Next on from El Chalten, we crossed the border into Chile into Puerto Natales, where we could get to the Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine) national park. Here we had time to do the 'W' trek, a four day, three night trek where you get to see some of the many wonders of the park. The hostels are phenomenally expensive so we decided to camp the three nights. We found out three things:
1. Camping is not that fun when you're cold and wet and other people are eating and sleeping inside.
2. Check your tent before you go. When the outer zip to the tent does not work, it means your tent will be colder.
3. Carrying tents, sleeping bags, mats and food for four days is very heavy when you are doing a four hour uphill hike.
Apart from that though, it was a brilliant few days with plenty of gorgeous views to distract us.
We saw more glaciers
Lakes that reflected the sky
Amazing valleys
The last morning, we got up at 5:45 to climb up to watch the sunrise over the Torres del Paine mountains. Very sadly, the clouds would not budge and our view was not one to add to a postcard collection.
Waiting in the cold
And how we really felt
Some of the camping highlights
At the end we were very happy to have earned the W medal
Sarah "streams are lethal" Everard ten minutes after starting to cross this raging torrent of water
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