WEATHER: Overcast with spots of rain 18C
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Going for a drive through the beautiful national park
WORD OF THE DAY: F*@k that…..
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 260KM on dirt roads
The guys got ready this morning for their walk to The Towers in the Torres del Paine National Park. The landscape of the park is dominated by the Paine massif, which is an eastern spur of the Andes located on the east side of the Grey Glacier, rising dramatically above the Patagonian steppe. Small valleys separate the spectacular granite spires and mountains of the massif. It is rated up there with an Inca trail type trek, so Kate, Debs and I have decided to be the backup crew and go along for the ride to drop them off and then come straight back to camp. See what great team members we are. The weather was a little cloudy and spots of rain, but the group were excited about their 8 hour walk and I was excited that I wasn’t going!
Our camp site was only located a 10 minute drive from the park’s entrance where we had to stop, fill in entry forms and pay the park fee (included). As we waited an emergency helicopter arrived at the center and as we were cleared and driving in there were 2 light planes that did a flyby before also landing near the center. There was a bush fire here 3 weeks ago and parts of the park are currently closed and by the looks of things they are still fighting some of them with a pass at one of the ranger stations had around 30 people all dressed in yellow with fire hats on, so it seems it is still an ongoing thing. . In late December 2011, another fire burned (as of 1 January 2012) 128 km² of the reserve, destroying about 36 km² of native forest. We didn’t see too much of the effects till we had driven further into the park and then you could see the charred remains of the vegetation and it still had that distinct smell of a fire recently put out. I think we are quite lucky we even got to come into the park, as it was closed right up until last week. Tucan had a backup plan of another park just as spectacular apparently, but they opened Torres del Paine so we stuck to the original plan.
The national park is beautiful. There are stunning turquoise lakes, among them are Dickson Lake, Nordenskjöld Lake, Pehoe Lake, Grey Lake, Sarmiento Lake, and Del Toro Lake. All are vividly colored, most due to rock flour suspended in their waters. The main river flowing through the park is Paine River. Most of the rivers and lakes of the park drain into Última Esperanza Sound via Serrano River. With the charred landscape from the fires, the green rolling hills and once entering the park always the view of the majestic mountains and The Towers. Add in Llama’s, snowcapped mountains and more lakes with some birds floating by, it was certainly worth the 3 hour trip in the truck on very bumpy roads, as none of them are paved in the park. The clouds were still hanging around, but the sky was blue and the rain held off for us so I was able to snap off a lot of photos as we drove. After crossing 2 bridges, one they had installed for the fires, we dropped the crew off at the entrance to the start of the walk. So with some good-lucks, some ribbing and take cares we drove straight back to camp. Kate, Debs and I sat in the front cab with Gray for a small section of the journey back, but I couldn’t see too much out the windows for photos, so Kate and I went back into the back of the truck and it was weird, good weird, being the only 2 on the truck. We decided to crank up some tunes and had the music blaring and the party truck directed to home.
Hiking trail in Torres del Paine is a popular hiking destination in Chile with the national park 598.593,02 acres in size. There are clearly marked paths and many refugios which provide shelter and basic services. Hikers can opt for a day trip to see the towers, walk the popular "W" route in about five days, or trek the full circle in 8–9 days. Hikers are not allowed to stray from the paths in the national park. Camping is only allowed at specified campsites and wood fires are prohibited throughout the park.
Visiting the park is recommended between late December and late February, during the southern summer. Not only is the weather more hospitable, but daylight hours are very long given the extreme southern latitude. Outside of this time frame, the weather becomes too extreme for the majority of the public, and daylight dwindles to only a few hours a day.
Torres del Paine National Park is a national park encompassing mountains, a glacier, a lake, and river-rich areas in southern Chilean Patagonia. The Cordillera del Paine is the centerpiece of the park. It lies in a transition area between the Magellanic sub polar forests and the Patagonian Steppes. Lady Florence Dixie, in her book published in 1880, gives one of the first descriptions of the area and refers to the three towers as Cleopatra's Needles. She and her party were the first tourists to visit what is now called Torres del Paine National Park. The park was established in 1959 as Parque Nacional de Turismo Lago Grey (Grey Lake National Tourism Park) and it was given its present name in 1970. In 1977, Guido Monzino donated 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) to the Chilean Government, and its definitive limits were established. The park was designated a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1978.
In 1985 a Japanese tourist started a fire that burned about 150 km² of the park. The blaze affected the areas east and south around Lake Pehoé. In February 2005, an accidental fire started by Czech backpacker Jiri Smitak, which lasted for about ten days, destroyed 155 km² of the park, including about 2 km² of native forest. The fire consumed an area located on the east side of the park and away from the most popular attractions. The Czech government issued a letter of apology and donated 1 million US dollars to reforestation efforts. In late December 2011, another fire burned (as of 1 January 2012) 128 km² of the reserve, destroying about 36 km² of native forest and affecting most of the areas around Lake Pehoé and the western areas around Lake Sarmiento, but moving away from the Cordillera del Paine, the park's centerpiece. An Israeli camper was detained on suspicion of causing the fire. He and his family claimed his innocence. According to Chilean daily La Tercera, the Israeli government will send reforestation experts to the zone and at a later time will donate trees to replant the ravaged areas.
With Gray stopping at all the view points on the way back to camp, we were lucky the weather held to get some amazing photos as we thought about our fellow hikers trekking to the top of the massive mountains. I really don’t understand what people get out of hiking and climbing, but then we are all different and each to their own, but I felt just because I didn’t trek that I missed out on the beauty of the park. We all take out different experience and for different reasons.
We decided to splurge today and have lunch at one of the 3 hotels that were 2km from the camp. We went to the 5 star hotel to start with, and we were soon to learn they only offer set menu’s at all of them, we didn’t really like what was on offer and 36USD was a lot to pay for a meal that didn’t strike a chord, so we walked across the road to the smaller family run hotel and they didn’t serve lunch, so we tried our luck at the 3rd and final hotel and they did us a 3 course lunch for 18USD and we also got the Wi-Fi code so we could nerd it up over lunch. Perfecto! All 3 hotels had amazing views of the mountain peaks of the national park and we spent a wonderful 2 hours over lunch and internet. When we got back to camp Gray was just leaving to go back and pick the hikers up and with nothing else to really do, we went back with him on the truck for the 3 hour return journey to get them. Now that is dedication. We spent 6 hours in the truck on a non-truck day! Luckily we got all the photos we wanted in the morning as the weather had really turned and the clouds rolled in and the rain started and everything looked so different from the morning’s drive. The hikers only got drizzled on a bit, but after talking to them it was a tough hike which reinforced I made the right decision not to go and our clever cookies completed the walk in just over 6 hours. Yeah if I had done it, I would probably still be out there!
As we were pulling into the camps driveway there was a gaucho on horseback that was waving frantically at us, I thought he was getting a little stroppy that we were driving over his patch to get to the camp site, but all was to be revealed when we pulled back at camp about 300m away that we had blown a tyre on the last section of the dirt road just up from the grassy verge and we were literally limping on a rim. We had a good old fashioned blow out and because the wheel is so large it looked impressive! To add to our tyre woes, Gray wanted to change the front right tyre as there was a small hole appearing there, but one of the nuts had lost its thread, so he worked into the night with the help of the camp owners to get it off, eventually grinding it back to get the darn thing off. So 2 tyre problems in one day, poor Rosita, she just needs some TLC.
This is a hiker’s paradise. If you’re not a hiker 4 nights, 3 whole days is a lot of time to fill in. Day one was successfully filled in and it was great to see some of the park, it really is a beautiful one but now what were we to do for the remaining 2 days. Some of the girls were happy to have a rest day tomorrow and have a few cocktails at the 5star hotel, so that sounded pretty good to me, so we are going to have a day in some luxury tomorrow and I can’t wait.
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