Its raining heavily in Puerto Natales when I get up. Not a good sign for the start of the hike but they do say that the weather down here can bear no relation to whats going on in the park on any given day.
By the time we get to the park entrance three hours later the rain has lifted. It takes a while to pay the entrance fee as there are 5-6 buses in front of us. The bus brings us to a ferry which will take me to a campsite where I´ll stay tonight. Its a half hour spim across the lake and we get our first real glimpse up close of some of the peaks here.
By the time I get the tent up and a quick bite to eat its 1.30pm. I start out on the first leg of the circuit. A hike up to glacier grey. Most people come up and stay at a campsite close to the glacier but because I´m only in for 3 days I´m going to hike up and back in one go. Its a 7hr round trip so I can´t hang about if I want to get back while its still light.
The trail is certainly picturesque. The trail follows a route under some sheer peaks which go up to 3,000m. The trail is at an altitude of 25o-300m so its hard to believe the summits above are nearly 2 miles above us. On the left hand side a lake, which is fed by glacier grey, runs parallel. Up at the head of the valley 11km away sits glacier grey. Between here and there the trail crosses ridges, streams and through plentiful woodland.
It takes over three hours to reach the glacier. Along the way there are plenty of other hikers on the trail going in both directions. But what is striking after a while is just how many blatantly ignore you as if you weren´t there, despete the fact that you´ve just stepped off the trail to allow them to pass. This kind of attitude winds me up. Its only the younger ones that do it. Its as if they´ve come to their "Into the Wild" thang for a week. City slicker who are "going back to nature" this week. Next week when they´re up in El Bolson they´ll be all "peace and love" hippies. And by the time they reach Buenos Aires they´ll be disco divas. But this week they´re alone battling raw nature. I just wanted to say to some of them "Listem, love, get over yourself. Your not really in the wild. There´s hundreds of us in here. So get used to it. Its like a little Disney nature theme park in here. If you really want to be in the wild you should have f****d off to Alaska and not into one of the most heavily marketed national parks in the world."
The glacier itself was nice and the views around it were spectacular. The return journey was fast paced in order to get back to the campsite around 8pm in order to have enough light to get washed and fed before nightfall. There was a kitchen facility on site so half the campsite was in either prparing food or eating. I put something together fast. I had my shower and when darkness fell I, like most people around me went to sleep.
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