Day four. We wake up feeling refreshed and only as if 14 rhinoceroses have been playing football with our clapped out excuses for bodies. The setting of our tent is so gorgeous that we even wake up at 5am to take in the sunrise. In front of us is a fantastic lake, to the left of us is a huge gushing river feeding the lake and to the right of us is the Cuernos mountains. This certainly goes a long way to eradicating the memory of the aches and pains of the last 3 days....almost. Only two days to go!!!!We set off early and have a 5 hour walk to look forward to. We're not quite sure how hard today is going to be but when we compare,on the map, the distances and times given for previous days, it looks like this is going to be quite physical: also we are on almost the final stretch that will lead us up to Torres del Paine...which obviously means that we are going to have to go up. I hate going up.
We mince on for three hours over really flat ground, this is quite easy, although I am glad I didn't wear my heels. We have distributed the weight of our backpacks a bit more evenly, which is helping, although I think I can hear Camilla groaning that she doesn't have Ad's undivided attention anymore. We finally reach the end of the big fuck off mountain and make a right hand turn. Oh dear. The terrain takes a turn for the worse and it looks like we have a constant uphill walk for the next few hours. The weather worsens and whilst we seem to be walking just at the edge of rain we aren't soaked but the wind has picked up which is not making this uphill struggle any easier. A little while on and I think I can spot the Refugio. I point it out to Ad who then informs me that it isn't our refugio, that's the nice posh one, where sensible people stay; our place is another hour and a half up hills that are so vertical that I'm almost walking on the sky. Fucking hell, I think my legs are going to fall off. The worse thing is that for all my moaning and tiredness, there is fuck all I can do about it; its not like I can say oh bollocks I'm going home...we are in the middle of nowhere, it will take me two days to get to civilisation. So we march on. The scenery is quite spectacular but I'm too knackered to appreciate it. With one final last push we finally get to the top of this hill/mountain. We round the corner and the wind is so fierce that I feel like I am in one of those g-force simulator machines. Now we are traversing round the side of the hill/mountain that we have just climbed. The path is quite narrow with a big drop down on our right hand side. If I have walked all this way just to be blown off a mountain and be dead, then I shall be really annoyed!!! The path is gravel and shingle and the amount of shit that is being blown about makes our faces feel like they are being sandblasted. Ad gets something in his eyeball which, from the fuss that he is making, I can only assume is a piece of gravel the size of a bowling ball. Nelson and I soldier on until we finally reach the refugio. Thank fuck for that!
This is our final night camping under the stars (no homophobic comments please!!!). The bowling ball is still in Ad's eye and don't I know about it!! Tomorrow is our last day. The highlight of the trek, the Torres, are another 2 hours walk from the refugio: we way up the options; should we make the trek this evening or do it in the morning? Ad thinks we should do it this evening and possibly go up in the morning as well...he can see from my face that I am not liking that idea!! Once will be enough for me. We head off. The walk is quite pleasant for an hour, over rivers, through woods, up a few hills but unfortunately the bowling ball is making Nelson just a tad grumpy. Tears are streaming from his eyeball making visibility near to nothing. Ad seems to think that by shouting at it that this may dislodge the offending article. I say nothing. One learns when to keep ones mouth firmly shut. After an hour and a half the bowling ball seems to have grown to the size of beach ball and there is a real possibility that we may have to amputate Ad's head. The trek is too arduous with only one peeper and we decide to turn back. After half an hours snoozette, back at the refugio, the beach ball has finally had enough of winding Ad up and has disappeared without trace. Normal service is resumed. But its now too late to return to the Torres. We settled down for another comfortable nights sleep.
Day Five. THE LAST DAY! We have about 7 hours of walking to do today; up to the Torre and back then the final leg back to another refugio where will shall catch a bus to takes us back to the real world. We retrace the steps that we had taken yesterday evening and its funny how when you know where you are going that it doesn't seem so difficult the second time. We pass the point where we turned back and then another twenty minutes and we come out of the forest for the ascent to the big finale. Blimey, we had been warned by other travellers that the last part of this trek is quite difficult where one has to scramble up and over rocks and boulders and climb up to the top. Luckily we don't have our back packs with us which makes the going a little easier..but this is quite physical, and sometimes a little precarious. We meet two people coming down who assure us that, it really is worth the effort and comfortingly that its even more precarious coming back down. After three quarter of an hour we finally reach the top. The ascent is perfect in one way, that you don't actually see Torres del Paine until you have scrambled right to the summit of the climb. Before us rise the magnificent spectacle of these world famous natural monuments. A turquoise lake in the foreground gives way to the vertical rise of the base of the mountains on which the three ginormous tablets of rock, the Torres, jut proud and erect. They are really outstanding and make a fantastic final feast for your eyes on this ultimate day.
Once our eyes and senses have been satiated, with the view, we make our way back. We is going home!!! Two hours later and we pick up our packs from the refugio and embark on the final stretch. I'm practically running now...I'm thinking, shower, food, nice toilets, bed...comforts!! Another two and half hours, mostly downhill (I like downhill) we reach our final destination. The refugio is really posh and has a bar and chairs and cushions and normal things. We have a well deserved beer and look almost nostalgically at the map and the distance that we have walked...about 90km. Then, oh fuck me!!! We realise that we are in the wrong place and that the bus doesn't actually pick us from here... we have another 7km to walk!!
We reach the bus pick up point in good time. My whole body is aching from head to toe. We are filthy, hungry and exhausted. For all the moaning that I did all the way around (at one point Ad threatened to send me home to the UK), there is a huge sense of achievement in completing the circuit. I have never walked that far in my life and I feel quite proud of myself that I didn't just lay down after day one and wait for the condors to peck my eyes out. The scenery is beautiful, but for me it was tough. Would I do it again? No, is the answer. But the experience will be one that I shall remember for a the rest of my days, and no doubt in a few years time, when I recount the stories, the distances will probably have tripled and hardship will have been forgotten....but at the moment I just want a nice comfortable bed!!!
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