Thursday 22 November 2007

Torres del Paine - Day 4-5

The fourth day of our trip skipped the edges of Lago Nordenskjold again and headed up the Valle Frances. The weather got better as the day went on and we got excellent views of the Cumbre Range ( left ) and the Cerro Range ( right ). We also had a very nice afternoon nap in the sun before descending down to Lago Pehoe for the night.


The fifth and final day was going to be a big one. The 22km up the edge of Lago Grey promised to give us a view of the massive Grey Glacier. The effort was definately worth it, though the glorious spring weather certainly made the experience all the richer. As we got towards the glacier we started to see large icebergs floating down the lake. The first full view we got of the glacier is in the photo on the left. It seemed to stretch away to infinity, but I suppose the source is probably the snowy peaks in the backgroud. Once we got really close, we realised how rough the surface was. The uppercrust is covered in waves, cracks, fissures and crevices, whilst the snout itself is very jagged as icebergs calve and fall off into the lake. Awesome.

The four hour boat and bus trip back to Puerto Natales was a bit of a slog. This got worse when we got back to the hostal and found that they had no water whatsoever. This got even worse when the crappy restaurant we went to for some tea were so slow, that we had to return to the hostal to avoid being locked out before the food came. Arse and double arse.

View across Lago Nordenskjold and of the Cerros ( horns ).