An early
start today for our first excursion, a full-day hike to the Grey
glacier. As before, extra minutes sleep wins it for Ness, breakfast
wins it for me. It takes too long to wait for the eggs and I have to
leave just as they arrive. With Nigel and Mhairie we’re taken by
boat across the glacial lake Pehoe, to the refugio at the other end.
It’s still early, 7am, and I snooze through most of the boat trip
(half an hour, flying at top speed). Our “equipment” consists of
warm clothing and a trekking pole. At the refugio we have to wait
until the boat returns with the rest of the group. It’s breakfast
time at the refugio. Quite a few people are already up, or in the
process, and there is a buzz about the place as the serious hikers
are having breakfast and are getting dressed. The refugio itself is
a small cabin with a communal eating area, staffed by a few …er…
staff, with showers, toilets and upstairs a number of small rooms
with simple bunkbeds. I have a coffee while we’re waiting. I can
overhear a group of Belgians sat against the far wall. There is a
mix of nationalities, Germans, Brits, French, Swiss.
When we see that the rest of the group has arrived we go to meet
them outside. They include: a gay couple from Atlanta, Karim and
Paula from London, Knut (“Herr Two Sticks”) an elderly German and
Berbl, his much younger wife (we reckon former secretary), Nigel and
Mhairie, “Fred” and his wife from the US, a couple from the
Midlands, a baseball-wearing Swiss and his friend/wife/business
partner from the US. The guides are Cristobal (Curly), Pablo and
Daniel. The walk is about 14km, to the glacier, from where we’ll be
picked up by a boat for a ride along the edge of the glacier and
back to the other end of Lago Grey where the vans will be waiting to
take us back to the hotel.
The walk starts at a fast pace and the first part is a gradual
climb. Ness finds it hard and has to slow down and stop several
times, but once we have found a better rhythm the pace gets easier.
It’s difficult now, a few days later (as I’m sat on the patio of our
hotel in Zapallar), to recall the specifics, only impressions
remain, but hopefully the few pictures we took will help to bring it
all back.
Most of the walk was either gradually climbing or descending,
passing through forested sections, rocky ones, wet ones, etc. To our
right the mountains rose steeply, summit covered in snow. The rock
below the snow line was black, not grey as you might expect. To our
left was Lago Grey. The path took us through a quebrada (gorge) at
first and then got closer to the lake, with great views across it.
Small icebergs were floating in the lake, chunks of ice that had
broken off the glacier, floating towards the other end where an
iceberg graveyard had developed. Ness and I were mostly at the back
of the group. A few of the group pressed on, including Nigel,
Mhairie, Karim and Paula. The rest of the group was led by Curly who
also kept an eye on the group in front, and Pablo brought up the
rear. Daniel was further back, on his own. We hung back, both to
give us a bit more space, i.e. to avoid continuously seeing a line
of multi-coloured backpacks in this scenery, and to allow us to go
at our own pace. The weather was freakish, spells of bright sunshine
and thick heavy snowfall, real “jingle bells” weather. The snow
rapidly disappeared during the sunny spells, but on the forested
parts of the mountains to our right it looked as if the trees had
been dusted with sugar.
Partway through the day we started to get views of the glacier in
the distance. At around 2pm we reached a point overlooking the
glacier from nearby and stopped for lunch. Curly and Pablo unpacked
sandwiches and drinks and spread it out on a rug. We stood around,
taking pictures, talking. They even had coffee and Baileys. The snow
started to fall again as we finished lunch. The options now were to
carry on a bit further to another mirador overlooking the glacier
from above or head down to the lake shore. Some decided to carry on,
including the gay American couple and Karim and Paula, the rest of
us headed to the refugio – it had been a long hard walk so far and
Pablo predicted that it was unlikely that they would reach the
mirador in time. Even if they did, the views weren’t as good as the
one we had right now, so it was an easy decision to make.
The walk had been fun, and the views spectacular. It’s impossible to
do sum the experience up in a few words. The boat that picked us up
was the Lago Grey tour boat, which we to be transferred to with a
small separate black metal-hulled boat it had on tow. The tour boat
was pretty full already but we got seats, largely because we were
first off the transfer boat – everyone had been in a rush to board
the transfer boat and we got on last, but this meant that we were
first off the other end as they transferred from the same end we
boarded! Inside the atmosphere was a bit sweaty but it was good to
be warm. First we stayed inside and warmed up but when we got closer
to the edge of the glacier we took it in turns to go outside and
look at the glacier. Having seen Perito Moreno and Upsala last year,
this one seemend unimpressive by comparison, at first. Even so we
were impressed by the beauty of the scene, the deep blue colours,
the fantastic shapes of the ice sculptures, the icebergs floating
by. An “island” divides the glacier in two arms. Then the boat took
us back. Whiskey and Pisco were served with glacier ice on the way
back. I think I slept for most of the boat ride back. At the other
end of the lake we saw the iceberg graveyard. From there it was a
short walk, about twenty minutes, to the vans. We spotted two huemul,
deer, standing close to the lake. Even when our large group passed
quite close to them they didn’t run away.
The Explora vans, very comfortable Fords, took us back to the hotel.
Straight up to our room to shower, change and rest! Aah, hot showers
made us both feel much better. Our room is on the second, top,
floor, looking out over the back, in the far corner, very five-star,
with a great bed and a small but excellent bathroom, under-floor
heating, no TV (good) and panoramic windows. I have already
“forgiven” Explora after yesterday’s unkind thoughts, although the
no-smoking policy does still irritate me a bit.
Downstairs we first find one of the guides to find out about
tomorrow’s options and settle for the full-day hike to the Glacier
Frances. We have dinner with Nigel, Mhairie, Karim and Paula. Karim
is a young lawyer, friendly, polite, but dull, dull, dull… Paula is
squeaky, mousy, but also friendly. Nigel and Mhairie are moaning
minnies, but pleasant enough. After dinner (lamb), I head downstairs
for a smoke and quickly run into Portugal and Holland again. My
coffee is sent down. Later Ness joins me downstairs after the Boring
Brits have disappeared and we spend more time in conversation with
the Dutch and Portuguese. The Portuguese group consists of two
middle-aged couples and the son of one of them. One of the two men
is a doctor, the other a lawyer. The lawyer smokes like a chimney.
The Dutch group is three couples, also middle-aged (older actually):
Gerard and Katie – Gerard, medicine professor, very fit, and Katie
looks much older, she has porfyria, a member of the only family in
Holland who have the disease), Frits and Fieke (Frits has a great
sense of humour and a moustache, Fieke is homely), and Ed and Maria
(both completely nuts). They’re clearly very well to do and not
short of an estate or two (one of their estates is big enough to go
hunting…) I haven’t been keeping this diary up to date due to the
late evenings at Explora, chatting in the smoking lounge.
PS. Ran
into the Belgians, from breakfast, at some point during the day and
had a friendly, no-nonsense chat with them.
PPS. At
lunch I saw two vultures (condors?) dive-bombing each other over the
glacier. The gay Americans had to snigger at my remark about “Condor
foreplay”.
