Torres del Paine, Day 3

This morning I woke up with a massive swollen eye, thanks to what must be a monster mosquito that gave me eight massive bites all over my body – two on my eye! I looked terrible; this was not a good start to the day. Derek also complained about his back, hips and feet so at the end of day two our list of injuries had increased dramatically and we were both feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. Plus, it was raining.

We were still debating whether or not to sit it out, but every passing minute meant arriving at the next refugio a minute later. So on came the waterproofs and backpack covers and off we went. Apart from the relentless wind we were quite lucky with the weather as the rain disappeared quickly, making way for a beautiful rainbow. So beautiful in fact I didn’t watch my footing, fell of a small step and into a thorn bush. You remember that list of injuries I was talking about?

Today’s walk was about 11 km that would take us approximately five hours to get to Lodge Paine Grande. Although it wasn’t a very difficult walk, our aching bodies did not show us much mercy and the rain from the previous night left the trail extremely muddy so it meant some interesting manoeuvring through or over puddles.

We still had the beautiful Nordenskjold lake to keep us company until we reached “Campamento Italiano” where we stopped for a snack of peanuts and chocolate.

At this point we had to make a choice: do we carry on up the middle leg of the W to “Mirador Britanico” for spectacular views of the French valley (a seven hour detour), or do we carry on towards our refugio which was a two hour walk away. No need to say what we picked. We figured we’ll buy a postcard in Puerto Natales. A notice at the ranger’s station confirmed that there were sustained winds of 60 km/h. And this was the least windy it had been so far!

We reached the section on the walk where everything was suddenly different. No, the wind hadn’t relented in the slightest. In 2011 there was a devastating fire, caused by a negligent hiker, that destroyed huge swathes of the park over more than 10 days. Making fire is now completely forbidden anywhere in the park. Sadly, the evidence of the fire was still very visible five years on.

Thousands and thousands of dead trees that looked almost silver stood proud as far as the eye could see. They were a stark, albeit strangely beautiful, reminder of the harm man inflict on our beautiful world. The grass has grown back five years later, but the atmosphere was somewhat eerie as we walked through the burnt forest.

With about an hour’s walk to go, we were both eager for our daily routine of shower and beer.

We trapesed into our last lodge a bit defeated but pleased to be near the end. The only debate was if we walk up to the Grey Glacier in the morning to complete the last prong of the W. But since we had not really done much of the middle, our trip would be in the shape of a C. I say debate – but there was no real debate. We had completed a backwards L shape walk and skipped the last hike to Grey.

We justified it to ourselves that we had seen icebergs and glaciers the week before. We further reasoned that we wanted to get back to Puerto Natales to make use of the wifi at the hotel to update our blog. We had to coordinate the catamaran and the bus schedule to make it back in the afternoon rather than at 10pm. In all honesty, we were just tired and defeated.

The happiest moment for Derek was getting on the ferry and out of the wind. We made it back to the civilization of Puerto Natales. Before, the rundown buildings and the stray dogs made for a sad town. But today in the wind and rain we could not be happier. We were both looking forward to eating a pizza, catching up on some emails and just resting.

The W trek is simply stunning. But it is also hard. Although, for anyone wanting to go, we would highly recommend it. Just keep fingers crossed for less wind!