If some higher being communicates to us through the weather, then the wind over the last few days has been its white-hot anger. Not some kind of simmering anger featuring some passive aggressive comments. Not some laser-focussed red anger. This white anger is plates being thrown in every direction of the room with fury. While I can’t explain why this higher being is angry, this is the wind we drove through on Friday and trekked in on Saturday and Sunday.
However despite the dust in our eyes, trying to stop our sunglasses flying off our face, and sometimes looking like we’re failing the walk-in-a-straight-line drinking test, it’s actually been an extraordinary few days. We picked up our campervan in Punta Arenas and, after buying a ridiculous hoard of groceries, headed to Puerto Natales. The wind was still so strong that we didn’t stay long, so we spent the early twilight heading into the Torres Del Paine National Park.
What an incredible drive. The mountainous scenery shifted as we drove through. The national park is surrounded by these rolling hills covered in fuzzy, velvety grass – the texture (I can only imagine) of someone whose hair is only just starting to grow back and you want to run your hands through it. Slowly, the outline of the Torres (towers) emerges, surrounded by sunset clouds.
On that topic, clouds are quite an amazing part of the landscape here. I can’t put into words just how many shapes we’ve admired – fluffy UFOs, menacing dark ones, all sorts of gradients, and ones that seem to hang so low in the sky.
On Saturday, we set off for the Torres Base lookout, around 11 kilometres one way and 800 vertical metres from the car park. We joined the throngs of other trekkers in all their rainbow colours, winding up the gravel paths and trying not to be blown over in the less sheltered sections.
It was a tough walk, with a number of steep sections, but a beautiful one. The middle section sees you threading through beautiful green forests and sometimes crossing a gushing, wild river. The lookout gives you this incredible view of the Torres, with the ice melting off the glacier into a lake in which the crazy wind forms white caps.
I’m enjoying the campervan experience. It’s cozy and warm, we can cook our own food, and we can make a giant thermos of strong, milky chai with honey for our hiking. For every amazing thing about this particular van’s set-up, there’s an odd issue – like, on Saturday the driver’s door stopped opening.
Sunday featured the same vicious, erratic winds. It was a joy to spend most of the day sheltered in the van in various spectacular locations, reading, watching a movie, napping or going on spectacular drives. When we did venture outside, we made porridge with a beautiful morning view of the mountains, we went on a walk to the Salto Grande and Mirador Los Cuernos, and cooked a delicious stir fry (with broccoli! Caloo, calay!) huddled in the only windproof corner of a shelter overlooking Laguna Pehoé.
The walk, while blisteringly blowy, was special. Salto Grande is the sight of the most ferocious waterfall I think I’ve ever seen – not in size, but in the eye-watering amount of water toppling over it every second. It was fierce (but beautiful). The Mirador walk featured a handful of llamas (or maybe they’re alpacas? They seem docile) and an amazing view of the mountains over a lake. The western mountains were permanently shrouded in dark grey clouds while blue sky and sun remained over the eastern ‘horns’.
Monday – our last day in the national park – featured a (pricey) boat trip across Lago Pahoé to Paine Grande, and then a 17.5 kilometre walk back to Administración. The wind was so much more gentle in comparison, and for most of the walk we had light wind, light rain and sun – not separately, all at the same time. We took our time. Dan finished the book ‘All The Light We Cannot See’ amongst the rippling long reddish grasses that moved like the sea. We munched on Calafate berries that turned our spit purple. We contemplated immigration issues.
Two ladies – a mum and daughter – kindly gave us a lift most of the way back to our car, winding around these turquoise lakes lit up like a lamp by exposure to the sun. We joined them to check out the Salto Chico waterfall.
Our drive out of the park was just as stunning as on ones in and around. Dan described the rivers in the landscape as ‘slicing through open plains’. Hills around us we’re frequently topped by what looks like rock walls – you could have fooled me that they were the remains of medieval forts if I didn’t know a bit about the region’s history (no one was building medieval forts).
We pulled up in the camping area on the banks of Lago Sofia for the night. Like the national park, the sand was a dark almost-black (with lighter stones on top) and the water was crystal clear. The camping spot sits in a lush valley where, were it more conveniently located near Brisbane, I’d erect a cabin in a heartbeat. The hills on each side were topped by rocks, and across the lake was a view of mountains.
In the morning, we explored the rocks closer to us and watched some rock climbers on the wall. The rock looks quite bubbly, formed of whole rocks suspended in a compressed sediment layer. So many (tiny) handholds!
On our way back to Punta Arenas, we stopped at Cuevos de Miladón (Miladon caves) – enormous cavernous spaces which have preserved the evidence of early human life in the areas. We even got the bikes out to scoot along the paths between sights.
We’ve decided to shed our warm layers and head up to Santiago tomorrow. I’m looking forward to warmer weather, hopefully some dance classes, and re-engaging with city life. Full steam ahead!
VRPS (and DPS, who gives creative direction in selecting photos)
[Punta Arenas]
The Two Swords 