After our brief visit to the very south of the continent, we are now making our way slowly back up towards Bolivia via various parts of Argentina and Chile. Despite the recent earthquake in Chile they seem to have got themselves back on track and I’m really glad we took the gamble of crossing the border. 
It wasn’t a huge gamble as we were quite some distance from the epicentre but we had heard rumours it was still a little touch and go in places. Our destination was the Torres Del Paine National Park and we decided that a 3 day camping trek should give us just enough time to explore. Despite being fairly well equipped for the outdoor lifestyle we still needed to hire a few bits and pieces from the camping store. Being on a budget, we opted for the somewhat snug 3 man tent, your basic one hob gas stove and the ‘Congratulations you're my 100,000th customer’ kitchen set. Sadly we didn’t get any prize for the special hire of the kitchen set other than the relatively high chance of contracting leprosy. Fully prepared for anything nature could throw at us, we set off up the mountains with a happy mind and a spring in our step.
The first day we hiked several kilometres along a glacier calved path
and eventually decided to set up camp on some flat ground next to a fresh water stream. We then cooked up some oriental cuisine and sat playing cards until the sunset over the peaks, casting a shadow over the valley. Once dark we then gathered in the tent and eagerly awaited the next morning.
If that last paragraph were to appear in a holiday brochure, I’d without doubt be castrated by trading standards. What actually happened was we climbed near vertical mountain faces, that required a fist full of climbing chalk in some places, until our feet were effectively two large blisters in boots. Exhausted we collapsed on the closest thing we could find to a campsite.
This just so happened to be adjacent to white water rapids so loud we had to either shout or use sign language to communicate. In a feeble attempt to make the situation more pleasurable, we heated some water and had a pot noodle. The sun then fell dramatically behind the mountain and in a similar vein, so did the temperature. Almost instantly the valley became a giant refrigerator and we were forced to play cards by Zippo light to keep a) Our fingers warm & b) Our minds from thinking about the onset of pneumonia and our, now inevitable, slow and painful death. The noise of the rapids was slowly being drowned out by something that I’m fairly confident was a man eating eagle. With a matter of seconds to spare before we were visited by the winged beast, we crowded into the tent and endeavoured to fit into a single sleeping bag to conserve body heat. Too concerned with cold and man eating eagles, we lay there wishing for sun to rise and bring with it safety, warmth and a new day.
In hindsight I may have been slightly exaggerating.
As we were going to be quite some distance from civilisation for the entire trip, we had to take all our supplies with us. This meant we had to take all 3 days worth of food with us and ration it over the journey. I’ll let it be known - rationing is not a technique I’m fond of. For that matter rationing is not a technique I’m capable of. I fully understand the concept of dividing the supplies so they last the duration. It’s just that I enjoy eating food far more than I do lugging it around in a very, very heavy rucksack. But with Tom and Kitty in charge of meals I had to conform to set meal times. This wonderfully backfired on our second night when our tent was raided by a well organised mischief of rats. They managed to chew their way through Tom’s backpack and eat a portion of almost everything we had. We were Lucky it was only a portion of each item, as it meant we could carefully pick our way round each cream cracker and just about salvage a snack.
In all it was a great trip and I really enjoyed it. The scenery was great and I managed to get some nice pictures. I couldn’t get any of the human eating eagle though. Must be nocturnal.
