The big one.......The "W" trek (part 1!)

This blog is so epic google blogger couldn`t handle it so read part 2 after......if you don`t get bored by part 1

For some reason we thought that we hadn`t done enought trekking in El Chalten so we agreed to go on the daunting W Trek, Patagonia`s most famous offering. Why do people do it......? I`m not quite sure as it`s bloody knackering.....but saying that, it is 100% worth it for the views that Torres del Paine has and the sense of achievement.

Arriving at Puerto Natales, the best place to prep for the walk and leave your bags etc, we went to a well known free talk for trekkers at "Erratic Rock Hostel". Here we received information on the best way to attack it and what to take with you including equipment, food, clothing etc. Following this talk we went out to get our food supplies which ends up being quite a lot for 5 people over 5 days.

Once again with Mark and Leila in our trekking team, we joined up with an America chap called Derek who we`d bumped into previously but hadn`t really got to know him. But he was on his own so was looking for people to walk with and we were more than happy to expand the team. We did have Cyrille with us but he opted to do the longer 9 day trek the crazy frenchman! Having purchased all our food (which we had seperated out and bagged in bin liners to make them waterproof for the trek) we now needed to get our equipment which turned out to be much more effort that anticipated.

We decided to each get a backpack, sleeping bag, water proof trousers, sleeping mat, with me getting a waterproof jacket (for some reason I didn`t pack one) and Jen opting for walking poles, and we both obviously needed a tent. We handed our list to the erractic rock as they offered equipment hire too however they didn`t have all the gear back in yet as they were waiting for returns. They gave us our tents and sleeping mats and assured us it wouldn`t be a problem, and to come back a few hours later to pick everything else up. So that we did, rocking up 2 hours later only for the same story, not everything in. Now being about 5pm they said to come back at half 9 which again... we did and guess what....same situation. This time they said come back at 10.30. With all the other equipment rental shops shutting at 10pm our mate Mark opted to get his sleeping bag from a different place which turned out to be the savour. Returning at 10.30 we got back to be told that there were only 2 sleeping bags with me Jen and Leila all needing one. With all the shops shut now we thought that we had been screwed over but the erratic rock staff managed to muster together a crappy sleeping bag which didn`t provide enough warmth, good job I like the cold! They did give us that sleeping bag for free though. All this faff had taken away from the fact that they didn`t even have the walking poles we were promised, but at least we had something to sleep in!

With all our gear finally sorted (ish) we went and got an early sleep in preparation for our little journey the next day. By little, I might be underexaggerating.... here`s a run down of what were about to take on (I hope you can make out the W in the map below, but I`ll mention campsites as markers). Bear in mind that I had between 15 and 20kg strapped to my back for this trek!


Day 1 - not actually on the map below but you can just see the end of it in the bottom of the picture.....a nice flat walk for about 6 hours with backpacks (17.5k), ending at Campamento Pehoe.

Day 2 - Campamento Pehoe to Campamento Grey without backpacks (11k) and back. Pick up backpacks then Campamento Pehoe to Campamento Italiano (7.6k), Total 22k without packs, 7.6k with. 29.6k in one day.

Day 3 - Campamento Italiano to the highest point on the central W spike without packs (7.5k) and back. Pick up packs then Campamento Italiano to Campamento Los Cuernos (5.5k). Total 15k without packs, 5.5k with. 20.5k in total on day 3.

Day 4 - the most daunting day! Campamento Cuernos to Campamento Torres with packs (21.9k)

Day 5 - Campamento Torres to Base las Torres without packs to see the famed towers of Torres del Paine (2k but horrifically uphill!) and back. Pick up packs then Campamento Torres to Hotel Las Torres with packs (13k). Total 4k without packs, 13k with. 17k in total on day 5.

W trek in total (give or take a few kilometres as we did some shortcuts uphill etc)

without packs.........41k 

with packs...........75.5k 

in total..............116.5k

Day 1

After packing our packs and slinging them onto the old back, we wondered why we had ever agreed to do such a walk. Sounded good at the time, but you don`t realise how much you actually need for a 5 day trek. The picture below might give you some sense of what trekkers need. Annoyingly I was rocking an 85 litre pack filled to the brim, with the tent and sleeping back being attached to the outside as they didn`t even fit inside.

So off we set after being dropped off by the bus, walking through flat fields mainly on day 1. After leaving the information centre it took us about 20 minutes to go the wrong way. We were following the dirt track you can see in the picture only to miss the actual path which was a little mud path cutting through the fields. Luckily an English speaking girl who must have done the trek before shouted that we had gone the wrong way and directed us back about 200 metres to the start of the path. We opted to cut straight across the field with those packs on! Good start.....but once we got back on track it was pretty well marked out with orange markers. Two other backpackers had made the same mistake but got much further along the dirt track before realising they had gone wrong, but they ended up catching us up and walking along with us for a bit.

Walking along these fields we got some pretty cool views with lakes and moutains etc, a taste of the more impressive peaks to come.

We walked for 2.5 hours and had the option of setting up camp at a free campsite. Upon arriving there it was really small, completely deserted and stunk with the drop toilet metres from where you would camp. The other option was to walk for another 3 hours and reach the frequented campsite Pehoe. Stopping for a while to take in a snack and drink, we cursed our backpacks and then all agreed to push on for the next campsite...probably a good idea being on "fresh" legs.

3 hours later and we arrived at Campamento Pehoe, just like the map said we would. After setting up the tent I took off my walking shoes as quick as possible and donned the flipflops, rushing in outside of the cold for a day 1 victory beer. Not sure it was worth 4 quid for a stubby....but it tasted sooooo good!

This campsite had a sheltered cooking area which was pretty cool so we cooked up the teams first meal, Rice, mixed veg and salami. yum yum.

Turns out we should have picked a better place to pitch up, seeing as we just picked the middle of the site. Everyone else anticipated the battering winds and rains the night would offer, and had picked spots by the hills or by the side of the shelter. We barely got much sleep that night!

Day 2

Waking up a bit groggy, we rejoiced in the fact we could leave our tents and most the equipment where it was and simply donned a day pack to take on the first leg of the W, up to Campamento Grey where you could appreciate an awesome view of Glaciar Grey. With a bit of rain coming down we sported the waterproof jackets and hat glove combo. Not sure the sunglasses were needed!

With a fairly tough walk of 11k up to Campamento Grey, we tackled gravel walkways, steep vegetated areas, crossed fairly wide rocky streams stopping to fill up our water bottles and got to the first view point (MIrador Grey) fairly easily. Stopping for a few photos and waterbreak, we took in the view and pressed on, not knowing whether to trust the times the map had given.

The views on the way were pretty awesome, the trekkers amongst you will appreciate the views of the mountains, not sure you would get the same kind of views in England, maybe something similar if you`ve been lucky enough to trek the highlands.

Getting to the lake and glacier viewpoint a view hours after the first viewpoint, we were pretty impressed with what we saw. Coming over a small hill (which seemed like a moutain in itself after 11k up and down hill) we took in the view of the lake, tucked inbetween two mountains with the glaciar at the far end. Not sure you`d get that one in the Scottish highlands! It did bare a remarkable resemblance the glacier we visited in El Chalten though. Funny that, on bit of ice looks like another bit of ice....who would have thought?!

With not much time to hang about, we needed to get back down the 11k walk to the campsite and back up the tents and equipment, leaving enough time to do a 2 hour walk to the next campsite. So off we set, pushing the pace on the flats. Mark had obvioulsy decided that we were short for time so had pressed on infront of the group, with the rest of us chugging behind.

Arriving back at Campamento Pehoe, the 4 of us went and collapsed in the communal indoor area and enjoyed a tea or coke. Mark had gone straight to his tent and packed everything up, coming back to join us after. Probably a good shout as we were in no mood to pack up after a sit down! But necessity came a calling, and packing up the tent was on the agenda so thats what we did, packed the backpacks up, slung everything on our bags and off we set. With aching feet we clambered 7.6k to Campamento Italiano. At least with the weight of the backpacks on our shoulders and hips, we almost forgot that our feet were soar.

Arriving at the campsite we set up the tents as fast as possible, cooked up some more salami but this time with spaghetti. We had bought what we thought was a pasta sauce to go with it but it turned out to be a super hot fiery salsa accompanyment. Still didn`t stop 5 hungry trekkers yamming it down. With tingling lips we comfirmed the decision to pick up a box of wine at Campamento Pehoe was a great idea and spent the rest of the night relaxing supping wine.

Day 3

Being in the more sheltered Campamento Italiano, most of us got a fairly decent nights sleep sheltered from the wind and rain. Derek got the same rubbish sleeping bag as me so was cold most the night, even wearing every article of clothing he had. Naturally us 4 Brits found it hilarious and used a bit of sarcasm where possible.

After cooking up some not so delicious porridge and weird jam stuff, we prepared our day packs and set off up the middle spike of the W, leaving our equipment at the campsite once more. After walking in the rain and through puddles the day before, it wasn`t much fun putting back on your wet socks from the day before, but to save weight we only took day wear and night wear. If your day wear got wet at least you had the night wear to keep dry and warm in. Only problem was, come the next morning, on goes the damp socks and boots.

Heading uphill once again for 7.6k we were happy to see that the rain and wind had passed and we had clear and dry skies. However after the first 15 minutes your legs reminded you that they were already sore. But there was a goal and a sore pair of legs wasn`t going to stand in our way. Trudging through the forested area, we were guided by orange poles and arrows on trees every so often. However at one point we missed one of the markers which to be fair was so tiny others had missed it. Going for about 10 minutes the wrong way the path kind of fizzled out. We bumped into 2 german chaps who said they had been looking around for an hour trying to find the path and were about to head back if we hadn`t shown up. Mark decided that he knew the way and clambered up masses of rocks which clearly could no longer be classed as trekking but more rock climbing. Foolishly, we all thought that was a good idea but after 5 minutes of scalling rocks, Jen and I decided this clearly wasn`t the way so watched the other 3 in the group cross a river and up a hill closely followed by the inquestivie germans. Clearly knowing it wasn`t the right way the team stopped but this didn`t deter Mark, who carried on up a 45 degree gravel path to get a view of what was going on. With rocks falling from under his feet to the perilous cliff face inches away, he proclaimed that we had indeed gone wrong and the path was just back where we had come from. Tell me something we didn`t know Mark! So with me and Jen sitting smuggly on a rock the right side of the river, the others finally crossed back over and back we went following our footsteps. The germans had clearly given up by now and walking about 50 feet infront of us, they missed the trail and were heading back to where we started. We found it though and called out this is the way so they turned back and rejoined the trail only to steam past us and we didn`t see them again until the end of the trail. That`s gratitute for ya!

Reaching the top of this trail was a great moment after we thought we had lost too much time to catch back up. But catch back up we did and took in the views from the top of a boulder.

Don`t judge me for my hair! It was dry and windy at the top which fuzzed my hair up. I am of course lying, that is a bad ass hair style. Owwwww. But anyway, here is the team at the top with a view back down the valley and forest we had just come through.

Back down we went after some photos this time being sure to follow the trail and got back to the campsite in decent time. Packing up the tents and gear again we trundled on to Campamento Los Cuernos where we wouuld spent the night. 5.5k later with backpacks on, our feet hurt, but now our shoulders thought that they were missing out on the party so they decided to hurt too. Loosing they shoulder straps was a great idea at first to put more weight on the hips so they decided to hate me too but the shoulders were grateful. Deciding that the hips had had enough, I tighted the straps back up only for the shoulders to think "you douche, I`m gonna start hurting again, suck on that". So now the feet, shoulders and hips hurt. By the time we reached the campsite we were all done in and surprised to see their crazy methods of raised wooden tent pitches. Quizically, we set up our tents, the pegs and ropes being no good, we weighted the tent down with rocks.

Having had a long and tiring day, we thought that we would treat ourselve to a 3 course meal at the campsite refugio costing 11 quid. After sitting down we were greeted by the douche bag chefs who thought that they were funny (but really weren`t) stating that they took their job really seriously followed by them breaking into dance to the annoyingly overplayed gangnam style. Sooooo original. As others found it funny, I couldn`t wait for them to shut up and serve me some food....might have been the grumps from an achy day of walking or it might just be that I famp;king hate that song. Anyway out came the food and unsurprisingly it was pretty shocking, the soup starter was worse than packet soup, the main was mediocre, but the desert was good....only to be served up a diddy portion. Cheekily we managed to swindle an extra portion, but shared between 4 this was literally 1 more bite each.

Putting that behind us even though still hungry, we went to bed. Turns out sleeping on a wooden platform sucks. Now a bad back and stiff neck joins the list of sore legs, shoulders and hips. To top that the condensation from the tent made the wooden platform super wet which in turn made the sleeping mats wet so all in all a pretty rubbish nights sleep. 10 points to anyone who can guess where the tent was on the platform.

Derek and Mark put the water on boil in the morning for breakie and hot drinks only to leave to go to the toilet leaving Jen in charge as I packed down the tent. With Jen struggling to cope with the boiling water and not wanting the flame to blow everywhere in the forest, she called me over to help out. I went to turn the burner off as Jen took thwe water off and whilst bending over, a massive gust of wind blew Derek`s tent off the platform (even though weighed down with rocks), over our heads whilst we were bent over, and over the picnic table where we had stuff on, taking everything with it. Bye bye half the coffee, luckily we had the boiling water stabalised and it missed our heads by a few inches. Not to let a little mishap deter us we packed up and slung on our packs.

W trek part 2

read part 1 first kids!

Day 4

After the little tent mishap we set off with wet feet, aching legs, shoulders, hips, back and neck. Donning our backpacks for what we knew would be the worst day, we begun our 21k hike bearing all our gear. Taking in some cool views, the only thing we looked forward to were the breaks chilling out in the nice weather. Driven by games such as "I have never", "pub quiz", "would you rather", "categories", "riddles" and the kilo of chips we had promised ourselves when we got back to Puerto Natales we pushed on through the pain. Oh and if you`re wondering....we all agreed that we would rather eat our own poo once a week rather than have sand in every meal you had.....the joys of "would you rather". Annoyingly I bet Leila that George Clooney voiced Buzz Lightyear (as I was sure he did, not sure why) compared to her correct answer of Tim Allen, with the loser having to have stupid hair for the victory night out. Lucky for me I have stupid hair anyway so not too devastating a challenge.

We crossed some cool bridges on the way, anything to take our minds off the fact that everything hurt was a bonus!

However the bridge was nothing compared to the light relief that this couple provided! You`ll notice it soon enough! All I`m gonna say is....where`s the equality?!

Taking a "shortcut" at the base of the W (not highlighted on the map) we discovered that although shorter, the ridiculously steep climb was almost not worth it. Didn`t seem so at the time anyway but upon reaching the part where the paths met back up again, we were glad we took it.

We stopped at this point and took in some of Chile`s super noodle equilavents, noodles have never tasted so good. In the extasy of noodle heaven, we thought it was a mirage when Cyrille walked past, a day ahead of us coming back down the other way. After a quick catch up, we parted ways again and pushed onto Campamento Chileno, not where we would stop as it was a better idea to push onto Campamento Torres to save time on the final day. We did take a break though and saw this infant fox which was pretty cool, who pretty much stopped to pose for the camera.

With the final push from Campamento Chileno to Campamento Torres (which seemed like an eternity) I was that happy that I genuinely kissed the sign, albeit this photo a re-enactment as Jen found it amusing when she saw it the first time.

Setting up camp for the last time, we hung up our sleeping bags to air, and our socks to dry and got a nice meal of noodles with more salami.

Day 5

With a fairly decent nights sleep, albeit it short...the talk at the erratic rock days before highlighted the importance of getting up at 6 am so that we could make the towers for sunrise an hour later. Thanks for that erratic rock! So, getting up half asleep we packed the day pack as well as the sleeping bags (yes the sleeping bags) and set off guided by the dim moon light and a torch which I stuck under my hat to fashion a head lamp seeing as my actual head lamp had broke days before. That`s what 5 pounds gets for ya!

Although only a kilometre in length, this trek was by far the worst. It was easily the steepest walk of the entire W trek, literally clambering on rocks for most the way, trying to find our way in the dark following the reflective pads stuck to rocks as others obviously go up in the dark. About 15 mins in Jen`s leg had all but given up and we lost Derek Mark and Leila who pushed on. With Jen moaning away I did my best to get her going again, whilst watching Derek`s headlight become a distant glimmer. 30 minutes in and my legs now decided they didn`t want to work either but with Jen struggling more than me, I did the gentlemanly thing and took Jen`s sleeping back and slung it on my back along with mine and the day pack. Such a gent me. 45 minutes later having stopped every 5 minutes to catch breath we lost the path, After a quick argument about where the path was we kinda guessed and found an orange marker again, but it seemed to be leading us down the mountain. Persuing anyway we saw headlightsup some rocks who shouted to us "this way". Thinking it was out friends we trusted the night voice, leaving the path and clambering up some boulders (against all the signs telling us not to leave the paths) and upon reaching the lights we were met with "you`re not our friends"! turns out it was another group of people but they kindly pointed us back to the path where we finally got to the top and met up with our actual friends. With the sun still down the view was still cool but the picture doesn`t say much!

And if you were wondering why the sleeping bags...this is why! Arriving at the top in about 90% darkness, others looked on in envy as we snuggled into our sleeping bags!

With the sun coming over the opposite hill, the towers would soon be lit up, creating an ery atmosphere.

The sky was illuminated red one way with the ultimate goal being the other way.............

The towers of Torres del Paine. Epic, so epic it deserved a cheesy epic movie moment. If you can look past the cheese, the view was incredible, barely any cloud, the towers standing tall in their glory, with a lake at the top, it didn`t really get much better than this. In that moment, nothing hurt.... all we could feel was appreciation and respect for the glory of one of the most beautiful sights we`d ever seen.

Enough of that wordsworth nonsense, after an hour at the top, everything hurt again but down the mountain we had to go! Being 9am and knowing that we had to catch a bus at 2pm from Hotel Las Torres off we set down the steep cliff side, gratifying ourselves with what we had achieved in the dark on an empty tank, seeing as we could now see the path in the light.

For the last time, we packed up the tents and set off down the mountain with our packs. With our legs, shoulder, hips, back, neck and now knees pretty much giving up, we went on at the slowest pace we had set the whole 5 days, with the end point seeming to be an age away. Two thirds of the way down we could see the chimney smoke of the hotel, giving us just enough motivation to push on an finally collapse in the hotel with the most well earned beer of my life. Who cared if it was 6 quid for half a litre, it was the greatest thing in the world.

Some of you may have worked out from the hints in the this enormous blog that having only 1 set of days clothes I would have worn the same black body warmer throughout the whole trek. A body warmer stinks at the best of times but after 5 days of sweat and rain it becomes a whole different ball game, often highlighted by the others in the group if they trekked down wind from me! Thankfully Mark smelt just as bad! Upon getting to the end hotel I took off my shirt in the men`s bathroom and gave the old unders a soapy clean, much to the disgust of the chap who walked into the swanky hotels bathroom to see a topless hairy mess after 5 days.

Getting back to Puerto Natales following the bus journey we cleaned ourselves up with the best shower ever and me and Jen treated the group to 3 litres of wine (not the most generous as that cost about 3 quid in total!).

After some wine we went out for a nice meal with me respecting the laws of betting and sporting my ridiculous hair do.....eat your heart out Hugh Jackman as Wolverine!

Ohhhh..... and if you think I had it bad, you may not have clocked it with my writing......but Jen had to don the same weight as all of us, with a bag that was literally the size of her.......mad respect.

El Chalten - the start of achy legs

El Chalten was a calling so we gladly obliged. Following another bus journey (there´s a theme emerging here) we arrived in El Chalten in the morning and received a briefing on respecting the national park...yes another one. As we still had the majority of the day we decided to go on two shorter walks even though the weather was forecast as pretty pants. However upon getting to the little town, the weather wasn´t too dire, unfortunately the same can´t be said for our little hostel!

Even though it looked like a pile of poo from the outside, it was actually okay on the inside. So off we set on our shorter walks, getting a great view of our settlement in amongst the mountains.

And Jen was obsessed with getting some kind of fun photo instead of just scenery, apparently a star jump is fun! (this is not true - this is Jen having a quick edit of the post!) This walk only ended up taking about 45 mins so we came back down to the town and set off on walk number 2 from the other side of town.

We crossed some pointy houses on the way which is clearly worth mentioning.

This walk was much flatter and although not as interesting view wise, it did offer a river with the bluest water we had seen so far, especially when the sun bounced of it.

This walk was a bit longer than the first and the end result was this waterfall. Although pretty cool, after coming from Iguasu weeks before, it didn´t really do much for us. So after the standard few photos, we trekked back to our hostel and had a cheeky sleep. Turned out to be a slightly bad idea as our friends from El Calafate (remember Cyrille) had swung by our hostel to meet us. They did leave us a note though so we went and met them at their hostel and went out for a few beers and planned the following day.

This day we went on the most popular trek to get a view of the mountains, namely Mount Fitz Roy. We had had great weather so far so we were bound to get a rubbish day at some point....and although not raining, that rubbish day was today purely because of the ridiculous winds. We had gotten quite far before we felt the full force of it, but it decided to hit at its worst when we were crossing a small platform across wet land. Unfortunately for our mate Mark there, he got it bad and ended up in the wet, his mrs Leila had to get on all 4´s to get through it. Jen went for the duck tactic, whilst Cyrille luckily had the only hand rail.

Having already walked a good 20k, Jen was clearly happy to see that the last kilometre was a steep climb. Doesn´t look so bad here but it was a right struggle, especially with those winds not really helping.

Having got to the top of that steep climb, we had a little break as the rain decided to join the party. I suited up in my amazing 4 quid poncho as I didn´t even bring an actual rain coat which made it even worse as I just turned into a big balloon with the wind catching under it. Having got to a flat area we were forced to turn back as the winds were that bad and we were on a small path high in the mountains...it would have been foolish to carry on. At one point I had to grab Cyrille by his coat and drag him to the floor as he got caught by a gust of wind and was sent a good 2 metres nearer the cliff face. We all literally had to crouch and grab onto rocks to stop ourselves from moving, thats how bad the wind was. So back down we came, via the same steep bit we had just climbed which made it seem even worse that we had put all that effort in to not reach the top. To make it even worse, we found out afterwards that we were only 5 minutes away from the top and the views of mount fitz roy are stunning.....or so it looks on google!

Coming back down we walked a slightly different way past a lake which felt more like the sea purely because of the wind causing a tide. You can see the mist being blown off the surface on the left of the picture,. And Jen`s hair kinda accentuates the wind too!

With that walk behind us we went to a microbrewery and enjoyed an ale and a big fat empanada, then got changed and then went out for a meal......in that order if you were wondering. The restuarant was recommended by the staff at our hostel and they also gave us a 10% off voucher. And was it worth it.......most definately! Was probably the best steak we have had to date and we got chips, salad and a mushroom sauce with it. Spot on. As was the cheap wine which was decent, especially for the price. With our friend Cyrille leaving the next morning, we all had a laugh and saw him off. Me Jen Mark and Leila would stay on for another day though. This turned out to be a good decision....check out the weather.....not a cloud in the sky or the slightest hint of wind.

So off we set on walk number 4 (if you count the 2 on the first day!). We had to be back by 6pm for the bus but this walk was a bit easier and a bit flatter, so we could take our time enjoying the sights in the glorious weather (sorry snow filled Britain!).There were plenty of viewing points where the backdrop could be appreciated and with the sun still coming out to play with his hat off I zipped off my trousers to form some shorts, much to the amusement of Mark and Leila with my pastey legs.

We passed some more stunningly blue water, and stopped to fill up our water bottles.

Again the mountains were spectacular, but our end goal was glacier and lake Torre. Travesing some smaller ridges on the trek we could see the mighty glacier coming down the mountain, very impressive but not quite as awesome as Glacier Moreno in El Calafate.

Getting to lake Torre at the end of the trek, we took in the views, skimmed some stones and stopped for our packed lunch. The lake was pretty cool, kind of settled inbetween two mountains and the glacier at the far end feeding the lake. A few bits of ice had broken off previously and made their way closer to the viewing point shore which added a little something to it.

With our time fast running out we set off to make our bus.

El Calafate - drinking whiskey in style

Time for another 18 hour bus trip which actually went past our next destination but was necessary as there was no direct road to El Calafate. So off we went via Rio Gallegos thinking we could stop there and grab a guinness seeing as it was Paddy´s day. With 6 hours between connecting buses we ventured around this small town for a bar but the best thing we came across was this English pub. How very spiffing. 

The pub looked poo so we walked around a bit more and stumbled into two Irish girls who were on the same bus as us. With beers being pretty steep in the cafe we decided to celebrate Paddy´s day in style, and grab a drink from the supermarket and have it in the park! Rolling back the years! Of course the supermarket didn´t have any guinness but it still didn´t stop me looking for a good half hour. In the end I had to settle for Quilmes stout which was actually not that bad. And yes that is an Irish pair of legs in the right of the photo. At one point two policemen strolled by so we hid the drinnks not knowing what the public drinking rules were, but they didn´t seem to care with others drinking at the park too.

With our second bus getting us into El Calafate bus station at 1.30am, we shared a taxi with the Irish girls as they were at the same hostel and crashed out sleeping in past midday. Once awake, it was too late to do anything awesome so we just got our barings and looked around the town. With the main attraction of El Calafate being the advancing Glaciar Moreno, we booked into go see this the following day, spending a bit more so that we could actually go walking on it. 

Waking up the next morning, eager to get going we were surprised to see this sky! No camera tricks here, this is just what it was like.

Another bus journey and we arrived in the national park and jumped on a boat which took us to the base of the glacier hike. With the view from the boat being this spetactular we couldn´t wait to get nearer.

I didn´t realise how massive this glacier was going to be, to get a sense here´s a 50 foot boat with the glacier about 100 feet behind it. It really was massive and is one of the few glaciers on the planet to still be advancing (can move up to 2 metres per day). It´s average height is about 240ft above the lake level, with its total height being around 560ft.

Jumping off the boat we had a small talk about the history and science of the glacier as well as a safety briefing. With a small walk through a wooded area, we arrived at the side of the glacier and were suited up in crampons. After being told to walk like a duck for maximum grip, we set off on the ice.

It was pretty spectacular, everywhere you looked having a different jagged ice scene. We followed the tour guide around, visiting crevices and ice water pools. Naturally I had to get down on hands and knees and suck some of that fresh ice water up, super refreshing. If you´re wondering what all the black stuff is, it´s just sediment blown by the winds which can be pretty strong, which is also a contributing factor to why the ice advances but it´s mainly to do with the ice being formed at the top of the moutain with gravity forcing the lower part downwards.

Just as we thought walking on an advancing glacier couldn´t get any cooler (no pun intended!) we got to a flat area where there was Jameson´s whiskey waiting for us! With freshly chipped glacier ice in our glasses, topped with whiskey we didn´t think life could get much better......until I was offered another one. Don´t mind if I do.

Getting off the glacier we were reminded of it´s enormity and had our packed lunch.

With a little time to mess around before getting back on the boat, I did exactly that. Perching on top of some rocks for a better view, we were treated to the show.....ice breaking off infront of our eyes as it advances. Most of the chunks breaking off were about 6ft maybe, which is still pretty big but nothing compared to what can break off! Still made a deafening sound though.

Back on the boat we were treated to a proper ice break, not that we caught it properly here but the whole height of the edge broke off and this is the splash it made in the lake. A good 200ft tall chunk of ice, maybe 20ft wide, slowly fell forwards from the top like a tree would fall, such an impressive sight.

After the first part of our day, we were taken to the viewing point where you could see the whole width of the north side of the glacier which really brought home how massive this thing is! We waited for a good 45 minutes to catch some more ice breaking, but with the sun behind the clouds, and a lot of ice breaking off in the morning we didn´t see anything big break off.

Not much else to report in El Calafate, other than this weird little ´museum´ which was about the discovery of patagonia and had some scenes of darwin and other explorers. Free to get in so worth a look.