Today’s hike was by far the most gruelling, even though we managed to shave off three or four kilometres due to a magically appearing shortcut. The next free campsite was still twenty-five kilometers away and I guess a painful day is one way to pay for free camping. We departed from Campamento Torres and hiked an hour towards Campamento Chileno where we took a rest and stocked up on water from the stream. Horses stood tolerantly as they occasionally whipped their long tails to clear away the small swarms of irritating flies.
“What’s that on the seat?”, Jon queried. He had stumbled upon an almost full packet of spaghetti. Jackpot! Just as we were running out of food we come across an extra meal or two and we took our American friend’s (Rob’s) offer of the use of his camping stove later. However, easy come easy go, as we discovered later during a well earned food break when half the pack of spaghetti turned out to be soggy. Either it had been cooked already and left cold, or maybe a rat had crawled in the night before and done its business. No way of telling as nobody knew how long the packet had been lying on that bench.
As Rob cooked himself some Porridge, we tucked into our giant bag of crisps. It was a huge packet and it took three of us to finish it off in two sittings! On we marched at about the fifteenth kilometre and the terrain began to change from smooth paths, to large and small boulder trails, which wreaked havoc with our feet after ten more kilometres the same. Just about everybody we passed greeted us. “Hola!”. There was one short girl with walking poles that were adjusted highly out of proportion and the moment she acknowledged us, a huge gust of wind blew her right over. She was all right as she stood back up laughing. We continued past lakes with pebbled shores and the wind occasionally picked up for us and caused water to spray from the lake all over us in a heavy drizzle. What really made the difference were the final three or four kilometres where the Glacier del Frances appeared and was gleaming boastfully, even though the rain clouds were fulfilling their duty in blocking out the sun. The forest below was our settlement for the night and the eerie tall trees swayed as the glacier itself sometimes carved, making a distinctive rumble like muffled thunder.
The following morning, we woke fairly late, but totally recovered from the previous day’s ‘yomp’! The leaf litter beneath our portable home helped to cushion our weary backs, and the sound of the wind rustling in the trees had soothed us to sleep. No sooner had we packed away and started walked than we crossed a small bridge over the river, quitting the peaceful tree cover to have revealed for us the full magnificence of Paine Grande with wisps of snow blowing about the summits, all set into stunning relief by the bright blue sky and the enthusiastically gushing river. This was suddenly, almost alarmingly, the most amazing view we’ve ever experienced!
Take a look, the pictures tell our story far, far better than these few words!
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