched camp by 4.30pm. Our campsite was incredible, a small beach next to Glacier Grey and its lake. Whilst we sat on our camp bench and made Nigela Lawson proud with a volumptuous bowl of pasta con tomate, icebergs would float past and the sun shone high.

Valle de Francais and Camp Italiano was our destination for day 2. This involved 6 hour back track from the glacier and across the first 'dip' of the W. After the hike to Italiano the cool sheltered woodland camp was a sight for for sore eyes, and feet! We set up camp and brewed a hot chocolate as some friends, Pete and Jo who we'd met in Puerto Natales appeared from the bush (they had been out walking the Valle de Francais). That night we ate another mountain of pasta and knocked back some of our emergency rations of vino tinto, without a care in the world; little did we know what the towers of pain had in store for us on day 3!!!

Ah yes day 3 = HELL! There is always a point during hiking when fun disappears and is replaced by anger, pain and 70mph winds! Luckily the winds tended to be behind us (one reason for going left to right) but even so with our packs on our backs we were knocked over, pelted with stones and burnt by the sun for a mere 11 hours! Not to mention the three large river crossings. These were actually great fun yet slightly risky. The biggest had water around our shins and was about 30 metres wide with rapids! Crossing the river (with those 70 mph winds) involved holding a rusty bit of wire whilst hopping from bolder to bolder, with water crashing over and filling your boots (well, H's). By the end of day 3 our feet were blistered, our bags were still bloody heavy and our minds were nearly distroyed - thank god we had more pasta for dinner!

The last major hike, day 4, and we were at the end of our tethers. Han's boots had got soaked in the river crossing and only partially dried out, there was a 2 hour climb ahead of us to take us back up to 1000 metres but we decided there was no way we could drop out now. After that climb everything improved, we had spreadable cheese and crackers for lunch - oh soooo good - and by 3.30pm we had made it to our final nights camp, 'las Torres'. This campsite is just below las Torres and in woodland, as the towers looked clear we decided to assending the bolder field which led to the towers. After an hour of scrambling we'd made it and completed the bloody 'W'. The following day we descended the same way in half the time and headed straight for the Hostario (the posh hotel in Torres del Paine) and had our first beer - moy perfecto, and a Lomo al Pobre, the tastiest steak sandwich in the world.