Walking up the Valley (or should I say, being blown up the Valley!) towards Torres del Paine
I can’t believe it’s been two years since I have written on my blog – how disgraceful! I don’t want you to think I haven’t been walking in all that time, as in between life-as-usual, I have actually done some really wonderful walks – I celebrated my 50th on the Larapinta Trail – unbelievable!; did a multi-day walk on the Ridgeway in the UK; have done some lovely walks around Victoria, including some of the Goldfields Track (my next aim!); walked the Portuguese coastal camino with my daughter, and have just been lucky enough to return from Patagonia – a decades-long dream to walk the Torres del Paine. And importantly, finally, at the end of last year, my 4th guidebook, Best Walks of the Great Ocean Road, hit the bookshelves. So I clearly owe you a bit of catch-up – let’s see how I do! – and hopefully hear about some of your walks, too.
Patagonia – the southernmost areas of Chile and Argentina – was my first venture to South America, and it won’t be my last. What an incredible 4 weeks, and so easy – bus transportation is fast and comfortable, food is good and plentiful though it helps to like copious quantities of red meat, people helpful and the walking is spectacular!
First stop: Torres del Paine’s ‘The W Walk’
The 106km ‘W Walk’ around the Torres del Paine massif in Chile has been on my bucket list since I first saw a photo of those incredible spires 20 years ago. And it did not disappoint at all. A long flight from Melbourne to Santiago, then to Punta Arenas and then a bus to quaint Puerto Natales and yet another bus into the NP was rewarded with a magnificent refugio-to-refugio walk in pretty amazing weather (we were very lucky!). We did the walk independently (very easily) using a local Chilean travel agent to book the refugios and connecting transport, which was very easy and saved us huge wadges of cash. 
The refugios are clean – have rooms with multiple bunk beds (If you prebook you can get the lower ones – some are pretty vertiginous!), hot communal showers and can be pre-booked with linen so you don’t have to carry heavy packs, and full board – evening meals are hearty 2 courses and will line your stomachs – and lunchpacks consist of (huge) slabs of bread with meat and cheese and a muesli bar and fruit. For those with more stamina and who are seriously pack-fit, there are excellent camping grounds beside all the refugios.
Leaning into the wind (already!) as we leave the first refugio
The walk itself is not technical, only reaches altitudes of around 1200m, and the trails are relatively clear except for a bit of rock scrambling up on the final stage to the Towers, but fitness definitely helps – we scaled 1100 flights of stairs in the 6 days, according to our pedometers. Daily distances are not too long, unless you do some of the optional climbs to some of the bigger lookouts at Los Cuernos (worth it!) – usually around the 16km mark. But one factor you have to take into consideration is the wind. I haven’t experienced anything like it – you hear the gusts coming before they hit you – it sounds a bit like a dozen diesel locomotives at full pace – and you know to ‘brace’ (seriously, as they reach up to 120km an hour. The lighter weights of us (not me!) were bowled over a couple of times, and one of our 9kg backpacks was tumbled along by the wind like it was a cotton ball. It’s impressive and very wild!
View back to Los Cuernos (‘the horns’) on the Torres del Paine W walk
We took the option of the boat out from Refugio Grey, rather than retrace our steps, and that was a good call. It takes you up to the face of teh wave-like Grey Glacier and past its various icebergs, and rewards you with a legendary Pisco Sour made with glacial ice as a nice end0-of-walk celebration. We also opted to stay a couple of nights in Refugio Grey at the end so we could do a day walk further up the pass, across some mighty suspension bridges (leave your fear of heights at home!) and clamber down to the iceberg-filled Grey Lake. This walk is seriously very, very beautiful. Seriously one of the best walks, and most varied, that I have ever done. It did not disappoint one iota. If you ever get the opportunity, grab it with everything you’ve got and go for it.
Grey Lake icebergs
Magellanic Orchids – just wow!
Grey Glacier, from the track beyond Grey Lodge
Melbourne Walks 
WoW! What an experience. Patagonia has never really been on my radar but it is now! May I please ask what a night at a refugio costs? Is it an expensive exercise? Thanks for sharing. Mel
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Hi Mel – well, first thing to say is that Chile and Argentina are not cheap – about the same price as travelling in Australia, though you can do it cheaper. But if you can save it – it is 1000% worth every single penny (took me 20 years to get there – just saying!) The refugios start at around USD$60/night – some of the hostels we stayed at outside of the NP were only around $30 per person in dorms. I reckon you can manage it for around USD$100/day pretty comfortably. Maybe with some extras for some airfares.
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Great – thanks for the feedback. It sounds like it is definitely worth adding to the Bucket List. I am planning to walk the Vie Francigena in Italy next year, so always happy to add more walks to the List. Thanks again, Mel
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Has it really been two years? Time flies by… I can’t even describe how stunning this walk looks. Wow! Oh, I noted your mention of the Goldfields Track. Visually not quite in comparison to this one 🙂 Considering doing it this winter myself. Once I work out the ‘where to get water from’ problem 🙂 Anyway, I hope it’s not two years until the next post 🙂
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Hi greg – how brilliant to hear from you! For some reason, even though I am subscribed – your blog posts don’t come through to me anymore – and I miss them!! Yeah, that water issue is a bugger for the Goldfields (I did a short article on that in Great Walks – that section was just gorgeous) – I have been thinking same for a bigger trip along the Bibbulmum Track. Though on this trip to Patagonia, I did take a pretty fantastic filter straw thingamy which meant I could drink out of anything en route. Are you thinking of doing the whole thing in one go? There are quite a few spring fed creeks up around the Smeaton-Daylseford-Clunes area – not so sure further along though. Would love to hear more. Jx
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Welcome back to blogging Julie!! You’re post is such a tease. Even though I’ve just come back from Tassie, I’m already thinking of where to go next. After seeing your pics and the awesome Dave (from Paddy Pallin’s) shots too after his recent trip, I’m thinking this could be it!
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Hi Caro!! I’ve been loving some of your articles in Great Walks and Travel Play Live lately – all looks like it is coming back together. I have to say I can only 5000% recommend Patagonia. I really, really loved it – and given I had been wanting to go there for more than 25 years, there was a good chance it could not live up to the impossible expectations I had – but it smashed them!! We were incredibly lucky with the weather, which really helped for sure, but I would go back in a heartbeat. Having said all that, I think Iran is the next ‘big’ walking trip on my bucket list, with a few other shorter range ones in between. Glad you enjoyed the pics. Of course I have a million of them!!! Jx
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Hello Julie. Your photographs and description of your walk in Patagonia are inspiring. We are presently trying to organise a 5 day w walk for January 2018. Did you contact the Chilean travel agent from Australia? Regards, Gabby
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Hi Gabby – yes we did. He was an English guy who is based in Santiago, and we used him to organise the Torres Del Paine W walk leg – the rest we did independently. He saved us a shed load of money and the arrangements were great but you really needed to tell him exactly what you wanted and his communication was pretty appalling. But we certainly got what we wanted. We went for 6 days in the end, with an additional night at Refugio Grey which was definitely worth it and allowed us time to just rest and do day walks and explore the Grey Glacier and further along up the pass over the mighty swing bridges. I’d really recommend an extra day at least at one of the refugios. A couple of the days can be very long, and they can also be broken up in this way.
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