There is something special about drinking water fresh from a mountain stream and that's just what we did for 5 days. We also ate alot of dehydrated pasta and soup but that wasn't quite as romantic...

We had heard that the Torres del Paine National Park had refugios to stay in and thought we would be spending a cheap few days walking in the countryside and sleeping in huts. When we enquired about the trip though, we found out that these huts were charging the extortionate price of $27 per person per night and being cheapskates we decided to camp. Never having done anything like this before I was all keen and encouraging as Jon carefully felt the weight of all the equipment we would need to carry. "That sleeping bag doesn't weigh much! Nor does that tent, or the poles, or camping stove" etc. The night before we were due to go I felt rather concerned at how heavy all those "not very heavy" things ended up weighing.

The morning of our departure it was raining. We got on the coach and were entertained by our american friend who was making a film on his digital camera featuring Pinochio and his search for his cousin Guido, and by the time we were half way to the National Park the sun was out. The first day took us up a hill that rose steeply for about 2 hours. It was arduous and we stopped often but reaching the top of the incline helped dispel our fears that we would be unable to carry our packs.

The path levelled out somewhat but were thankful to drop our gear at the camp site before climbing the last section up to the actual Torres. "It'll be easy!" we thought, "now that we don't have those heavy weights on our backs!" Little did we know that the trail led directly up the side of the mountain though, over, into and through a miriad of streams and some patches of knee deep snow before developing into a knee popping boulder scramble (© Lonely Planet) with only a few red dots painted in obscure places as a guide. It was here that the phrase, "we're nearly there now" began to be said with regularity and continued for the rest of the trip.

When we were ACTUALLY there we emerged over the top of the boulder pile to be rewarded by the magnificent sight that is the Torres del Paine. I dropped my walking stick in astonishment. Then we had a cup of tea and some biscuits in true English style as we watched the sun sink behind the rocks turning them a beautiful shade of red as it went.

We were entirely on our own that night in the wooded camping area and the only noises we heard were the babbling stream and the pumas growling around our tent (at least that's what it sounded like!)

3rd day - Valle de Frances
Through rivers and bogs, over streams and boulders, up scree, round trees, we did it all. There was some doubt cast over whether we would be able to lug all our gear to the Britannico campsite on the advice of a man who had walked it without gear the day before so we were doubly pleased to arrive. We had travelled up a valley between a glacier and Los Cuernos which looked like they had been dipped in chocolate with their jagged dark tops . Every now and then we would hear a thunderous sound and it would be another avalanche above the glacier. It was fun to watch because you could see the event almost half a minute before you heard it. The camp was slightly further than expected and we had been forced to complete some sort of game show style maze through a swamp just before the camp and I was so tired and angry that I had to hit the wooden sign and call it a naughty camp for not being closer. Hmm, I think the madness was setting in...
We relaxed in the fading sunshine watching a rainbow edged cloud until it was dusk and then slept in our deserted wooded campsite.

The valley culminated in a punchbowl of dramatic mountains and we rose early the next morning to eat breakfast at the viewpoint near the back of the bowl. We were joined by a few curious birds and the mountains viewed our eggs and coffee jealously. We knew for a fact that there was no one around for about 10 miles in any direction and for a short time, the mountains were ours.

I asked Jon if he thought we were at one with nature and we decided that we weren't, but when we came back to the bottom of the valley and started encountering people we felt kind of ferrel and decided that we may not be at one with it but we were definitely closer.

Here are some other people's pictures wot I robbed of the web;

Torres del Paine

Los Cuernos

Map of Torres del Paine