Patagonian Adventure

Set the scene: lots of Iron Man t-shirts on particpants, including an ex-marine and people describing themselves as’ Endrance Athletes’ during the welcome introduction -WHAT AM I DOING HERE!

Day 1: 23 miles on foot. The scenery was breathtaking and the first 16 miles into the National Park were dusty but flat under bright blue skies. At the first pit stop we were greeted by Hannah with snacks and I thought a spritz mist for my face as I approached – turns out it was hand sanitiser. A steep climb followed to view the glacier with panoramic 360 views from the top. You really could see how dinosaurs roamed this land – they’d look like sheep in that vast landscape. Day 1 complete and expecting to crash out after so much excercise…how wrong was I.

Day 2: 20.5 miles on foot – hmm…lack of sleep, my choice of the top bunk bed in a hostel room of 6 bunk beds (a very stupid decision when you’re tired and have to climb down a ladder in the night) left me struggling after 6 miles uphill. I bailed out for a little sleep on the forest floor, a retrace of steps and a lie down in the hostel which should have set me up well for the next day’s 110km cycle.

Day3: 110 km cycle Ping awake at 3am when the Patagonian wind makes the windows rattle, and start thinking about the day ahead… by the time I start the cycle a friendly question from Brazilian, Julio, of ‘how are you?’ has me in tears. Luckily the first pit stop at 30km comes by quicker than expected and local empanadas act like a ‘carrot and the stick’ for me. The tortoise and the hare comes to mind with my progress but by the time we arrive at our campsite at La Leona (where Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid held out) our friend Hayley and James have baggsied us the tent next to theirs.

Day 4: supposed to be 28 miles kayaking and the rest cycling but the Patagonian Wind came to play that day cutting the kayaking down to 9 miles and making up the rest with cycling. I LOVED this day  -being on the water is always my happy place and even the Patagonian wind is friendly and warm and just made me feel like the ‘Wicked Witch’ in ‘Wizard of Oz’ cycling throught the tornado. We finished the day at a Wild Camping Site by the beautiful river we’d kayaked down. Dinner was an Argentinian meat stew stirred with a long stick and Fernet Branca and coke in a cut off 2 litre coke bottle – truly delicious!

Day 5: A cold night in the tent followed by a quick departure and cycle, cycle, cycle to our penultimate night – finally a bed in an estancia. Dinner was a spatchcocked roasting sheep over the fireplace and the view was stunning!

Day 6: A 5.30 wake up to get to the National Park whilst the roads were closed. It was a very cold start- those poor folk who didn’t get a bed last night scraped ice of the insides of their tent. But as we neared the National Park entrance and were cycling adjacent to a turqoise lake I asked Simon if the white things I could see bobbing in the distance were boats – he sighed and said : ‘no they are icebergs’.

Today was one of those days that will stay with me for the rest of my life – the scenery was awesome (I don’t think I’ve properly used that word before) and having the whole roads to ourselves felt very special – birds were chirping and I could even hear seedpods popping as we rode by the Embothrium trees (the Chilean fire bush with its flame red flowers). All the time we had the mountains and the Glacier in the distance encouraging us along.

This may truly have been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, with a very low at the start but such an immense high at the end. Patagonia and Argentina I loved you.