Justine and Dylan’s Travel Blog

Of course we came to Nepal, like so many others, not just to enjoy the scenery, but to go for a walk. Well, having just finished the Annapurna Circuit, I think we might be walked out for a bit . Don’t get me wrong, it was the best trek I’ve ever done and is deservedly always included in the world’s top 10 walks, but it’s nice to be sitting around for a bit for several reasons…

Firstly, it took us 18 days (which included one rest day), which is simply just a lot of walking, even by our standards . Some probably do it in much less, some trekkers never make it though. The issue is not so much the 234km of walking (according to one guidebook I’ve seen, but who knows really, and that’s with sidetrips not included), but the crossing of the 5416m high Thorong La pass. Our trip included plenty of days to work our way up to this altitude (making the whole crossing perfectly safe) and we had the luxury of superfit porters carrying the bulk of our gear. Nonetheless we were overtaken by plenty of people along the way who a few days later were walking in the other direction (ie down the mountain) because they had pushed themselves too far. They were the lucky (and smart) ones, others less lucky were on mules, too weak to walk, probably on their way to an airport to be flown home. Anyway, most people of course do make it, but overall it’s definitely the most physically demanding (and rewarding) trek we’ve done.

Secondly, I’m not sure where we go from here . The trek itself is just awesome. The scenery is stunning and incredibly varied (going from an altitude of around 1000m to 5400m and back down). The guesthouses were basic to say the least, but most had some sort of shower and all had a bed to sleep on at the end of the day. The guesthouse owners were very friendly and whipped up great meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weather was overall, just perfect, and as varied as the scenery. Temperatures ranged from humid and 25+ degrees, to crystal clear, dry and -5 degrees, if not less. Admittedly we had rain a few times (although always confined to the afternoons when we had done most if not all of our walking), but the mornings were almost without exception crystal clear and the days sunny. Most importantly, this included the days around and over the pass. One exception though: I will never forget opening the door to our bedroom one morning, expecting another crystal clear morning, only to be greeted by… snowflakes coming down gently right in front of me onto a pack of about 2 inches put down overnight. Of course it made the scenery even more stunning than it already was and it was the only day we had it. I guess that’s mountain weather for you. Melbourne’s supposed to sometimes have 4 seasons in one day, but on this trek I feel like we really had spring, summer, autumn and winter in the space of a few weeks.

Anyway, overall one of the absolute highlights of what has been a spectacular trip so far and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough to anyone interested. For now though, I might head back to the hotel and watch TV for a bit, just because I can . I’m sure it won’t be too long before I wish I was back amongst the Nepalese mountains again though…

One of the nicest walks we’ve done so far was that around Atago-san. As with all of the walks we’ve done, temples were floating around, but this one actually lacked a lot of the touristy aspects which we’ve grown accustomed to. Sure, there were a few others (only Japanese of course) walking around, but the whole place was practically deserted.

A few other hikes which we’ve attempted didn’t get very far as there was snow on the path (or falling!) or construction going on (March is obviously too early for hiking season), but this one was just do-able. There was still snow at the top (at 924m), but it was a sunny day, it wasn’t too deep and as always it really made the place (including the temple at the top, Atago-ji, look even more scenic). After the climb  (starting in Kitoyaki), the second part involved following a beautiful gorge with crystal clear water and moss covered rocks to the next village over (Takao), which had a few interesting (moss-covered) little temples to finish things off with. Very cool and highly recommended if ever in Kyoto.

On the photo side of things. Have tried to post some photos, but as always seem to be having technical issues. Hardware: no problem. Internet: faster than it will probably ever be in Australia. Unfortunately, FTP access: denied. In other words, bulk uploads of all the Japan photos will have to wait till a later date. Perhaps Tokyo

And to finish off our tour of Patagonia we did a final three days around Torres del Paine National Park, billed as the W (three day walks which on a map look like a W).

We had already done the Las Torres Lookout in almost perfect conditions, so did a walk around Lago Sarmiento and Laguna Verde instead (30kms all up), which was quite nice (although the highlight was probably the lookout over Lago Sarmiento and Rio Paine at the start of the walk…).

Had also done the Valle des Frances (French Valley, 27kms) on day 2, but were happy to do it again in perfect (although somewhat windy) conditions (remember me babbling on about the weather in the previous post?… yup, it was still good at this stage). It really is one of the best and most varied walks I´ve ever done with spectacular views at the end at the Mirador Condor.

Finally, day three was a walk to Lago and Glaciar Grey. This last day was a bit of a circus as most people in our tour group by this stage had grown tired of walking and wanted to catch the early catamaran back at 12noon. Not impressed as we were expecting one last full day (the short version, walk- and day-wise was NOT what had been sold to us), we ended up meeting the tour guides halfway and forced one of them to get up at 5am to accompany us to the Refugio Grey and back by 12noon. Well, we made it (23kms), but I´ve had more relaxing walks… Disappointing also as the weather was probably the best we´ve had during our entire stay in Patagonia (sunny, cloudless AND completely windstill) and apart from a more casual pace, we also missed out on going all the way to the third lookout (next to Glaciar Grey, instead of in front), which is apparently worth the extra few kms. Oh well, can´t win ´em all I guess, and leaves something for us to come back to… although might be a while :)

Overall still a great few days (80kms!) and am now totally content with leaving Patagonia. Couldn´t have had better weather, better views or nicer people to walk with. Other than a few days of flash-packing (meaning “backpacking” in a nice hotel) left in Buenos Aires, all set for the next part of our adventures in Vancouver, New York, London and Holland. Which will probably mainly consist of undoing all the good work (fitness-wise) from the last two months. Oh well…

Btw – haven´t been able to get the computer I´m currently sitting at to co-operate photo-wise, so will try to post some preview piccies again over the next few days…

So we started our final tour of Patagonia by visiting the Glaciares National Park for a second time. We´d done a little bit of it previously, but this time we did a full loop around the best parts of the park, with a bit of glacier walking thrown in at the end.

Well, I´m glad we went back. The weather was better, the parts we hadn´t seen previously were just as good as the ones we had and the glaciar walking (on Glaciar Grande at the base of Cerro Torre) was awesome.

The best part though was once again the weather. The first time I did the Laguna de los Tres walk there were low-hanging clouds and hail coming in horizontally on the way up. Needless to say we didn´t get the best views. It cleared up somewhat later in the day but by that stage we´d come back down and missed the views that Cerro Fitz Roy is famous for.

This time however, we were just plain lucky to be there during what the mountaineers in the area (and probably everywhere I guess) call a “window”. This is a (sometimes small) period of time during which the weather is good enough (mainly no wind) to go climbing up a sheer wall of granite (and you thought I was crazy). January had not had a window until the 15th of Jan… which happened to be the day after we arrived. It lasted the whole time we were there and then some (by the end of Torres del Paine a week later the weather was still glorious, absolutely amazing). As soon as I get technology at this end working I´ll show off some more with some photos

Anyway, apart from the usual sights (our walk was a loop from El Chalten to Laguna Capri, Laguna de los Tres, Lagunas Madre y Hija, Lago Torre, Cerro Torre and back out to El Chalten) we also did some glaciar walking, which was pretty cool. All that´s needed are some gloves and crampons on your shoes and you can walk straight onto it. Having guides and great weather (windstill!) probably made things easier, but still. The glacier we did was Glaciar Grande at the foot of Cerro Torre. This had the nice side effect of actually being able to walk several kms (not all on the glaciar) closer to the base of Cerro Torre for even better views of what would have to be one of the coolest peaks I know. Some ice climbing (only a few meters) after lunch as part of the glacier walking topped off a great day, which in turn topped off an amazing couple of days around Los Glaciares.

The literature will invariably tell you this is one of the finest trekking destinations in the world and that it can get very, VERY windy. Well, consider both confirmed.

With the addition that while we were there, it rained on the days we arrived and left and there was glorious sunshine on the three days in between. Can´t help but feel that we´ve been very lucky again. And that coming back in two weeks time might be disappointing unless the weather pulls off another miracle Oh well, one way to find out.

Anyway, the walks we did included the compulsory Torres del Paine Lookout, a walk up the even better (far more varied, ie hanging glaciers, mountain streams, unspoilt forest, 360 degree views of an amphitheater including the other side of the Cuernos del Paine, etc, etc) Valle de Frances (aka French Valley) and a quick walk up the Mirador Condor with panoramic (insanely windy, could barely stand up!) views of the light blue Lago Pehoe. Awesome.

One of the classic walks around one of the best national parks for hiking in the world. Hmmm. Unfortunately you need sun for all the postcard views… (low hanging cloud doesn´t do much for 3000m peaks )

Anyway, it was still a great day´s walking and we saw loads of cool scenery (glaciers, etc), the only thing I couldn´t help but be disappointed with was that it was hailing when we were at the highlight (Laguna de los Tres at the base of Cerro Fitz Roy) at 11am and the skies had cleared by 3pm. Did I mention the wind in a previous post? I thought say Scotland had some changeable weather, but this place really is something different. It does really make it an interesting exercise because even if you get up and the sky is clear, you still have NO idea what kind of day it´s going to be.

Oh well, the good part is that we´ll be back in exactly the same place, doing exactly the same walk, in about two weeks time on a separate trip (a trek of a couple of days, rather than just the day walk we did the other day), so fingers we can cheat the weather after all with our second chance draw :)

Now just need to catch up on some sleep and let the blisters heal (48kms in two days was just a little too much…) between now and then. I guess that´s what the truck is for

Next up after Bariloche was a few days of (fairly boring) driving to get us to our next destination: El Chalten in Los Glaciaros National Park. 

Again, with our usual time constraints, we got straight into it with a walk up a hill called Tumbado which on a clear day would give you great views of all the surrounding world famous peaks (Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy). Unfortunately the weather had collapsed a little bit by then; I´ve never been to such a windy place in my life (and apparently it only gets windier from here on in as we go further south. Interesting). Apart from the wind, the glaciers around the place seemed to generate their own weather, or hail and mist anyway. At one stage we would´ve been standing a few kms away from one of the glaciers under a perfect blue sky and we were being pelted with hail and struggling to stand up with the wind. Needless to say the view wasn´t great. Nothing a quick glance at a postcard (taken on a sunny day) couldn´t fix, but different nonetheless.

Still a good walk, but a shame with the timing weather-wise. I suspect from here on in, even though it´s mid-summer, the weather is far from guaranteed to be sunny or anything even close. Can´t have everything I guess, it´s just that the weather around the Atacama desert has made us a little spoilt.

Well, Xmas day was certainly a little different this year. Compared to last year (on a plane to Oz) and the previous year (in wintery London), this year was spent in sunny Bariloche in Argentina.

We only had a couple of days here and so we decided to do one of the hikes we had planned (loop to Refugio Frey around Nahuel Huapi National Park) on Xmas day. Not the most laidback option (especially considering the ski lifts which would normally reduce the walk by 5kms and 600m of ascent weren´t manned that day… strangely enough 8-), but glad we did it. 27 kms of walking, sliding, boulder climbing and some light jogging (to make Xmas dinner on time!) later, we had seen some awesome scenery including panoramas of Nahuel Huapi lake, waterfalls, valleys and mountains reminiscent of Switzerland, a condor and even snow (Justine even made a snowman… way too much energy!), all under a dark blue and very sunny sky. Awesome. And yes, we are a little crazy.

To finish off the day (and ourselves), we managed to get back in time to join the others from the truck for a Xmas dinner at an Argentinian microbrewery (or cervezeria). Slept well that night.

Huerquehue is a national park not far from Pucon where we are now. Walk was about 17kms and only between 800 and 1400m high (woohoo, no worries about altitude any more… although we weren´t quite sprinting up the hills I have to admit… with the lower altitude the temperature also seems to have picked up a bit). Apart from the views of the local vulcano (Villaricca), the park has some very scenic lakes and a tree variety called the Araucaria. Kind of like a cross between a palm tree and a pine tree with dinosaur scales. They get pretty big and it made for a nice change in the forest scenery. So did the trees actually which I wasn´t used to any more after 4 weeks above 3000m including Altiplano´s and deserts (not a lot of trees there). Which reminds me that Pucon is funnily enough about the closest thing I´ve seen to Switzerland (except with snow capped vulcanoes rather than mountains), although apparently Bariloche (in Argentina where we´re off to next), is even more so. Strange.

After having lived at above 3000m since Cusco and above 4000m (roughly) since the Altiplano, we thought we´d try and see how much higher we could go. Fortunately around San Pedro there are several vulcanoes that go up to 5500 or even 6000m. Easy fixed.

Finding a guide was just as easy, but he pretty much scoffed at our recent Inca Trail and Cordillera Blanca experience (latter only up to 4800m, defn not high enough), so an “easy one” (5480m going by my GPS) called Lascar was selected. The other cool thing was that each morning it still emits a little smoke and we could see into the crater from the top. The walk started at 4900m so we had a little bit of a head start, but still…

Well, we weren´t disappointed. Physically it was quite a challenge and at a height where I´d say hiking is not really great fun any more (think: one step, one or two breaths, one step, one or two breaths, etc… and add a few breaks and breathless gasps in between), but the views were hard to beat. Apart from being able to see the whole crater(admittedly very smelly, ie sulphuric, ie rotten egg gas), we could see all the way along the chain of vulcanoes that previously we´d only seen from San Pedro and in most other directions. Very, very cool. A few more photos might´ve been taken. Sleep was quite good that night too.

Next time we go up this high will be in Nepal (Annapurna Circuit), so I guess an interesting side effect was that we now know we´ll be able to actually complete it (highest point is at 5419m, ie a bit lower), which is always good to know before you fly half way around the world and hike for 10 days to get somewhere