Chile - Puerto Natales (and Torres Del Paine)

The W Trek!

Time to head north again...we crossed back into Chile from the southernmost tip of Argentina and bussed up to Puerto Natales.

This town was full of hostels and restaurants...catering for the tourist crowd on the way through to Torres Del Paine National Park.
We decided to give the ´W` trek a go.. As novices to outdoor trekking with packs and camping equipment we decided on the 5 day 4 night option instead of the longer 8-9day circuit!

We felt well prepared after heading along to the Erratic Rock info session and began our 5 day adventure on a bleary early morning bus out to the park with our backpacks (full with tent, sleeping bags, mats, stove and alot of food!). The next few days were full of highs and lows and were some of the best times we´ve had on our trip, plus the spectacular scenery we were surrounded by! It was a hard slog, we trekked about 80kms over steep inclines, many many rocks and through mud, rain and sunshine.

Glacier Grey was magical to watch sunrise over, and on our second night we could hear the ice falling from other glaciers nearby. It was a fantastic sense of achievement to make it to the Torres view point for our final morning...climbing for 45mins steeply uphill in the pitch dark and horizontal rain. Although a ray of sunshine would´ve been a nice touch for our last morning (and would´ve made Paul the photographer happy) it was still a great experience!

We returned to Puerto Natales for a night after the trek and wow did a shower and bed feel nice!