Day 155 – Tuesday 21st February 2006

I woke up slightly stiff, but after 10 hours sleep I felt good and ready for another hike. The only hike I had to do for the day was to make my way back down to campsite Paine Grande (where I had got off the catamaran the day before).

The weather was a bit grey so I decided to take my time and set off a bit later. In the meantime I walked to the glacier again to sit and have my breakfast in the peace and quiet, rather than the Refugio which was a bit of a madhouse.

Due to the drizzle I didn’t hang around too long, just enough time to eat, however it spurred me on to moving so I picked my pack up and began the hike back down from whence I had came. I set out at 9.40am, hoping to be at the campsite for 1pm and lunch. Walking on my own I found I set a pretty good pace and ended up arriving 20 minutes before 1pm.

The time pretty much flew by, I was able to get lost in my thoughts with no one around to disturb me. A couple of hours into the walk I stopped by one of the many springs to refill my water bottle. Pure natural mineral water straight from the stream. I don’t remember ever having done that before.

I made it back to the campsite after 3hrs and 1min. It would have been under 3 hrs but I took the wrong path right at the end! Lunch was tuna and crackers, then I booked in for my hired tent. They were even good enough to give me a pre-pitched one!

As the day was pretty nippy I decided to take a nap and see if it brightened up a bit later. When I woke up I found it had done just that and the tips of the two mountains were almost visible. As the day wore on the campsite became more like a fairground as more and more people arrived and pitched their tents. I sat and looked up at the two mountains while catching up on my diary.

As I finished writing the campsite had filled right up and multicoloured tents dominated the foreground, while the mountains dominated the background. I escaped the crowds by going into the surprisingly empty canteen before heading straight back to my tent for the night.