Torres del Paine - the "W" trek

After the best hostel breakfast of the whole trip (real coffee, homemade bread, proper yoghurt) we all take the bus to the Torres del Paine park entrance. There are 5 in our "group". Two noisy, gregarious French girls, Karine & Laurie, Luke, from an adventurous South African family and tiny Penny from HK. I am "self catering" so I can leave early or stay longer, if I want to. We have to (well, it´s optional but saves a 5hr slog)  take a expensive boat ride ($22 for 30 mins) across a lake to start, then we get away at 1pm ish.

I had totally forgotten what trekking with a heavy pack is like, HELL !! I think it is about 14-16kg and I took out everything I could !  it´s still way too heavy and after just 3hrs "everything" is aching and my feet are sore. It really semi-ruins the pleasure of mountain walking, but what can you do ??  My "big fat" sleeping bag is the culprit I think, however I´m really glad of it on every single night, as I´m nice and warm and the others are suffering (with their "backpacker-weight" bags). We hike up to the mirador of the Grey Glacier, this is no doubt spectacular, but if you´ve already been spoilt with "Perito Moreno" then not quite so. In the morning, their breakfast recommendation is spot on, Porridge !! with dried fruit, this is the perfect camping/trekking brekkie, very filling and light to carry. Their other recommendation, for Supper, was rice with a tin of tuna on top, does not sound like much but it really works as well. At the "pass" the wind is really howling, enough to knock you off your feet !

Next day the French girls "entertain us" with their singing on the way down the valley !! They can´t sing but they don´t care ! We get a good view of the extraordinary "Torres del Paine" massive (left) and work our way to a free campsite, Campo Brittanico. We have a really great social evening with the many others coming the other way. There is a Italian couple there who have just completed the Big Circuit, this is a 9 day backwoods trek that is officially closed, but they did it anyway ! Their pictures show 15 feet deep snow (only the tops of trees visible), they had to make their own snowshoes out of wood ! This seems all a little crazy to me, and even more crazy - they are on their honeymoon !  It takes all sorts....

In the morning, rain and wind. It´s a 2 hour trek to the Mirador at the top of "Valle Frances", mercifully without packs. Well the "you don´t need waterproofs theory" works, I survived, but there was not one second where I would not rather have been wearing some Gore-Tex !! At the top the view was, predictably, not that good, mostly obscured by cloud. On the way back the ice falling off the higher glaciers makes a thunderous sound that reverberates up and down the valley like a jet taking off (old one..). That night we stayed at an expensive campsite that was little more than a pile of rocks and had cold showers to boot ! I was told I looked good for 52, Ouch !!

The longest trekking day, to the ultimate part of the trek, the Mirador right under the towers. An 8 hour slog up the valley, I get in and stare at a tree for about an hour !  So revived, Karine suggests a walk, me and Penny join her. I did not realise she had the climb to the Mirador in mind, I´ve just got sandals on and no torch (it´s late). It´s a fairly crazy plan, but we get up there just as the light is fading. It´s worth it though, I think it´s the most staggeringly good mountain scenery in the world, you just have to stare for a while....We return in the black dark, this is a risky scramble, I slip a few times and Penny loses her Camera (it´s a matte grey colour, very helpful when searching through rocks...). In the morning we rise at 5am and go back up, to see the sunsrise on the towers, but a cloud actually blocks the sun at this time so no colours. Still breath taking though.....

Great picture that I ruined by "signalling left"...

Luke cooks us an excellent Porridge ! we absorb the view for a while, then it´s back down the valley, still looking for the "rock-camera". We take the bus back to Puerto Natales where much needed hot showers are taken, that evening we go out as a big group and have huge Steak and Chips, food never tastes better than at these moments !  A Dutch girl has found Penny´s camera and handed it to the park office, they arrange for it to be returned to Puerto Natales.

Reflection in the lake....

Back at the "Erratic Rock" hostel everyone (except Penny, she has to collect her camera) has left on the early bus. I think their crazy, I need a "recovery day", and very nice it is too, it´s eerily quiet and I sort my stuff and do some chores in good sunny weather and have another huge brekkie....

Calafate and the glacier

I have to do another oil change as another 2000km has gone by since Bariloche !  I went to the YPF garage, their car motor oil was very cheap (not "bovvered" now, special "moto" oil was 5x more & there´s only 1000km to go...). The friendly mechanic shows me where his tools are, then disappears and completely lets me get on with it ! so I re-tension and lube the chain with his grease gun (as well) it would not happen in the UK, for no charge !

The main attraction in Calafate is the "Perito Moreno" glacier. One of only two glaciers in South America that are not retreating. I was planning to go the next day. I got up early but the weather was really dreadful, heavy cold rain and wind, even 80km to the Glacier seems like far too much work !, so I go back to bed...  By the time I get up again, the hostel is empty so I have a nice lazy days internetting and update my blog. It´s a massive advantage having my bike here, the glacier "tour" is ludicrously expensive (it´s just a return 80km bus ride to the glacier and back).

Next day it´s a cold and windy ride out to the Glacier, but so very worth it. The Perito Moreno glacier is amazing, the unique nature of the place means you are literally face 2 face with this zillion ton lump of ice, and it´s "comin` right `ach yer", albeight rather slowly !!  creaking and groaning as it goes. A boat could not risk getting so close but you are stood upon solid land and can enjoy the huge lumps of ice calving off it without danger. Because I have my own transport I wait until the multitude has gone home and hang around til the evening, in that time 3 large bits of ice calve off, quite a spectacle.  Every 5 years or so the glacier completely blocks the entire channel, the water builds up on one side until the whole lot goes with a bang. It´s blocking the channel at this very point but stubbornly refuses to go while I´m watching....

After Calafate I want to get to Puerto Natales in Chile. This section of road is high and exposed to the wind, it´s also 72km of ripio. I´m a little nervous of it as there is nothing inbetween, I need a good weather forecast and low winds. Well, guess what, next day, strong winds on the  forecast (40kmh). I "um" and "ahh" for a while, then leave anyway (I really wanted to move on, on this day). The start of the ripio is good, nice and flat, then it becomes progressively worse. At half way, once fully commited, it´s really quite bad. The weather forecast was wrong, the strong NW wind is in fact a lesser SW wind, but this is right "on the nose" so slows me down, a lot. Just when it´s getting really bumpy, I´m only in first gear, just 5kmh ! and fairly fed up the ripio ends, there´s a petrol station, and a tiny coffee shop, much relief !!

While I´m defrosting and drinking a coffee at this tiny rural station, a most strange looking vehicle pulls up, it´s a "STRANGE ROVER". It looks like an off-road racer but it has a diesel engine ! It has a tiny cabin but huge suspension. The chap, an English / Australian engineer built it himself and they are on year 4 of a 7 year world trip ! (they have already been everywhere it looks like to me, from their extensive sticker collection), the large khaki box on top of the cabin is a roof tent which they use every night - incredible !!




It´s another 100km to Rio Turbio, the Chile border town. I´ve run out of puff and it´s late so I stay there. I stay in a ski lodge in the most micro ski resort I´ve ever seen ! There are only two ancient lifts and their season is June/July, just 2 months, can it be worth it ?

In the morning the border post (a small house) is 200m from the lodge (I had not realised it was the border the night before). Once again the Chile border authorities are only concerned about fruit and vegetables, I get a thorough search, they´ve got me !! the phantom turnip smuggler ! The weather is good and it´s only 24 pleasant kilometers to Puerto Natales, Chile. Which appears to be a beautiful place with a back drop of ocean and mountains.

I´ve been recommended a hostel, "Erratic Rock". Perfectly designed to "process" you through to the main attraction, the 5 day "W" trek in Torres del Paine national park (I´m not using my bike to get there, there is nowhere safe to leave it for 5 days, that I can see). The hostel kindly let me keep my bike in their garden. I decide to "rush" and go on the nexts days trek. As it´s 5 days in the wilderness, preparations have to be fairly precise. I rent a camping stove from the hostel (Fortunately I already have the rest of the camping stuff that I need) and attend a talk about the trek. I think I need waterproofs and could rent them but the guide says "pah ! waterproofs ! you won´t need them ! just keep moving to keep warm !"  so I don´t take any....and spend the afternoon rushing around buying food / trail mix / batteries etc...etc....

Trekking in El Chalten

For the 3rd time, on my "day off" in Rio Gallegos, the weather turns out to be lovely !, but staying was a mistake, there is nothing to do here. I get away early the next day,  I leave Ruta 3 for now and head West on Ruta 5, then North West on Ruta 40 to make my way "back up" to the trekking areas on the West side of Patagonia. It´s bitterly cold, about  2-5 degrees C, but not raining ! and that is a blessing ! I get to Esperanza early and was planning to wild camp here, but it´s only 165km more to Calafate so I might as well push on, I was expecting a lot of wind here but I´m lucky, there is almost none. Far to the West I can see the peaks of "Torres del Paine" in Chile. I manage 315km in one day, my biggest day so far and make it to Calafate. There is no doubt I have toughened up a bit as I´ve gone along, I could not have done 315km in one go at the start. I check into the first hostel I see "Los Glaciares" which turns out to be superb, hotel-like rooms with under-floor heating !! it´s actually far too hot in the room, but I´m not complaining !

220km more the next day takes me to my "goal" - El Chalten, the "trekking capital of Argentina", it´s taken 11 days since leaving Esquel. The last 90km were right into the strong prevailing wind, sometimes in 2nd gear at only 15kmh !  I head for the HI hostel and get the last bed, I am sharing with one of two Kiwi guys, Josh and Craig, who have just completed the holy grail of motorcycle touring, Alaska to Ushuaia. Two nicer guys you could not hope to meet ( http://www.ridefortheirlives.co.nz/ ) . 

They took just 4 months for the whole ride !  AND they have just managed to sell their bikes in Ushuaia without much problem, to a motorcycle dealer, who wanted no paperwork or plates ( I bet these bikes will be reincarnated in Buenos Aires with dodgy paperwork, or some such thing...). I can´t help but think, at this point, that I should have done the same...!! They were leaving Anchorage just as I was buying my bike in Lima ! it just does not seem real ! They were doing 700km days to my 200km, so perhaps a little too fast.....


El Chalten is a new town, being rapidly developed for tourism. The big draw are the super scenic mountains Cerro Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. The first day I do the Lago Torre trek (all of these treks have a free campsite at the top, but the hostel is so comfortable and sociable, that I see no reason to...) , there is a lot of cloud so the peaks are not visible (picture at the top lake, right). Back at the the hostel, thanks to the popular kiwis, I have a ready-made social life ! There were two birthdays to celebrate (one was about 7 years off the truth but I kept quiet) and trips to the bar.

Next day the weather is better and I head off on the "Tres Lagos" trek. This was the best one here in my opinion, and the hardest (about 9 hours return). At the top there are high altitude views of all the peaks and frozen lakes (I only counted two lakes....).

 

I was going to leave the next day BUT the weather is perfect for trekking, blue skies and light winds so I do another day trek instead, this time to a Mirador that is highly recommended. At the top is the most perfect panorama of all the local peaks, including the amazing Cerro Torre pinnacle (below).

At the hostel me and Josh team up and have a really proper meal (thanks to Josh´s kitchen abilities), a huge steak, onions,  a mashed-potato-mountain & salad, I felt full for days afterwards, pasta definitely is missing something. 
The next day I pay the price for a good days trekking, it´s horrible ! Fierce, gusty wind and heavy cold rain. The "others" are all leaving today, I don´t want to stay and the weather forecast for the next 3 days is worse, much worse, if I stay I´ll be stuck 4 days more. So, I have to leave. I pack up the bike and "double-bag" everything. First stop is to the rural petrol station, disaster ! , "no hay gasolina", they have run out and there is a mini-strike on... I have less than a gallon left, the next station is 230km away, I´m stuck and roundly curse for several minutes (in the heavy rain....). Back at the hostel the girl there suggests the "roads depot", it´s called "Validad", where the road maintaining equipment is kept, but it´s a Sunday, it´ll be closed.  I go anyway, and yes, they are closed, but the security man on the gate very kindly sells me his personal stash of 4 litres of petrol and I get away.  It´s a windy cold ride, but the first 90km is all down wind, then it becomes more interesting on the Ruta 40, Calafate seems to turn up quickly and I go back to the same great hostel, I defrost on their wonderful heated floors (again). Anything left on the floor is perfectly dry after one night, it´s magic....

South on Ruta 3

I head south on Ruta 3, down the East coast of Patagonia. Fortunately, though Ruta 3 does not improve much South of Caleta Olivia, the traffic dies away to almost nothing, making it much safer for me. The girl in the tourist office at Fitzroy makes me a cup of coffee and some pastries, that is great service ! Unfortunately I find out from her that Ruta 288, that I was depending on being apshalto (to get across to the West Side of Patagonia), is in fact ripio, this is going to add 600km to my trip and is a bit of a blow, I´ll have to go all the way South to Rio Gallegos and up again (on the West side).

All day I head South but this time hit some serious weather. For 2 hours it rains hard (rain storm hard) until I make it to an Oasis (a Petrol station !) where I inhabit a table and try and dry out my stuff, including my "foot bags", supermarket carrier bags tied around me feet, to keep them dry. I get some curious looks from motorists but I´m  too cold to care.

When I set off again I ride more or less straight into another rain storm. After this one is over I realise I won´t make it to Puerto San Julian by the evening as I´m too wet and cold. I realise I have no choice but to camp by the roadside, this is not an attractive prospect !! everything is wet and I have very little food.  Eventually I find a lovely spot right by a drainage ditch ! At least it can´t be seen from the road. It´s a horrible night and in the morning everything is covered in mud, including the bike chain, somehow mud has got right under the chain cover.

It´s another 130km to Puerto San Julian and it seems to take ages. At another Oasis (YPF petrol station) I meet two crazy  Brazilians, one of them with a completely over-loaded 150 (pic right). They are from Sao Paulo and he has got a job in Ushuaia. Instead of moving in a sane manner, he and 3 of his mates are moving all his stuff using 4 motorbikes !! It´s taken them 18 days from Sao Paulo doing 500-600km in a day, double what I´m managing. It makes my bike look completely normal....

Puerto San Julian reminds me of pictures of the Falkland Islands, temporary looking buildings in a bleak landscape. Riding around town I´m stopped by 3 different local people, there is a big "biker meet" the next day and they assume I´m the first one to arrive. I find a cheap hotel, dry out and clean up. In the evening I explore the town and find a monument to the "Heroes de Malvinas", there is an old "Mirage" on a stick with the painted silouhettes of British ships hit during the conflict, very strange to see, and a plaque to the 32 Argentine pilots killed from this town alone (there is a naval airbase here and we are in one of the closest positions in Argentina to the Falklands).

This reminds me that on every Argentine map of the Falklands / Malvinas that I´ve seen here there is no mention of UK sovereignty !. Port Stanley is "Puerto Argentino" and most every other feature has a Spanish name, the Argentine flag is usually somewhere about. This problem is not going to solve itself !!  Now that oil is involved (this year....) surely a diplomatic solution is needed quick.....before it all kicks-off again....






I had to get up at 5 the next morning to speak (via Skype) to Barclaycard to get my credit card unblocked, the hotel has an ancient laptop for this. Later on I decide to attend the bike meet which is being held in the municiple campsite, but almost no-one else is there, so I put up my tent and go and do the local "tourist circuit". 27km of "bueno ripio" track down the coast, past abandoned fish "tinning plants" and tidal rips, it´s very enjoyable as the weather is really good. I return to the campsite, more people have arrived, and I get a friendly welcome. The next 15 hours or so demonstrate to me that I´m not a proper biker. I don´t like heavy metal music or motorbike engines reverberating off their rev-limiters or 2 wheel doughnuts etc...etc.... which goes on all night.... When I pack up my bike in the morning the party is still going strong !!

122km down the road, the wind picks up and then it really PICKS UP !! "Nuclear" strength blasts are knocking me right across the carriageway, fortunately there is almost no traffic, but I still realise I have to stop. So I stop at the only town available, Luis Piedrabuena. I find a tiny urban campsite that has a decent wind break, I´m the only one there. Back in town I´m enquiring about internet café's in a local shop and I find that there are none here, the guy next to me at the counter (another customer) invites me back to his house to use his computer, for free !!  Incredible !  So I use his family ´s computer while his 3 teenage daughters run about making a lot of noise. He seems to want to chat and tell´s me that he too was in the Falklands !! Yet another one....  I manage to buy another travel insurance policy on-line as my old one is about to run out, shockingly (for me) it´s now nearly a year since I left the UK. The camp site owner tells me definitively that Ruta 288 is "malo ripio", I cannot go that way on my bike, so at least I now know, I have to go the long way around.

In the morning the weather looks OK and the wind has dropped, it literally "screamed" overnight, so I pack up as fast as I can and head South again. The first 100km are fine but it starts to rain heavily just 3km short of the half way point where there is a nice hotel, so, frustratingly,  I have to stop and don waterproofs for just a 5 minute ride...I stay there 2 hours but the rain shows no sign of abating, I have to go. The next 140km to Rio Gallegos are horrendous, blisteringly wet and cold and no shelter at all, rain and pampas, I just can´t get warm at all. Fortunately there is a steady stream of bikers returning from the "meet" who wave and beep. It´s like an insurance policy, if I break down I will definitely get help ! A completely soaked bike and stuff does not really come through in a photo, but I took it anyway....

Much relieved I arrive at Rio Gallegos, whilst recovering at yet another YPF petrol station I talk to a largish group of bikers (who had all passed me earlier). Only one of them speaks English and a remarkable coincidence occurs. Whilst at PSF (Pisco Sin Fronteras) in Pisco, Peru I was told of an Irish girl who had a bike, just a 125, and had left PSF intending to do the same trip as me, only 2 years previously. I was told that at the end of her trip she had left her bike (an old 1970´s Honda that she had bought in Columbia, with no paperwork at all....) in someone´s garage in Ushuaia and flown home. Well the very first person I meet from Ushuaia tells me that he has an Irish girl´s bike in his garage from 2 years ago !!! It´s the very same !!

Afterwards I find that Rio Gallegos is in Lonely Planet, so I can hopefully find a hostel. As it is, there is one there and it´s cheap and very comfortable.

Southwards through Patagonia

I don´t get away from Esquel very quickly but I am lucky, the "Old Patagonian Express" is just coming up to the level crossing as I´m leaving town, it only runs one trip a whole week and here it is ! It´s a narrow guage railway (1m) and all that´s left of a much bigger network in Patagonia (it was built during the first world war, they picked it all up cheap, nobody wanted narrow guage in Europe at that time). It has the dubious honour of being the only passenger train ever "flipped over" by the wind alone, perhaps not the best decision in this region !!

20 minutes after I took this picture of the train I stopped to inspect the bike, as I could smell Petrol. The gust of wind rolled it right off the side-stand and for the first time it fell right over. It was a pig to get upright fully loaded, a few scratches and a bent footpeg were the result, note to self: I have to leave it in gear on the side stand ! I learnt the hard way.

A typical scene from the Ruta 40...

The next 2 hours are a battle with the wind, going South on Ruta 40, the first "proper" Patagonian wind I´ve experienced. I´m blown right across the road in strong gusts, fortunately there is no traffic, but it´s a little bit frightening. I also find that a very strong gust from the right and the engine peters out, I can only think that the wind is creating a low pressure across the airbox, not helpful !!!

I have lunch at Tecka, there appears to be nothing here except a local drunk who talks to me (one sidedly...) for 20 minutes. I´m surprised at how quickly it´s become rural, there are NO tourists here, except one ! That night I stop at "Gobnadore Costa", which is little better. I find a strange, cheap, little hotel run by a large South African, the "Hotel Sudafrica" !  Not for the first time I ask for a restaurant and get directed to the cafe at the petrol station (in fact that was all that was open), so, not much of a supper...

The next day is the biggie, 262km of absolutely nothing but Pampas to Sarmiento. It goes OK, thankfully the wind has died down a lot, I see only about 10 cars the entire day. I pass two totally, and recently, abandoned service stations, which would have been useful if still open. I also see two super-speedy tortoises crossing the road in front of me, they turn out to be Armadillos ! too quick to take a picture. Sarmiento turns out to be a something of a dump, it reminds me of Invergarghole in NZ, it´s difficult to find anywhere to stay. What I do find, in the end is horrible, and expensive, with more sandwiches for Supper. I´m having trouble finding proper food to eat in this place, everything is shut (but it is a Sunday), I am literally cheesed off !!  On the way to Sarmiento, by a lake, an Argentinian chap takes an interest. I thought he was about my age but he turns out to have been one of the conscripts in the Malvinas,  I really don´t know what to to say to this information, but he is OK about it. There is an airforce base in Sarmiento, so a few people here were involved in the ´82 conflict.

From Sarmiento it´s 160km East to the Atlantic !! This is an easyish day, the road twists and turns through many productive oil fields, complete with nodding donkeys (well-head pumps) and 10,001 new white Toyota Hiluxes, I could be in Texas !  As I approach the ocean, the weather improves, so I make a snap decision, instead of going 10km North to Comodoro Rivadavia (the wrong way) I decide on 60km South instead, to Caleta Olivia. I´m in for a nasty surprise, Ruta 3, marked as a significant highway on every map I´ve seen (it is the only main road to Patagonia) is nothing of the sort. It´s a just typical two lane road, with no paviemento, and a lot of traffic and a very bad, deformed surface. The fact that there is no paviemento is really significant for me, I can´t get out of the way of the buses and trucks. When the 3rd artic truck has just run me right off the road I have a temper tantrum !! This road is a national disgrace !!

Caleta Olivia is coastal oil town, replete with moored oil tanker just offshore. It takes a while but I find a cheap hotel, the Hotel Capri, unusually they let me ride my bike right down the corridor and I park it outside my room ! how very convenient !

It´s very noisy overnight, vary hard to sleep, lots of people coming and going, I think it maybe one of THOSE hotels...

I think I need a rest so I stay another day, it´s typically a beautiful day, sunny and warm, the first good weather since Bariloche. The day is partially ruined as I try and book a flight home and find that Barclaycard has blocked my card again, at least that´s what I thought at the time, with no Skype it was hard to tell. It turned out to be a fault with Expedia´s website, it caused me a lot of frustration for nothing in the end, I could not book it all.