I haven’t posted anything in my blog since November so I am doing a “what I did in the interim” up to when hopefully I set off on the long planned adventure, up north.
Having managed to get out of the camp site outside Staveley at the end of that November just before the big freeze up hit, I returned to my father’s house in Lymington where his neighbours allowed me to park up in their drive (more of that later).
Early in December I went up to London to meet a friend and stayed in her house overnight. She doesn’t have central heating and the hot water bottle she gave me to heat up the bed in the ice-box spare room leaked. I looked forward to returning to my father’s house where the heating was set at never less than 21.5 degrees c so set off mid morning to Waterloo only to find on arrival there that no trains were running and the organisation had descended into chaos. After standing on the platform for 3+ hours the first train to Bournemouth for at least that time was announced. It was only a four-car train. I managed to elbow myself onto the train – not just standing room only but sardine-standing room. At least half those wanting to catch the train remained on the platform.
I certainly caught something, even if it was just a chill, and a few days after that I spent the next fortnight in bed. So that took up quite a lot of December.
In January I stayed in a house in Swanage. I was looking forward to lots of walks using the steam train, going to the pictures and using the library. The railway was closed, having new trackwork laid (I did manage to force myself to go for a run on a number of mornings and inspected the progress each of those days), the library was closed for refurbishment (although there were few signs of any such activity), the museum was closed and the Mowlem theatre was not showing any films for that month. But while there were some not nice day - very windy and piercingly cold - there were days of wonderful clarity. Walking on Ballard Down in the wind, if you could remain on your feet, was invigorating. And Corfe Castle was open (thanks, National Trust.)
Corfe Castle
Swanage from the Pier
The runs in the morning when in Swanage were intended to get me fit for my trip to Chile in February, to trek the Paine Circuit. I have had that on my “to do” list since visiting Patagonia in 1997. The trek takes you around the stunning geological Paine massif which is covered with many many glaciers and which is part of the 3rd largest ice mass (1st is Antarctica, 2nd Greenland).
It was a tough 8 day track, sleeping in tents or refuges but at least I didn’t have to carry sleeping bag, tent and food which would have made it beyond my capabilities. I enjoyed it, despite the blisters caused on Day One by having to walk twenty miles. There were the ever present winds you get in Patagonia but we were lucky with the weather; we only had one awful night on violent wind and heavy rain but the following day the rain stopped and there were wonderful views of the mountains.
There was only one day which was a duplicate of one of the 1997 day walks. Then, other than our group, we saw no-one else on that day. Fifteen years later a new refuge had been built about a third of the way up, a camp site had been developed about two thirds of the way up, people were trekking in the dark to get to the view point at dawn and generally you had to dodge around other trekkers going up and down the track as if on a London pavement.
Torres de Paine; before setting off on Day 1
Trousers off to ford the river
Day 2, viewpoint of glacier on the Argentine/Chile border
Day 3 another glacier
Day 4, at the top of the pass, Glacier Grey behind
One of the ravines
Glacier + Lago Grey
Camp site night 4 with iceberg
Day 5
The refuge for night 5
Day 6 Looking up
Looking down
Setting off on Day 7
Day 7
A day off: Glacier + Lago Grey with the pass and our trek route on the right
Day 8
View from the Estancia
Our supper
One of the things to do in Puerto Natales is to take pictures of the sunset
Another night, another sunset!
It was a great trek with a good group of people. The second part of the trip wasn’t quite as good; I had booked a place on a working ship from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt, along the coast where the glaciers come down to the sea and there is lots of sea wildlife to see. After hanging around for 3 days in Puerto Natales – which is really only a town from which people set off to other places and where there is nothing otherwise to do - waiting to check in for the cruise I was concerned to be told that the departure of the vessel was delayed by 24 hours, my cabin was being downgraded, they couldn’t guarantee an arrival time but they would be happy to give a full refund. Before the delay I only had had 24 hours in Puerto Montt before my flight back to the UK so I took the refund. When I googled after getting home, I discovered the ship which usually does that trip had been holed on a rock the week before and that the replacement vessel was smaller. I couldn’t get an earlier flight back so there was a lot more hanging about in Puerto Montt not doing much.
On returning to Lymington I discovered that my winter parking of the motorhome in the neighbours’ drive had created a lot of ill feeling in the estate where my father lives so I took the opportunity of going to the Midlands, to the West Country and to South West London to try to see as many people as possible as well getting essentials done (servicing the motorhome, going to the dentist) – and waiting for the warmer weather before heading north. I loomed large in Lymington (well, the motorhome did) over Easter before I finally set off.
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