W trek 5- The towers three

Blurry eyed at 5:30 we hustled our day bag together, strapped on our headtorches and headed into the darkness towards the towers. A 1.2km hike up a very steep incline for sunrise, its the only path shaded red for difficulty so even the Patagonians rate it hard. That means its STEEP.

Many of you who have come across me early in the morning know that I don't function... at all. Barely any words come out and most communication and tasks are impossible. So imagine what poor James had to overcome with me without caffine or any breakfast. With a LOT of cajouling we fumbled our way up in an hour, a good 30 minutes before sunrise.

Picking a sheltered spot, we sat down and waited to see what happened at sunrise as the towers were shrouded in fog. As sunrise came the towers remained hidden but the orange haze and a rainbow gave it a moody magnificence. When we started down the clouds started to fade so climbing back up off the path we saw the towers clearly with blue skies behind.

We had 4 hours to get down to the hotel, a quick noodle breakfast and we headed off, smiling at the day trippers as they huffed their way up. We made good time, again in brilliant sunshine and celebrated with a beer at the bottom. W trek completed!!

A sleepy bus ride back, and a very long hot shower we headed out and eat our own bodyweight in meat, before having a long deep sleep.

I was never sure before the hike that I would make it. I am really quite proud of myself: as a novice hiker I complete over 70km with a backpack and little luxury!

Number of blisters= 0!! - well done boots
Number of holas= must have been a thousand passing all the daytrippers
Number of km= 11km
Whole trip around 70km
Happy backpackers= 2Read more