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At the end of my last post, I said I was considering whether to attempt to try and complete the W Trek.

Day 3 was the day to make this decision. If I did Day 3 I would literally be in the middle of nowhere and I would have no choice but to walk on Day 4.

I didn’t have to walk the middle stroke of the W, but I would have to walk to my next hostel which was another 11 km.

And if I managed that I’d only have one day left so I might as well finish the job and do the final 11 km. Then I had my boat trip the next day.

I’d been sure to arrange things so I didn’t have to catch any transport at the end of a walk, which meant I had no time pressures. My boat was a morning boat, but I was spending the night before in the hostel the boat went from, so as long as I actually made it there the night before, I would be okay.

Again, as mentioned at the end of my previous post, I knew I wasn’t going to give up. The weather was still perfect and I’d never get another chance to come here. So with blue skies and bright sunshine I set off for Refugio Los Cuernos.

Initially I enjoyed the hike, the views were wonderful, I could see the mountains and the lake, I stopped off a few times to take photos. It was very up and down, not the most difficult hiking, but I had to admit, this was becoming an endurance test now. I was finding this very tough. The day before had been difficult, I really could have done with more rest time in between.

The rough terrain meant I was hiking over large stones some of the time which was hard on my feet, my hiking boots weren’t the most comfortable either. Maybe I should have gone with my old trainers and that would have made it easier. I still didn’t think I’d have been hiking that much faster though. I was careful where to place my feet so as not to slide on loose stones, careful with deep steps so I didn’t lose my balance, careful when there was any water so I didn’t slip. Me being fitter than I was wouldn’t have made any difference to those aspects of my hike. I would still have been taking it very steady when negotiating those sections. But my body was also very tired and carrying a heavy rucksack all day was very difficult.

The other thing I had noticed about this trail was that you had to share it with horses. At first I thought that it was for people who wanted to go trail riding. You could go trail riding in Torres del Paine, but not on the W Trek. The second day I saw the horses on the trail. They were pack horses. One horse in front with a rider on it, leading two or three other horses carrying supplies. I supposed the remote hostels with no road access would have to be supplied by horse, although I did find it difficult to believe that the horses brought everything in. Maybe there was some water access or some off road vehicle access as well. Whatever, there were a lot of horse droppings on the path and I had to be careful to try and avoid any horses on the trail due to my severe horse allergy.

The scenery along the trail on Day 3 was amazing. At the top of the first hill was a fabulous view of a lake and the mountains. There was a wooden swing bridge that crossed a mountain stream and looking back, more spectacular views of the mountains. The trail was never flat, I was relentlessly trekking up and down, it was hard work, but I had better weather than I could have possibly hoped for, blue skies, warm sunshine, unobstructed views of the turquoise lakes and snow capped distant mountains. I was lucky to be here, so I enjoyed the walk as best I could, but Day 3 was the most difficult day for me and I got to a point in the afternoon where I just wanted to get to the hostel. The physical hardships of this hike on my body were now diminishing my enjoyment of being in this magical setting.

It was the third night of me staying in a hostel and I’d had enough of that too. The first night had been okay, it was a novelty, it was bearable. The second night where I had sheets and a pillow was quite comfortable, sharing with a French Canadian couple and two German ladies, all a bit older and none of them noisy types. I didn’t like the fact that they didn’t sex segregate the rooms in the hostels though. It wasn’t too bad in there because there was only one man, the husband of the French Canadian couple.

At Refugio Los Cuernos I was back to the silk duvet and satin sheets, by that I mean sleeping bag and pillow and they tried to put me in a top bunk again. I asked for a bottom bunk, which I got, and was quite annoyed to find that a husband and wife had bagged the two bottom bunks instead of having the same set of bunk beds. The staff had swapped me over with the wife. These rooms had 8 beds to them, three bottom bunks, 3 middle ones and two that practically reached the ceiling. The room was dark and depressing.

One of the blokes I had to share a room with in this refugio, who was from Argentina, said it was common to have mixed bedrooms in mountain refuges. He said this wasn’t a hostel. Wrong. A mountain refuge hut in the Alps where you shelter from snow storms and avalanches was not the same as this place, specifically built for tourists that had a kitchen, a restaurant, bathrooms (bad as they were) and dormitories. This place had cost me £90 to stay in, the least I could expect was a female only dormitory.

The refugio staff have lists of advance bookings, everyone has to have an advance reservation. It’s not difficult to look at your list and say, we’ve got 16 women and 24 men booked for the dormitories tonight, so we’ll put the women in these rooms and the men in these rooms. If you have an odd number, put the couples travelling together in a mixed dormitory. I work in the travel industry and I know this is not a complicated process. It comes down to staff laziness, nothing more. For £90 a night, the guests deserve better service. And if not that, a proper dressing area in the bathroom that wasn’t opposite a door that opened out onto the corridor shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Yes. In this scabby hostel, the only place to get dressed was in the bathroom because I was in a room with 6 blokes, and the only place to get dressed in the bathroom, unless you went into a toilet cubicle which was very confined and unhygienic, was to sit on the one bench in the bathroom that faced the door. Which meant when anyone opened the door, anyone walking past could you in whatever state of undress you were in. At one point I was half dressed when a lass walked out of the bathroom for something she’d forgotten and left the door open! Presumably she didn’t think it mattered I only had my knickers on and anyone could have seen me in the two minutes she was gone, if I hadn’t got up and shut the door myself.

I mentioned hygiene in the toilet cubicles. Which brings me to something else. You can’t flush toilet paper. You have to throw it in a bin next to the toilet so you don’t block the drains, which is pretty disgusting. So definitely not somewhere you want to be getting dressed. I came across it all over Chile, not just in the National Park.

My next holiday is going to be super luxury for me. No more hostels where you can’t flush toilet paper!

On my next holiday I can also choose where to eat. Again, as mentioned in the previous post, I’d had both breakfast and packed lunches at the hostels so far and they’d been practically inedible. I didn’t realise you could actually buy food at the hostels, such as order a pizza, I thought it was their meals or nothing so I thought I should have something, at least breakfast and a packed lunch. Had I known how bad the food was going to be, I would have made do with my emergency supply of biscuits for the day hike and had something at the hostel in the evening because the breakfasts and pack ups were an expensive waste of money.

I just didn’t feel like being sociable any more, I had no desire to go and mix with strangers. To be honest at this point, I wanted this to be over and wished I’d said, forget the money I’ve wasted, this is just not worth it, I’m going back to Puerto Natales.

I was so glad that I hadn’t said that, because this was definitely the low point of the hike and things improved substantially the next day.

Earlier in the afternoon I’d been chatting to a lady from Guatemala who was hiking with her niece. She had been carrying the most enormous backpack with a frame that held all their camping gear. If I had had to carry all that stuff I could not have hiked the W Trek. I doubted I would have been able to stand upright with that on my back. Despite feeling antisocial, I saw this lady from Guatemala at a table set outside the hostel and I went to say hello to her and chatted to her and her companions for a while until she left to put up her tent.

I then retreated back to the bedroom with Strauss for company. Listening to classical music was the only thing keeping me going in these hostels.  It somehow brought me closer to civilisation. Sophisticated 19th century Vienna, a cultural mecca. I could try to imagine I was overnighting in Schönbrunn Palace, instead of sharing a room with 6 sweaty blokes.

I had to fill in a review about the hostel and it wasn’t good. I’ve used the adjective “scabby” in this post, which is a word I use when I’m generally not very happy with accommodation. I didn’t use this adjective in my review, but I only gave it 1 or 2 out of 5 for everything and only 2 out of 10 as a recommendation, because it was marginally better than a tent and explained that I thought the mixed bedrooms were awful, the bathrooms were inadequate and there was no place to dress in privacy after a shower. If I’d been sharing with all women, I would have got dressed in the room. With 6 blokes in the room? I don’t think so!

When I got back to Puerto Natales I’d have my own room, when I got to Punta Arenas I’d have my own apartment and when I got home I’d have my own house! I was surprised the Little Angels hadn’t made an appearance on my iPod yet, this Scarborough band always feature when I’m homesick.

I’d had a hard afternoon getting to the hostel, the hostel was easily the worst I’d stayed at along the trek and I was faced with a walk the next day whether I wanted one or not because I was in the middle of nowhere. That night and the following morning were definitely the low point on the trail for me.

On day 4, I very much doubted I’d be doing the middle stroke of the W. If there had been somewhere to stay at the top of the middle stroke of the W, I would have stayed there and broken up the journey to make it manageable. As it was, it would mean hiking twice as far as I had done today and I had been told that the hike to the top of the middle stroke of the W was quite tough. I’d see how I got on, but I didn’t expect to be seeing Mirador Britanico.

As I set off in the morning I was faced with a big hill to climb, quite literally. A 2 kilometre uphill slog. It was tough at first because it was walking on big stones which is much harder on your leg muscles and also on my poor, sore feet. I came out onto the beach by the lake shore and decided to take a few photos of myself on this lovely beach. I did enjoy my short time on the beach, it was a nice, relaxing and scenic place to be.

Then the uphill slog began and on big stones too. I remember walking along Brighton beach almost 30 years ago and remember walking along the shingle being hard on my leg muscles. I was in my early 20s then and very fit as I used to go to the gym most days, and as my university was at the top of a steep hill I would walk up and down that regularly. During my first year when I was living in Halls I used to carry 8 pints of milk all the way up that steep hill from the supermarket! Now I’m complaining about a rucksack! Anyway I’m nowhere near that fit now, so a heavy rucksack and the large stones was a killer. I didn’t even mind the climb as much as the stones. At least this was the beginning of the day.

After that initial climb it did get easier, the path was still up and down, but it did level out somewhat and the view of the mountains, lakes and glacier was wonderful. I started to enjoy myself a bit more.

I got to Camp Italiano which is the point where you turn off to go to Mirador Britanico, the viewpoint that everyone raved about and was second only to the Torres. I looked and I hesitated, but it was 4 km one way and took 3 hours. It might well have taken me longer. It was a difficult path, apparently similar to the Torres where you were climbing on and over boulders and much as I would have liked to have seen this view, I knew I’d never make it and then do another 7.5 km to the next hostel. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to do it, but I didn’t regret not doing it. And that’s the wonderful thing about the internet, you only have to Google “Mirador Britanico” and click on images and you’ll see about a million photos of it. To misquote Jim Bowen on Bullseye, “let’s have a look at what I would have seen”.

If I hadn’t had to do so many long hikes over consecutive days and if I could have changed my trainers, because I usually alternate my footwear, it could have been different. But I couldn’t possibly have carried a second pair of trainers and hiking every day was taking too much of a toll on my body. I was now feeling confident I would get to the end of the W Trek and make it up to Refugio Grey the following day, which was 11 km and didn’t seem to be a particularly difficult section of the trail, but I wasn’t going to manage the full middle stroke of the W.

That’s when I came up with my alternative name. I was doing the lazy writer’s W Trek. A lazy writer will form a “W” where your pen hints in a small upward motion, so you can just about see it is a W. So that’s how I referred to my long distance wilderness hike from then on – the Lazy Writer’s W Trek.

After Camp Italiano, the track up to Refugio Paine Grande was pretty quiet. I think most people had left early from the opposite direction to do the hike to Mirador Britanico or were doing the hike if they’d left from the east. I found a nice quiet spot to eat my pretty horrible sandwich that had been in my packed lunch. I was sitting there for 15 or 20 minutes and not one person passed me from either direction.

One of my favourite places on this day, and indeed on the whole hike, was what I called the enchanted forest. The enchanted forest came after lunch and consisted of lots of dead trees, the type you would find in volcanic areas. It appealed to the romance and mystery in me. Okay, it wasn’t exactly where no man had been before, but I was still in a remote spot that a lot of people would never get to in their lifetime. I was pretty well off the beaten track.

There was a bit more of an uphill climb and I was wondering when this uphill battle was going to end and then I got to see the view of Pehoe Lake, which was the most amazing turquoise colour. That must mean that Paine Grande Lodge wasn’t far away. Another beautiful spot on this fabulous hike.

I crossed one bridge and I could see the building, not too far in the distance. Not far now.

On first view arriving at Paine Grande Lodge it looks very impressive. They were busy cleaning the windows of the restaurant so you had a nice view out to the lake. It was just a pity they hadn’t thought to clean the rest of the place. It was filthy! I was shown to my room and it was empty so I could have whatever bed I wanted. All of the bedding on all of the beds looked a bit grubby. I had a feeling I would be sleeping on my towel tonight. The staircases needed washing too.

But by far the worst was the shower room. It was filthy. They really needed to invest in new shower facilities. The only good thing you could say about these shower rooms was you could get dressed out of view of the door. And that was the only good thing. I couldn’t even work out how to turn the shower on, I had to ask somebody. Now I haven’t been to the swimming baths for years, so I don’t know if they’re still like this now, but when I used to go, probably around 30 years ago, you had to press a button on the shower and you got water for about 30 seconds and then if you wanted more water you had to press it again. That’s what these were like. Except you didn’t even get water for 30 seconds. You only got water for 10 seconds. I timed it. I know they want to encourage people not to have long showers and save water, but 10 seconds is ridiculous. I was not impressed. The whole shower area was dirty.

It’s all very well having all these nice new sofas in the public areas. If the rooms are grotty and the bathrooms are filthy, it doesn’t give a very good impression.

For all the bad things I said about the other hostels, their bathrooms were reasonably clean and they had showers you could turn on and off properly and it was only in the first one that the water wasn’t really hot, the other two had really hot water.

I certainly wouldn’t be sorry to see the back of these hostels, the first two nights were bearable, now it was becoming really awful.

Some people like the social side of staying in hostels, I’m led to believe. I’m not one of them. I like travelling on my own most of the time. I’m happy to chat to people. And sometimes that leads to lasting friendships, like with Cristina who I’d climbed the volcano with at the start of my trip. I kept seeing the same people on this trail and would say hello and chat to them briefly. I didn’t want to share a room with them.

This latest hostel with the swimming baths showers also didn’t sex segregate the rooms. From what I could see all the rooms were mixed. I could only conclude that it must be down to laziness on the part of the staff. Was I the only one who found these mixed dorm rooms wholly inconvenient? Possibly. Speaking briefly to some young French Canadians in my room, they seemed to think that the swimming baths showers where the water only lasted 10 seconds was a good thing! 10 seconds of water doesn’t even get you completely wet.

I obviously have very different standards. My mother’s high standards. And I’m not ashamed to admit that. Nor am I ashamed to share my honest opinions of these extremely expensive hostels. I understand that these are remote locations and their running costs will be high. But wouldn’t take much organisation and effort to make them a lot better. So when they’re charging £90 a night just for a bunk bed in a dormitory, they should be prepared for criticism. Because as I’ve said before, I don’t get any free stays on my holidays. Who pays for Yorkshire Hayley? Yorkshire Hayley does!

Despite my criticism of the refugios, if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t let staying in them put me off hiking in Torres del Paine. They’re not bad enough to abandon the idea of the hike altogether. It all comes down to what minimum standard you will accept. For me, I was willing to put up with staying in hostels to hike the W Trek and my personal experience hasn’t changed my mind. I wouldn’t have been willing to sleep in a tent for 4 nights to do this particular trail.

I still had to walk 11 km to my final hostel and my boat out of Torres del Paine National Park the next day. But it was now indisputable. I had succeeded in hiking the W Trek.

I had completed the Lazy Writer’s W Trek. The normal writer’s W Trek is 60 km. As a lazy writer I’d completed 52 km. So was I a success because of the 52 km I had completed or a failure because of the 8 km I hadn’t managed?

Did completing the Lazy Writer’s W Trek count as success? For me it did. Completing it had been challenging and very tough. I’d got to the Torres which was the main thing I wanted to see. Trying to get to Mirador Britanico would have been stupid. If I’d done the trek from west to east I probably wouldn’t have managed the Torres either.

It’s also important to note that there are quite a few variations for hiking the W Trek. Those who hike west to east often start at Paine Grande Lodge where I was tonight, thereby missing the left hand stroke of the W.

It really is down to personal choice how you do the W Trek factoring in time, availability of lodging, your fitness and what you want to see. I was disappointed that I wasn’t up to hiking to Mirador Britanico. But I had seen the Torres in perfect weather and practically had them to myself, which was the most important thing to me. I’d done this long distance hike and thoroughly enjoyed being in the Patagonian wilderness, even though it had been difficult at times.

So I concluded that the W Trek, albeit the Lazy Writer’s one, had been a success.

I now have even more of a reason to count it as a success and be pleased I persevered and didn’t give up and saw all this amazing scenery in beautiful Patagonia.

I have always believed in pushing yourself and making the most out of life. I had had a hard 12 months of travel, back to back tours, a holiday in Australia with less than 24 hours to between flying to Adelaide and getting back from tours in the Baltic, a trip with my niece and nephew to Northumberland, more quick turnarounds in November and December to tours in 6 different European countries with a day off in between if I was lucky, and then off to South America on New Year’s Day for 7 weeks. It was exhausting and I said I wanted to take more time between my travels after a hectic year visiting 15 countries on 4 continents with 58 flights.

I am now writing this at home, having been grounded since mid March due to the catastrophic Coronavirus pandemic. Be careful what you wish for. I would swap the exhausting year of travel I had last year over sitting at home wondering if I’m ever going to see anywhere else in the world again.

I am so pleased that I got to hike the W Trek in February, because who knows when anyone will be able to do that again. And I would have been devastated if I’d said I was too tired with all the travelling and I wouldn’t go in February 2020 because look where I am now. Always grab the chances when you get them, you never know what might happen in the future.

My next post will detail the final day on the W Trek hiking to Lago Grey, my boat trip to Glacier Grey and my night at the Last Hope.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park and hiked the W Trek during the first week of February 2020.

To hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park you must book all your accommodation in advance. There are hostels and campsites you can stay at along the route. There are a few free campsites run by the National Park Service. All hostels and the other campsites are run by Fantastico Sur in the east of the park and Vertice Patagonia in the west of the park.

You can get information about hiking in Torres del Paine National Park including the W Trek, the O Trek and the Q Trek, on the Conaf website.

I hiked the W Trek independently. I hiked from East to West starting from Torre Central to El Chileno to hike the eastern stroke of the W first. There are various tours available, but the hike is easy to do on your own without a guide and allows you to go at your own pace. The hike took me 5 days with 4 overnight stays at Refugios in the National Park.

I stayed at Refugio Los Cuernos for the third night on this section of my hike. This refugio is managed by Fantastico Sur. I booked online via the company’s website. A made up bed in a bunk room sleeping up to 8 people in each hostel cost $116 USD per night in 2020. Rates for 2020/2021 can be found here. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

I stayed at Refugio Paine Grande for the fourth night on this section of my hike. This refugio is managed by Vertice Patagonia. The rates for their hostels were cheaper at $87 USD per night in 2020. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

It is possible to start or end your hike at Refugio Paine Grande. You can take the bus from Puerto Natales to Pudeto and then take the catamaran across Lago Pehoe to Refugio Paine Grande. The Torres del Paine website details the transport options and timetables.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park from Puerto Natales with Bus Sur. There are several buses each day departing from Puerto Natales Bus Station. I took the 1200h bus from Puerto Natales to Terminal Laguna Amarga which took 2 hours. I booked my ticket online in advance, but it is possible to book on the day.

Everyone must disembark the bus here if they are hiking from East to West in order to register with CONAF Park Services and pay the National Park fee which was approximately £25 for 5 days.

Read about the beginning and end of the W Trek

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my day hikes in Argentine Patagonia

Down Argentine Way – Los Glaciares

The W Trek is one of the iconic walks in Patagonia. It’s in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile and one of the main features is the view of the Torres, or the Three Towers. I’d seen lots of photos of them, now was my chance to see them for real.

Buoyed with my success on the hikes in El Chalten, Argentina, where I’d managed around 44 miles in 2 days, I was a bit more confident about the W Trek now, even though I still didn’t really know how difficult it was going to be.

I had read that the hiking times were conservative (we’ll get to that) and that you could end up hanging around a long time in hostels, so I had booked an afternoon bus into Torres del Paine from Puerto Natales which got me in at 2pm. I only had to hike 5.5km to my hostel for the night, no point arriving in the park at the crack of dawn and getting to the hostel at a ridiculously early hour. The bus dropped me off at the park administration where everyone had to get off and register and pay their fee.

It was a bit of a convoluted system where you had to fill out a form saying what trail you were hiking and what amount of time you’d be in the park, then pay your fee and then pass your form to a ranger, instead of it all being done by one person, since all the ranger seemed to do was put the form in a folder!

The Welcome Centre and hostel closest to the park administration buildings were 7km away and I’d tried to get some information about the shuttle that Hotel Torres ran. As usual in Latin America, it’s a completely useless system, where they gave you a WhatsApp number to message for information, I asked about the shuttle times, they told me to email, I emailed and got no reply. Actually that cost them some business, because the National Park Service ran a shuttle that met all the buses and that was less than half the price. I didn’t care about the price. What I did care about was having to hike an extra 7km. It was already after 2pm.

So I got on the Park Service minibus and then had to register at the Welcome Centre. I was a bit concerned because it said the cut off point for the hike to the Torres was 12pm and the cut off time from El Chileno was 3pm. I wasn’t planning on hiking to the Torres today, but would they let me on the trail to get to El Chileno where I was supposed to be sleeping tonight. Thankfully they would. It doesn’t seem to be policed very well for the hike to the Torres either. More about that later.

According to the signs, it was going to take me 2 hours to walk to El Chileno. So I should be there around 4.30pm. It was actually ten past five when I got there and I was the last one to arrive. I was hiking slower than the average hiking times every day. Even though I considered myself to be reasonably fit, it wouldn’t have hurt me to be fitter and done more training and hiking in Europe before I came to South America. Don’t underestimate this trek. You do need to be fit to do it. It’s not an easy stroll.

I’d seen various descriptions of the conditions of the W Trek from pretty easy to difficult. For me personally, it wasn’t difficult in the sense it was steep or treacherous for the most part, but it was seldom flat and it had some challenging sections.

I’d panicked after seeing countless stories about the terrible Patagonian weather. In fact, on the O circuit that a lot of people I’d spoken to had done, you have to go over the John Gardner pass and it seems this pass has a permanent storm cloud over it because everyone who had done the O Trek told me when they went over the pass they had hail, snow or rain. I was not tempted to do the O Trek myself which goes around the back of the park because it was far too long and doing the W Trek was going to be a push for me. Also along the back of the park there are no hostels, you have to camp. No thank you!

Anyway since I’d been warned about how bad the weather can be in Patagonia, strong biting winds, snow, hail storms, rain, plunging temperatures, I had brought far too many layers. Four for my top half, three for my bottom half. I even had an extra for my top half just in case I needed it. I could have just brought my down jacket and forgotten about my waterproof as well. Waterproof trousers over my leggings would have been sufficient without the extra pair of trousers. And I won’t even mention the woolly hat and two pairs of gloves I brought with me…

This is because I was incredibly lucky with the weather during my time hiking the W Trek. I had no bad weather. Some days were more cloudy than others, but no rain storms or snow storms, no hail or howling wind. I couldn’t have had better conditions for hiking the W Trek which meant I got to fully appreciate the scenery. I would never be tempted to do the W Trek again because I doubt I would have the perfect weather conditions a second time. Besides I’ve done it now and there are other places in the world I want to see.

On the first day hiking to El Chileno, the trail was a continuous uphill walk that was a very long slog. I was far too hot climbing the endless hill. The waterproof came off, the down jacket came off, I unzipped my jersey top. I was stuck when it came to the trousers. I could hardly start taking them off on the middle of the trail.

So while this trail wasn’t technically difficult, it was still a slog. It was uphill most of the way to Windy Pass, then it flattened out a bit. It wasn’t windy on Windy Pass either. Like I said, I was incredibly lucky with the weather. After a few more ups and downs, finally El Chileno Hostel, my bed for the night, was in sight.

I booked El Chileno in June 2019, almost as soon as the beds came on sale for the 2020 W Trek. According to my research, it was always fully booked in the high season.

The rooms had 6 beds in them and I was the only one in a top bunk in my room, the other two top bunks were empty. So much for you have to book immediately they come on sale or you won’t get a bed in El Chileno. But never mind. You are supposed to have your accommodation booked in advance, so you do have to plan. If you can do it immediately the beds are released, that’s one less thing to worry about.

The hostel didn’t have any sort of recreational area so people were forced to sit in the dining room, as the bedrooms were also not conducive to relaxation. If I’d been able to book a private room I would have done. But such things didn’t exist in the hostels along the W Trek. There was one place where I could have had my own cabin. Unfortunately the dates didn’t line up and it would have meant me camping one night. I have since discovered that you can book a tent that’s already been put up for you, but even so, that would still be hugely unappealing to me, so I booked hostels for all 5 nights. 5 nights in a hostel I hear you ask? Yes, 5 nights.

I’d paid for a made up bed in the hostels as I had no intention of, first of all, purchasing a sleeping bag, and secondly, having to lug it around with me on the W Trek when my bag was going to be far too heavy anyway and also having to fit it into my other luggage for the entirety of my trip.

So what did I have in my rucksack? I packed as light as possible. I had my 4 layers for my top half which were a lightweight sleeveless top, a jersey zip up jacket, a down jacket for warmth and a waterproof. And a change of knickers for every day. I had a pair of lightweight leggings, a pair of trousers and a pair of waterproof trousers. After the first day, I abandoned the trousers and just put the waterproofs on top of my leggings. I always had the waterproof trousers on. They protected me from water in streams I had to walk through at times and also from the vegetation. The waterproof trousers were my essential piece of clothing.

I had essential toiletries, toothbrush, toothpaste, insect repellent, face cream, suncream, painkillers and disposable contact lenses. I also had a large towel which was essential in the hostels and would have also been very useful if it had rained on the trek. I had sunspecs, camera, mobile phone and I took my iPad. I couldn’t decide if the iPad was an indulgence too far, but it wasn’t. I was so pleased I had taken it with me. It was more than worth the little extra weight. Finally, I had hiking poles, which I couldn’t have managed to do the trek without. All in all, I was very pleased with my packing.

As I mentioned I didn’t take my own sleeping bag. My made up bed in El Chileno consisted of a sleeping bag and a pillow. So no silk duvet and satin sheets then… However, the bedroom was pretty cold, there wasn’t any sort of heat in it, so a sleeping bag was probably sensible.

I went out into the dining room and plugged my phone in to charge up and started typing on my iPad.

Talking of dining, the catering was the one area where I had made a mistake. From all the posts I’d read on the internet it seemed you had 2 choices. You could either take all your food with you which meant carrying it for 5 days or you could order meals at the hostels. So I ordered breakfast and a packed lunch every day. I didn’t order an evening meal because I’m far too picky to eat anything that’s given to me, so I thought it would be a waste of money.

However, this is not your only option. As well as being able to book meals, they have a bar/restaurant where you can order things like pizza and they also sell alcohol, such as Pisco sours. The breakfast and packed lunches were generally of a pretty low standard. I would have been far better off taking a couple of bottles of water, which you could easily refill at every hostel, and a few things to snack on and then eat a pizza or something substantial in the evening. If I could do things over again, that’s what I would definitely do.

A young English couple were chatting in the dining room, so I struck up a conversation with them. They were on the last leg of the O Trek and had camped for the whole hike, including here in El Chileno tonight. They had also had lousy weather on the John Gardner Pass! They had already hiked to see the Torres, but were going back to see them at sunrise. They said they had done the hike in an hour and ten minutes one way because they set off at 3pm, just at the cut off time from El Chileno. I later concluded they must have done this hike on hover boards or have winged feet, because I couldn’t see how anyone could possibly do that hike in just over an hour!

At the same table there was a Canadian lass with a YouTube Channel. She said her channel paid for about a third of her travels and her followers bought her lots of beer. She said she had been travelling for two and a half years and was usually on a long distance trail, in a tent, for about 2 months at a time. 2 months! In a tent! For two and a half years! That is my definition of insanity. She said she did everything at a slow pace. That was exactly the opposite to me who had been the equivalent of two and a half times around the world last year and racked up 51 flights. She said she couldn’t do that, it would be far too exhausting. But travelling like she did would be my idea of hell.

Most people had the idea to get up early and set off some time around 4am or 4.30am to hike to see the Torres at sunrise. That would mean hiking the trail in the dark. I got up with everyone else with the full intention to do the same. I got about 50 metres and turned back. My head light was not sufficiently bright for me to pick out the trail. Also I wouldn’t have made it there for sunrise setting off at that time anyway because it took me 3 hours to do the hike.

I’d still see the Torres (I hoped), early before the crowds got there. But if I tried to hike this trail in the dark I could twist my knee or break my neck or fall in the river and drown or fall in the river and die of hypothermia. I was not prepared to take the risk of any of these things happening to me in order to see the Torres at sunrise. They would still be there two hours later. And the weather forecast was good. The weather was generally better in the morning and more cloudy in the afternoon, so I should be able to see them.

It was interesting though that the rangers had closed off the trail to hike to the Torres and yet so many people were ignoring the sign and hiking in the dark anyway.

I knew the Torres was a difficult hike. So I wasn’t entirely sure I’d make it. I thought it could be impossible for me to complete this hike. But I would try again at first light.

I went back to the now empty bedroom and had a lie down for another hour and then after taking everything I possibly could out of my backpack to leave at the hostel and pick on my return, I started on the hike to view the Torres at just after 6am when I had daylight. The trail was still closed off, but this seemed to be a bit of a nonsense since most of the hostel and the campsite had left about 2 hours earlier, so I ignored it the same as everyone else.

As I progressed on the trail, I realised that turning back and not doing this in the dark had been a very wise move. And when I got to the last kilometre, I concluded doing this in the dark would have been suicide for me. It was difficult enough to pick out the orange markers in the daylight, I just wouldn’t have been able to follow the trail in the dark. You’re going up a stream, you’re hiking on the edge of a mountain over boulders. I would have fallen to my death.

It was a difficult hike. It took me about an hour and a half to do the first 2 kilometres as it was very up and down and tiring. The last kilometre was supposed to take 45 minutes. I mentioned people say that hiking times aren’t accurate. That’s right. But I didn’t find them conservative. This 45 minute kilometre took me an hour and a half!

It is all uphill. You’re basically climbing on boulders to get up. You are sometimes climbing up boulders in a stream. It’s not a deep stream, not even ankle deep or anything, but it’s wet. And that makes the rocks slippery. That was the worst part for me. I met a few people from the hostel on the trail and they said the trail got steeper and got worse. Actually it didn’t. When I was walking on the mountain side over the dry rocks and boulders I found that easier. That was exposed. So if it had been windy it would have been awful. But it was a very pleasant day, so it wasn’t a problem. The stream was the worst bit for me.

After clambering over boulders on the exposed mountain side, I finally rounded a corner. And there they were, what I’d come to Torres del Paine National Park to see, what I’d seen in photos so many times, there were the Torres in all their glory. The 3 Towers!

I’d dreamed of hiking the W Trek and seeing the Torres so many times. I’d doubted I’d ever manage the hike. Even this morning I’d had my doubts. But here I was, finally I was seeing the Torres in real life.

And after a few more metres and I was at the glacial lake. The glacial lake wasn’t a particularly nice colour. It was grey rather than the green that I’ve seen in photos. But that didn’t matter. The Torres were amazing. The 3 towers. The illusion was the central tower was the highest, but in fact, the southern tower was highest. It’s just further away. I was simply enjoying this magnificent sight. The North, South and Central Towers. I was in the Valley of Silence by a glacial lake. The weather was perfect. I stayed for about 45 minutes enjoying the view. Did I have any regrets about not hiking in the dark to see them at sunrise? None whatsoever. It couldn’t have been any more magical for me.

I had actually got to the Torres when most of the people who had come to see them at sunrise had left and the day trippers hadn’t arrived yet. So it was a nice time to be here. Fairly quiet and peaceful. And bright blue sky. A perfect view of the Torres. The earlier you get here though, the better. Not only to avoid the crowds. The later in the day you arrive, the more likely it is to be cloudy. By the time I left just after 10am, the cloud was already coming in and obscuring the view of the Torres. It would be such a shame to do that difficult hike and not be able to see the towers at all. And on some days the weather is so bad, they’re completely hidden. I was very lucky to see them in such ideal conditions. I’d chosen the right day when I made my reservation 9 months ago!

A lot of people say you should hike west to east so you get to see the Torres last as they will be the highlight. The W Trek is a difficult hike. Those who say it’s easy are really fit, seasoned hikers, very young or all three. I anticipated it would be a difficult hike and didn’t know whether the entire W Trek would be beyond my capabilities. So I wanted to do the highlight first, because that would mean I would be more likely to manage it.

If I had to abandon the trek after 2 or 3 days, if I started in the west I would miss the Torres, the thing I most wanted to see. But if I started in the east and had to abandon the trek after 2 or 3 days, I would have seen the Torres. It seemed the logical thing to do to me. I wasn’t setting out to fail, but I was also far from convinced I’d succeed either, so just in case I was going to give myself the best chance of seeing what I most wanted to see on this trip to Patagonia.

After the Torres came the walk back. That was horrible. It was downhill which is generally worse than uphill for me and the stream again was by far the worst part and even worse because I was going down. I passed one idiot as I was going down. He was going up in flip flops! The only thing more stupid than going up in flip flops would have been going up in flip flops in the dark. What a moron! Although I didn’t see any helicopters flying over, so I assume he got down in one piece.

It took me even longer to get down to El Chileno than it had taken me to get up. I stopped off at El Chileno to pick up the rest of my things which I stuffed in my rucksack. I was very grateful that I hadn’t had to carry that on the trail to the Torres. I had my packed lunch and then set off down to Torre Central where I was staying for the night.

I was very pleased I’d made the decision to stay here overnight and give myself an easier day than trying to push on to Los Cuernos. That would have been too much for me. As it was, I was completely exhausted by the time I reached Torre Central at 5pm, after hiking for 11 hours with breaks that probably amounted to a couple of hours in total. I could barely put one foot in front of the other, I had absolutely no energy left.

Torre Central was probably the nicest of the hostels I stayed at. It was large, the room I was in was comfortable with a big window, the dining room was huge. The bathrooms were reasonable. Even the food wasn’t too bad. It was nice to be somewhere halfway comfortable after a long and arduous day of hiking. Definitely the pick of the hostels and a good idea to stay there after the long hike to the Torres.

I was very happy with my decision to stay in El Chileno overnight, hike to the Torres at first light and then go to Torre Central the second night to prepare for the rest of the trek. It worked out ideally for me and allowed me to take things easily enough to give me the best chance at success in completing the W Trek.

Having said that, once at Torre Central I was seriously considering whether I could carry on doing the W Trek or whether to give up. This was the point of no return. If I started the hike tomorrow I would be committing to complete the whole hike.

I had 11km to do tomorrow with no difficult sections like the kilometre up to the Torres. But it wasn’t going to be flat. It was still going to be up and down and tiring. I had until tomorrow to decide whether to carry on. But I knew well before I fell asleep I wasn’t going to be giving up. Tomorrow I would be hiking that 11km as I pressed on to complete the W Trek.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park and hiked the W Trek during the first week of February 2020.

To hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park you must book all your accommodation in advance. There are hostels and campsites you can stay at along the route. There are a few free campsites run by the National Park Service. All hostels and the other campsites are run by Fantastico Sur in the east of the park and Vertice Patagonia in the west of the park.

You can get information about hiking in Torres del Paine National Park including the W Trek, the O Trek and the Q Trek, on the Conaf website.

I hiked the W Trek independently. I hiked from East to West starting from Torre Central to El Chileno to hike the eastern stroke of the W first. There are various tours available, but the hike is easy to do on your own without a guide and allows you to go at your own pace. The hike took me 5 days with 4 overnight stays at Refugios in the National Park.

I stayed at Refugio El Chileno for the first night and Refugio Torre Central for the second night on this section of my hike. Both of these refugios are managed by Fantastico Sur. I booked both online via the company’s website. A made up bed in a bunk room sleeping up to 6 people in each hostel cost $116 USD per night in 2020. Rates for 2020/2021 can be found here. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

For accommodation in the western part of the National Park you can book through Vertice Patagonia. The rates for their hostels were cheaper at $87 USD per night in 2020.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park from Puerto Natales with Bus Sur. There are several buses each day departing from Puerto Natales Bus Station. I took the 1200h bus from Puerto Natales to Terminal Laguna Amarga which took 2 hours. I booked my ticket online in advance, but it is possible to book on the day.

Everyone must disembark the bus here if they are hiking from East to West in order to register with CONAF Park Services and pay the National Park fee which was approximately £25 for 5 days.

Minibus shuttles meet the buses at Laguna Amarga and you can take one of these for the 7km to Torre Central where you begin your hike. The minibus costs the equivalent of a couple of pounds.

Read about my continuing hike on the W Trek

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my day hikes in Argentine Patagonia

Down Argentine Way – Los Glaciares

The reason I had come to Futaleufu was to go whitewater rafting.

Whitewater rafting wasn’t a new experience for me. It was, however, an experience I had vowed never to repeat after a terrifying ordeal on the Kaituna River near Rotorua in New Zealand 18 years ago in 2002. The Kaituna is an extreme rafting experience on a short section of the Kaituna River taking in a series of rapids in quick succession and culminating in going over a 20 foot waterfall. It’s the only commercial run in the world where you go over a waterfall. It was extreme and it was terrifying. As we went over the waterfall the Canadian guide in the front stayed in the boat, but Steve who was from England, the guide in the back of the boat, he fell out and even though he was wearing a helmet he bashed his head and this was severe enough to break his cheekbone and there was blood gushing out of his forehead. I fell out of the raft, but I’d hung onto the rope, so it was just a case of me being hauled back in and then paddling to rescue the others that had fallen out of the boat while coughing and spluttering and not being able to see with all the water in my face.

When we got back to the office to get changed, I heard the boss say, “that’s three guides we’re down now”. What happened to the other two?!

Suffice to say, I thought this was highly dangerous and I was far too much at risk from injury to ever contemplate whitewater rafting again. There are occasional deaths, but there are also quite a lot of injuries because unlike something like bungy jumping where you have people making safety checks and although it looks extreme, you would have to be very unlucky in a freak accident for something to happen to you, with whitewater rafting, you can’t control the river. You can see what it’s doing, but you can’t control it. My friend in Canada came up with a great quote once, “no matter what you do, the river always wins”.

As you can see, even after 18 years, I had vivid recollections of what happened on the Kaituna in New Zealand, so I had to think really carefully about whether I was prepared to risk whitewater rafting again.

But I wanted to push myself a bit on this trip to Patagonia, volcanic ascent, long distance hike and so I decided to do the whitewater rafting.

Futaleufu was a pleasant surprise. It was a very smart and tidy town. Most of the other places I’d been on my journey along the Carretera Austral seemed to be run down, scruffy places. Futaleufu wasn’t like that. The buildings all looked well maintained, the town square was smart. I found an Italian restaurant that served really good food. The supermarkets sold nice stuff. I found blue cheese and green tea! I wasn’t that bothered about the blue cheese, but the green tea was a godsend. I hadn’t been able to find any along the Carretera Austral so far. And don’t even think about Earl Grey! I’d barely seen that in Chile, there were 2 teabags in the hotel in Frutillar and I used them both at the two breakfasts I had there.  I gratefully purchased a box of green teabags in Futaleufu, just in case I didn’t see any again.

I went along to Patagonia Elements who I had booked my whitewater rafting with months earlier. I like to plan everything even though it’s usually totally unnecessary and things often don’t go according to plan either.

In this case my booking months in advance had been totally unnecessary. They didn’t even have the minimum numbers for the Bridge to Bridge tour the following day yet, although they expected to get them, and the day trip I had planned was unlikely to go ahead because the river was too high. It made it too dangerous because if the raft flipped, they might not be able to rescue everyone in time. I had no desire to take a risk like that, so I was fine with any cancellation for that reason.

However, the reason for the height of the water in the river was because there was a dam in Argentina that the Argentinians would open and close at will and they never told anyone in Futaleufu what they were doing with the dam. The border with Argentina is just 8km away. I said so it was Argentina’s fault. Mauricio, one of the guides, said it was always Argentina’s fault!

I chatted in the office to Mauricio at length that evening, explained that I was nervous and hadn’t rafted for 18 years. He’d never been to New Zealand, but when I said about the waterfall, he said I must be talking about the Kaituna. He was aware of the Kaituna River because it’s so notorious and also the only commercial whitewater rafting run that goes over a waterfall. He said the Futaleufu was completely different and everyone assured me that I would enjoy it.

It wasn’t only my bad experience in New Zealand that was making me nervous. Those of you that have read some of my other posts will be aware that I have not been blessed with a natural athletic ability. I have no athletic ability whatsoever. When it comes to sport I am useless! I’m quite a good dancer, other than that, anything that hints being in any way sporty, I’m hopeless. My total lack of any natural athletic ability makes it probably twice as hard for me to do these adventure sports as anyone else. I’m always the one right behind the guide or who the guide is watching, always the one everyone else is cheering on because they can see it’s a struggle for me.

So why do I keep doing these things? I still want to have the experience even if I’m not as athletically adept as other people. Even with my limited capabilities, I am still capable of completing these things. I might need a bit more time, help and guidance, but I can still do them. I love the adrenaline rush and also have a feeling of accomplishment when I’ve completed these things that certainly are challenging for me. So that’s why I do them.

The rafting trip I was going to do, that was always safe, even if the dam was open, was the Bridge to Bridge section of the Futaleufu River where you ran 12 sets of rapids which ranged from Class 3 to Class 5. This is the easiest of all the whitewater rafting trips and is suitable for beginners and people with no previous rafting experience, although I was told that all the sections were suitable for beginners as the guides all gave full training on the day.

The rafting was going to take place the following afternoon. I was really nervous. There were 17 of us in total and 3 guides. The boats took 6 people and since I was on my own I ended up in the boat with 5. There were also two guides on safety rafts ready to help if we fell in the water.

I never really got over my fear of falling out of the raft into the raging river. Even though I found the experience very enjoyable and my tension gradually eased, that fear was a constant.

The one thing I did remember from my experience in New Zealand was the command “hold on” where you had to grab the rope and get down low inside the raft. “Get down” was the equivalent here, grabbing onto outside the rope and jumping down into the raft. I was pretty fast at doing that! Otherwise it was mostly just “forward” to paddle down the river and “stop” to stop paddling. There was some jumping to the left and right that we might have to do, but actually we didn’t need to do that at all. Just as well.

I had Mauricio as my guide, which made me feel better after speaking to him at length the night before. He knew what my fears were. The other paddlers in my boat were a couple of Italian blokes, Matteo and Stefano, from Lake Como who were travelling from Santiago to Montevideo and a couple from San Francisco, Scott and Sophie.

We were told that we should always hold our paddles over the water when resting. Scott was sitting behind me but on the opposite side and he had this annoying habit of not holding his paddle over the water but leaving it forward and inside the raft, which he actually wouldn’t have been able to do it there had been someone sitting in front of him, instead of the space being free as we were an odd number. This meant if we were told to jump to the left, I would have to jump straight into his oar and probably hurt myself. I refused to practice while his paddle was still there, I wasn’t going to injure myself for no reason. But every time we were resting, his paddle would be inside the raft. This really didn’t seem to sink in with him. I was grateful when he was moved to the front; he couldn’t do that kind of damage when he was sitting in front of me.

So, we had been briefed on commands and now we were ready to go. Calm water to start with and then to our first rapids, Class 4, the Pillow.

It was a very different experience to my previous whitewater rafting. This was a big, wide river. Mauricio was at the back with two oars, steering the boat, unlike in New Zealand where the guides just had one paddle each like the rest of us. Mauricio steering the raft made a huge difference. We started paddling through the whitewater and then even though we were still in the rapids, we’d get to a spot where we could just ride the waves and it was only when we started to turn again we had to paddle. I was paddling hard, trying to keep in sync with Matteo in front of me and also trying to stay in the boat.

I noticed from the photos I seemed to be leaning forward more than anyone else. That seemed to help me with my balance. My right foot, the foot closest to the side of the raft was wedged as hard as possible under the inflatable part in front of me, my left was behind. I didn’t seem to be sitting as far over the side of the raft as the others either, that just seemed to be the position I adopted.

Anyway we got through the first set of rapids safely. The next rapids were actually class 3 rapids, but there were more waves so we would get tossed about more. I seem to think it was this second set of rapids with all the waves where my foot became dislodged and I was sliding and fearing falling, but if I’d fallen, I would have fallen into the raft, not out of it. I wedged my foot again and carried on.

The next set of rapids we had to paddle to the right side of the river, so we missed the really big rapids. We steered round them where there was a narrow stretch on the other side of a large rock where there was less water. I think that was the third one. We had 12 sets of rapids to negotiate, I can’t remember the whole sequence.

We then had two more sets of rapids and I was starting to feel a bit more confident now. All I had to do really was paddle, paddle harder and stop. And get down twice. That was it. Mauricio was doing the hard work steering the raft. I was looking down into the water when I was paddling, really concentrating, so I didn’t see the waves coming, apart from when I occasionally glanced up. But when we were simply riding the waves, then I could enjoy the scenery and enjoy the river. And the Futaleufu is a beautiful river. The scenery is spectacular. Whitewater rafting allows you to see your surroundings from a completely different perspective. This was a great experience.

Mundaca was the only Class 5 rapid on our 9km journey. This was one instance where we could be hit by a wave and the raft could flip. Mauricio talked us through it again, said not to panic if the raft did flip and that the boats would go through one at a time so that both safety rafts were on hand if anything happened. The first two boats went through without a problem.

Now it was our turn. We paddled, paddled hard, Mauricio steered, we had to get down at one point and then up again and start paddling, but we made it through without the raft flipping. That was a relief. And I’d made it through a Class 5 rapid!

That was us halfway through the rapids. Three Class 3 and three Class 4 left. I don’t remember the details, but I was starting to enjoy it now, I was feeling confident. Presumably my adrenaline was pretty high now, so I was having a great time. I was getting used to paddling, I’d got a comfortable position where I felt stable. I was enjoying the river and the scenery. This was a fantastic experience. We got through the final half dozen rapids without incident and I enjoyed paddling and being on the river. While it was hard work, it wasn’t as physically demanding as a lot of adventure activities I’ve tried and should be within the capability of most people.

Finally we pulled up to this rock and were asked if we wanted to climb onto it and then jump off it into the river. I decided to go for it. This was not my wisest decision ever. I needed to take a run so I didn’t land too close to the rock, in doing so I launched myself forward and landed face first in the water! Thankfully it wasn’t from very high up, so I got a lot of water up my nose, but I didn’t break it. All in all though, it had been amazing. I loved it.

I was glad I’d given whitewater rafting another go. It had been a wonderful experience. I was really hoping that the water level would be low enough the following day for us to raft a different section of the river.

Sadly that wasn’t to be, the Argentinians still had the dam open and so the river was too high. But I’ll always remember my Bridge to Bridge rafting on the Futaleufu River for the experience that gave me enjoyment from whitewater rafting.

I thought when I’d jumped off a rock into the river as an optional extra at the end of the whitewater rafting and landed face first, that was the stupidest thing I’d do on this holiday. I far surpassed that the next day.

I had a free day because the river was too high to raft another section of the Futaleufu River. I went back to Patagonia Elements and was given the option of rafting the same section of the river again, ziplining or canyoning. I saw no point in doing the same section of the river again, especially after the success of the day before. Why risk a worse experience when it had taken me 18 years to enjoy whitewater rafting again? I was definitely going to quit while I was ahead on that.

I’ve done a lot of ziplines and I’m addicted to them. I know I enjoy them and have great fun when I do them. Did I go for that option? No! I’d never tried canyoning before and decided that since I’d never tried it, I should give it a go. What a bad decision!

I’ve done a lot of adventure activities in my time, including abseiling which I really enjoyed. I abseiled into two caves, one was in California where the first part I was going down rocks and the second part was open. The New Zealand abseil was a long open abseil. They were relatively easy and very enjoyable.

I knew canyoning entailed a variety of things such as wading through rivers, climbing over rocks, jumping into rivers and abseiling down waterfalls. I’d always thought this would be a bad idea and not something I would enjoy. I was told that this canyoning was just abseiling down three waterfalls, no wading or jumping or climbing involved. I was assured I would enjoy it.

I should have gone with my instinct all those years ago that told me that canyoning was a bad idea and not something I would find remotely enjoyable. It was an ordeal from stat to finish. It was horrible, I got absolutely no enjoyment out of it whatsoever.

I did Via Ferrata in Canada 18 months ago which was difficult, scary and I couldn’t sit down for 4 days afterwards because my muscles were so sore. But I did feel a sense of achievement after doing it and I did quite enjoy it.

Canyoning was just thoroughly unpleasant. What the hell was I thinking? Why did I think abseiling down waterfalls would be in any way remotely enjoyable? I got nothing out of it except for a very impressive collection of bruises. My left hand looked like I’d had a drip in it. My arms and legs were black and blue. I looked like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat! I didn’t even feel a sense of accomplishment at the end. I just felt like I’d been released from a prisoner of war camp after being bashed about.

I always have to go too far. I could have stopped at the volcanic ascent and the whitewater rafting, and done a lovely zipline course, but no, I have to try abseiling down waterfalls. When am I going to learn I am not Bear Grylls?

I already had my bikini on and put a surfer’s wetsuit on top of it. It was an old and tatty wetsuit with some holes in it. Definitely not enough padding at the knee.

We were going to abseil down 3 waterfalls, 6 metres, 8 metres and 10 metres. That doesn’t sound very high. When you’re up there, it looks very high. We hiked to the top of the first waterfall and were given instructions on how to abseil down the waterfall.

I actually already knew the theory. You have to go down with your body in a sort of L shape and take small steps. Now that’s easy enough if you’re going down a dam or something with a straight wall. But the rocks here were uneven and they were wet and slippery.

I couldn’t really get the hang of it. I’m not sure how I managed to get down the first waterfall. My first attempt was so bad, I abandoned it and let everyone else go ahead of me. I wasn’t really in control and the figure of 8 carabiner was constantly lodged into my left hand, cutting deeply into it, so I looked like I’d had a drip in it by the time I was finished. I just edged down, tried to stay out of the middle of the waterfall and then I was at the bottom. The guide asked me if I wanted to try it again. I declined. I wanted this over as soon as possible, definitely no repeat performances.

The second waterfall, we actually went down the dry part. The first part on the path was fine, then the rock, which was sort of okay. Then I got to this hole in the rock where there was nowhere for my feet so I had to let myself down and just bend my knees.

But I was finding handling the rope really difficult, I must have used a different system in New Zealand and the States because I know for a fact it wasn’t as hard going on either of those descents as on this tour. Then I got to the wall again. This was easier than the last descent, but by no means easy and I still got quite bashed about.

The third descent was also supposed to be easy. It wasn’t. None of this was easy. This was abseiling down a waterfall where you have the full force of the water going over you and the water was so powerful and the rocks were so slippery, it was impossible to get a foothold, so you had to walk down using your knees instead of your feet! The instructor said this one was the easiest. That’s what she’d said about the others!

This was difficult to even start because I couldn’t get into the right position at the top of the waterfall with my knees against the rock. When I finally did get over the edge of the waterfall with my knees against the side of the rock I could hardly move. I started to edge down. It was really hurting my knees that weren’t strong enough and really hadn’t been built for this kind of abuse. I kept going down using my knees but the waterfall was really powerful and at one point it was just coming down on my head and I didn’t know which way to go. I eventually edged away from the waterfall, but I still couldn’t move down. With the help of the only man in the group, I finally got into the water at the bottom.

That had been horrendous. I hadn’t enjoyed one minute of that, an ordeal from start to finish. I think the instructor knew how much I had hated it. That was definitely the most stupid thing I’d done on this trip so far.

When I stumbled back to my accommodation I took a look at my bruises. All over the bottom half of both legs and my knees, both elbows and forearms and my left hand looked like it had had a drip in it.

It was my first and last time canyoning. I have to add that I have no complaints about the instructor. She was qualified and competent in canyoning. But there was a good reason I’d always passed on it before now. I should have trusted my instincts and stuck to that and then I wouldn’t look such a mess now. On the other hand, if I hadn’t done it I would have always wondered if I hadn’t done it. At least I’d satisfied my curiosity.

Although I was in pain for a couple of days afterwards and the bruises took a week or so to disappear, it wasn’t physically as hardgoing on my body as the Via Ferrata had been. The pain came from the bruises, not aching muscles. The bruises did go eventually. And the canyoning had given me a new experience to recount in another story.

As for whether I would recommend these activities, the whitewater rafting on the Futaleufu River, yes. I would unequivocally recommend this wonderingful experience rafting this turquoise river in this amazingly scenic part of Patagonia. The canyoning I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. It just was not for me. It was one adventure too far.

If you ever go to Futaleufu and I would say, do go there if you can, raft along as much of the river as the water level allows, but if you have any spare time and are offered another activity, choose the ziplining!

I travelled in Northern Patagonia in mid January 2020.

I booked my whitewater rafting with Patagonia Elements in Futaleufu. You can book in person at their office in the centre of Futaleufu or you can book online. I thoroughly recommend them for their professional, knowledgeable, encouraging and reassuring guides. The lovely office staff were friendly and helpful and very prompt at answering my emails. The staff are all fluent in English for anyone whose Spanish isn’t great.

I did the Bridge to Bridge Tour which runs 12 rapids from Class 3 to Class 5 along the Futaleufu River. This is the easiest, most popular and most frequent of the 3 whitewater rafting and always runs subject to minimum numbers.

I also booked the canyoning trip through Patagonia Elements who can arrange both canyoning and ziplining through their office. While the canyoning was not for me, the canyoning instructor was competent and qualified and this would be a good activity for anyone who enjoys these kinds of adventure activities.

I stayed at the excellent value Cabanas Aguas Blancas in the centre of Futaleufu in a large self contained ensuite unit with breakfast included and car parking available. I booked direct by WhatsApp in Spanish.

I drove to Futaleufu along the Carretera Austral. It is an approximately 4 hour drive over 190km of both paved and gravel road from Puyuhuapi to the south.

I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with LATAM Chile. The flight takes about an hour.

I rented a pick up truck from Europcar Chile from Balmaceda Airport to drive the Carretera Austral. You can book with Europcar in advance. Other local car rental agencies are open at the airport if you do not have an advance reservation.

You can only drive to Futaleufu from Puerto Montt in January and February using 2 seasonal ferries.

It is also possible to drive to Futaleufu from Argentina via Esquel. The border is not open 24 hours, so you need to check the border times in advance of travel if you are driving independently.

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Check out my other adventures in Chile.

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

This is the post about my Via Ferrata experience in Canada

Waterfalls, Via Ferrata and a Religious Theme Park

I had come to Pucón specifically to climb the 2850m high Volcán Villarrica, one of the prime things to do in the Chilean Lake District. There are several volcanoes in the Lake District you can climb, I think I chose this one because you don’t have to climb down again. No, you’re not stuck at the top forever until a helicopter comes to your rescue, you slide down on a sort of luge track. That sounded like great fun as well as meaning I didn’t have to descend 1000m on foot.

I had chosen the tour company Sur Explora to do the ascent with. There are a myriad of companies in Pucón that you can climb with, because you have to climb the volcano with a qualified guide. But how did you know how to choose the right one? For me, it wasn’t about money, within reason. Saving £10 or £20 wasn’t a priority. It was all very well going with the cheapest company and then not getting to the top. Then you’d completely wasted your money. The best I could afford, that was my mantra.

Years ago in New Zealand when I wanted to do a tandem hang-glide, I was looking at leaflets in tourist information and found someone who was a former world champion that could take me. The girl at tourist information was trying to persuade me to go with someone else because it would save me £7. An extra £7 to fly with a former world champion seemed like a bargain to me. They were so used to backpackers trying to save every penny where they could, they didn’t consider that anyone would be willing to pay more than they had to. But I had decided that if a former world champion was there to take me hang gliding (whatever you had to do to be a world champion hang glider, I had no idea) then it wasn’t worth worrying about £7. 

I could have asked my bed and breakfast host for a recommendation because it turned out that Alain used to be head of tourism in Pucón and could recommend plenty of good tour operators. He actually had Sur Explora on his list, but he still asked me about my experience with them afterwards and I advised him that he should definitely keep them on his list as a top recommendation. I was very impressed with them.

However, I read a review on Trip Advisor that wasn’t directly about Sur Explora but about climbing Villarrica in general, a British man in his 50s who recommended Sur Explora for their patient and encouraging guides and said that there were other companies who had a faster pace that were sending people back down the mountain because they were too slow. But he made it to the top. And he said he wouldn’t have done it without them. That was good enough for me.

The booking process was quite challenging. I contacted them on Facebook and then on WhatsApp in Spanish and then sent the form they needed twice to make the booking. In the end, none of that would have been necessary, as I could have simply gone into the office the evening before and made a reservation. But I didn’t know that. And if I could make a reservation, I was going to, just to make sure.

I went into the office and parted with £90 to do the climb the next day. I tried on 2 pairs of boots. One pair was slightly larger, but they were also very padded and I had a feeling I would need that. As comfortable as they were, they were hurting me by the end of the day, so I was pleased that I had chosen the more padded ones. 

It was going to be an early start, I had to be at the office at 6am, which meant leaving the bed and breakfast, which was further away from Pucón than I expected, just after 5.30am. Alain said he would leave breakfast in the fridge for me, all I could manage at that time of the morning was a small piece of bread and some cherries, but I made cheese sandwiches out of the bread and cheese left over to take with me on the climb as I was told I would need to take some food and at least 2 litres of water. I could have easily managed with one litre of water and significantly lightened my load. Climbing the mountain was hard enough, but climbing it with a 10kg rucksack on my back made it a lot harder.

Apart from the guides, I was the only one around at the office at 6am. I wondered why I’d had to get there so early when they were busy going and picking up two bus loads of people and all I had to do was put my shoes on and transfer stuff from my rucksack into the prepared one with equipment needed for the climb. Despite the fact that there were only supposed to be 3 of us climbing today, a lot more bags had been prepared. I wondered if they were late reservations or if they were doing something else since there were some mountain bikes in the shop.

It turned out we were all climbing. The Colombian man and his son from yesterday, and a Brazilian woman, Cristina and her son, Rafael. There was also a bunch of people from Israel, I never counted, maybe there were 6 or 8 of them. They were, like all Israelis I’ve ever come across, extremely talkative. On the climb, I didn’t know how they had the breath to talk as well as walk.

It seemed a very short drive into the National Park, but that was because I was nervous about the climb and keen to put it off for as long as possible. We passed the ski lift which didn’t appear to be working. That meant an extra hour of climbing if the chair lift was out of order. However, there was a second chair lift, which was the one we needed and that was thankfully working.

The chair lift took you 400m or so up the volcano and saved you walking for another hour. It cost £10 to use the chair lift which was a very basic one. It was the first one I’d been on which didn’t have a barrier coming down over you. Apparently it was impossible to fall out of it. I wasn’t convinced, but thought if I kept leaning back and held on tight, I should be all right. No one else was falling out of it!

Some people felt like it was cheating to take the chair lift. I had no such thoughts. Even without the chair lift you weren’t climbing from the bottom. I was going to be climbing 1000m to the top of this volcano, I was prepared to take all the help I could get. Even with the help of the chair lift, I was far from convinced I was going to make it to the top, so I might as well. 

As I was on my own, I rode up the chair lift with one of the guides. I confided in him that I was nervous about the climb and he told me not to be, it was easy. I can tell you now, it was not easy. Not for me. But it also wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult. With some help and encouragement I was able to make it, so I think it is within the limits of most, because I am pretty useless. But you do need the right guide to help you if, like me, you are pretty useless.

When we got the chair lift, it was the usual story, before starting our ascent, I needed the loo. No toilets anywhere. I thought at the chair lift there might be some very basic facilities. But no. Me and a couple of the Israeli lasses were reduced to dropping our drawers in a ditch, supposedly out of sight, in reality we could see the chair lift from where we were, but there was nothing else for it. After that, I was set for the day, my body needed the water I drank far too much to have to expel any on my ascent.

The ride up in the chair lift wasn’t too bad, even though I was still uneasy about there being no barrier between me and the ground. When I got to the top, I was grabbed and pushed to the top of the stairs to stop me being hit from the chair lift coming back round again. I asked if we’d be getting the chair lift down. Apparently not. We were sliding down instead. I asked if most people took the chair lift on the ascent. The guide said that 90% of people did and that could mean the difference between making it to the summit or not. I was hoping it would make enough of a difference for me.

We got kitted up. No need for crampons as the snow was quite soft, just an ice axe. We were to stab the ice axe into the mountain side as we went up. It was going to take about 4 hours and it was nearly all on snow. I was surprised. I suppose if I’d thought about it logically, how were we going to slide down if there was no snow? So surely it stood to reason we’d have to climb on snow? But that hadn’t really occurred to me. Maybe I’d thought that we climbed up one side of the mountain with no snow and slid down another side with snow. I’m not sure. Whatever I’d thought, the reality was, this was like mountaineering.

I’d climbed Snowdon before in Wales, over 3 years earlier with my niece and nephew, Megan and Dylan, the Rhyd Ddu Path, which goes along the ridge. It was summer, the conditions were pretty good and there wasn’t any snow. We didn’t need any special equipment, not even hiking poles. 

This was different. This was the first guide cutting steps into the snow, the second guide behind him making them more prominent and me in third place gingerly following in his footsteps. I was told to relax, trust my boots, trust the snow, I wasn’t going to slip. The snow and the boots weren’t the problem. My balance was. After a while I was given a hiking pole for my other hand so that I had something to balance me out and that made it a lot easier. I was also told to walk more upright as I had this tendency to lean forward and that helped too. It meant that my breathing was easier and my muscles didn’t hurt as much. I don’t think I walked completely upright, but I was certainly maintaining a better posture than I had been before.

I got quite adept at swapping my ice axe and my hiking pole to opposite hands every time we turned a corner. Basically we were zigzagging up the mountain on the snow. We did about 45 minutes and then stopped for 5 minutes. It was still another 3 hours or more to the top. We walked further, stopped for another 15 minutes and then it was around an hour and a half to get to the top.

I had very conflicting emotions going on in my head while I was mountaineering. I had never been supremely confident about making it to the top, but I still wanted to try. While I was climbing on the ice steps up the volcano I kept thinking I wasn’t going to make it, but at the same time I was telling myself I really wanted to reach the summit and that just one more step got me closer to the top. Just one more step. One more step. 

It was quite disheartening when I was telling myself that and I could see loads of people way above me zigzagging up the mountain. It looked a long way. Could my muscles take it? It was made even more difficult by the fact I was carrying this extremely heavy rucksack on my back. It was practically crippling. 

But I was determined. And additionally, and probably more importantly, the guides and the other climbers in my group were all very encouraging. Cristina, the lady from Brazil, kept telling me I was doing really well. When I heard it was only about an hour and 20 minutes left to get to the top, I realised I was more than halfway there now, I had almost made it. I would be mad to turn back now. The cut off point for reaching the volcano summit was 2pm and it was only about half past eleven, so we had plenty of time.

We made it almost to the summit and was told it was just another 20 minutes and we would be at the top. This was the time to take off the rucksacks and just use the ice axe and pole to make that final push to the summit. There was no way I was giving up now. I was always just behind one of the guides. They knew I was the one who was struggling with this climb more than anyone else in the group and they were looking after me.

Sur Explora pride themselves in getting people to the top of the volcano that other tour companies would send down the mountain after half an hour. I may not have had much confidence in getting to the summit, but the guides and the man in the office all said I would make it. Besides which, I was keeping reasonable pace. I wasn’t massively slowing everyone else down. I was generally just behind the guide, who obviously thought the pace was fast enough or he would have speeded up. 

There wasn’t as much ice on this final push to the summit. We were hiking on lava. Some of it was quite difficult, but the guide was always there to help me. And I made it!

At 12.49pm I was at the 2850 metre summit of Volcán Villarrica! 

And with over an hour to spare before the cut off time. Easy! No it wasn’t, but you know what I mean.

We walked to see into the crater. This is an active volcano that is constantly spitting and spluttering and throwing rocks and lava into the air. It was doing that while I was up there. 

I have been on White Island in New Zealand where recently people tragically lost their lives in an eruption. I knew it was the most active volcano in New Zealand when I went there in 2002 and I can vaguely recall looking into the crater. I remember the boat ride across to White Island was really rough and everyone being really sick on the boat going over there, but once on the island, it was steps to the summit.

Volcán Villarrica was something I will remember more vividly, because of the effort I put in to climb it. 1000 metres of mountaineering with an ice axe for 4 hours with a 10kg rucksack on my back really made me feel like I deserved to see into that crater.

I watched it spit and splutter and throw rocks into the air. This was nature at its most powerful and dangerous. An active volcano telling everyone it was very much alive. It was an exhilarating feeling being up there, right next to the crater.

Cristina congratulated me. She said my determination was inspiring and I had done really well. I was happy to have got to the top, it was a definite achievement. Climbing a mountain and a volcano all in one. This was the closest I was ever going to get to climbing Everest. This would do. This could be my Everest.

I went over to the look at the other side of the summit where there were magnificent views of the surrounding volcanoes and valleys. One of the volcanoes was actually higher than Villarrica. The views from the summit were amazing wherever you looked. You didn’t have to look into the crater to appreciate the wonder of nature. The distant volcanoes, valleys, lakes and mountains were equally as beautiful, although not as scary!

Getting down from the summit back to our rucksacks was quite a challenge. Getting to the top is one thing, but if the guides get you up there, they also have to get you back down again. I was at the front as usual getting a helping hand from the guide. 

Then it was time to get our equipment on for the slide down. Waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, nappy(!) (it was just an extra piece of waterproof fabric for more protection as you slid down the mountain) and a plastic tray to sit on to make you go faster. 

We got our instructions on how to descend. The Israelis weren’t paying much attention, but seemed to have no trouble. I was hanging onto every word and trying to take the instructions in and I still got it hopelessly wrong. Luckily we had a practice first.

I had the rucksack on my back, so this was weighing me down again and my natural instinct was to lean backwards instead of forwards, even though I tried not to. This meant I went careering out of control and also hadn’t quite grasped how to use the ice axe to slow me down either. It was the fastest I went down the mountain all day! 

Thankfully, I didn’t end up at the bottom like a cartoon snowball, eventually you hit an uphill part and that ends your run. 

After that incident, it was decided I couldn’t be trusted to go down the mountain on my own and I was assigned my own personal guide to accompany me and get me down in one piece.

They have carved out these luge runs for you to slide down. At first I went behind the guide so he could act as my brake, and then when I got the hang of the sliding technique and the braking, I went too far the other way and kept stopping, so the guide was then behind me and if I stopped, he could push me from behind, although I did get myself moving as well. Usually when we hit an uphill spot I wouldn’t have enough momentum to carry me over it. 

Those round plastic trays we had to sit on were extremely uncomfortable and I accumulated loads of snow as I went down which also slowed me down. Sliding down a mountain on a luge run is more difficult than you would imagine. Or maybe I’m just hopeless.

There were spots where we couldn’t slide and I’m not quite sure how at one point I managed to get us way off course. The guide decided we would unofficially slide down in a sort of train where he’d be in front and I’d have my legs round him so we didn’t have to walk to the actual luge run I’d managed to get us so far away from. That was terrifying. I kept thinking at any moment we were going to fly off the side of the volcano. 

The problem was, when I walked I kept falling over in the snow. I think my muscles had finally had enough and were making a protest about doing any more walking. My balance was now also shot. But eventually we made it to the bottom of the luge run and then had to walk back the rest of the way. There wasn’t much snow after that, it was mainly volcanic sand which wasn’t too difficult to walk on and the final part was totally flat. 

I’m not sure how long everyone else had been waiting when we got back to the car park where the van was parked, but they all gave me a cheer that I’d made it and all the guides congratulated me and gave me a hug. Everyone had been so friendly and supportive of this old lady who decided she wanted to climb a volcano.

The journey back to Pucón seemed to take forever, when on the way it had taken no time at all, but eventually we were back in Pucón. The guy at the office said he told me I would make it.I really can’t thank the staff at Sur Explora, both guides and office staff, and my fellow climbers, enough for their patience and support on my climb to the summit of Volcan Villarrica. If anyone is in the Chilean Lake District and is considering climbing Volcan Villarrica, I thoroughly recommend Sur Explora to do it with, especially if, like me, you’re not as young and fit as you used to be!

I would say, you do need a certain level of fitness to do this. I do quite a lot of walking in my normal life and I try and do bits and pieces of other exercise too like dancing and Pilates. I’ve climbed Snowdon in Wales and done long day hikes in mountainous National Parks in Canada and the States. If your idea of exercise is walking from the sofa to the fridge and you’re out of puff climbing the stairs, attempting this is not a good idea. But you don’t have to be Bear Grylls to do this either.

In addition, I was expecting my muscles to be really sore the next day. Cristina suggested we do an 18km hike the next day. She said it was an easy hike, but I didn’t think I’d be up to 18km after climbing a volcano with an ice axe today, so we went and soaked in some local hot spring pools the next day instead. However, my muscles weren’t hurting anywhere near as badly as I was expecting.

I did a Via Ferrata course in Quebec in Canada in 2018 and it was so hard on my leg muscles I couldn’t sit down for several days. Every time I tried to sit on a chair or get into the car I was in agony. 

I had no such problems the day after climbing Villarrica. A bit of backache, probably from carrying the heavy rucksack, but no muscle soreness in my legs. I could have done that waterfall hike in Villarrica National Park the next day after all!

I travelled to the Chilean Lake District during the first week of January 2020.

I climbed Villarrica volcano with Sur Explora who are based in Pucon, the adventure capital of the Chilean Lake District. They don’t have a website but they are on Facebook. You can contact them through Facebook or call into their offices in the centre of Pucon.

I stayed at Maison Nomade, a bed and breakfast a few kilometres from the centre of Pucon. You can book with them directly through their website.

Pucon is in the Chilean Lake District. I drove from Puerto Montt Airport which is around 340km and approximately a 4 hour drive. It is also possible to fly to Temuco Airport which is approximately 90km from Pucon and a 90 minute drive.

I flew to Puerto Montt from Santiago with LATAM Airlines. The flight takes approximately 1 hour 45 minutes.

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about more of my adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Last Hope Celebration

If you would like to read about some of my other adventure activities on previous travels there are some links below.

Canada: Quebec – Waterfalls, Via Ferrata and A Religious Theme Park

Greenland: Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile

Yorkshire: Gaping Gill Winch Meet

Germany: Paragliding in the Bavarian Alps