Schlagwort-Archive: hiking

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Trekking the Simien Mountains without a tour

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It’s been a while since we went hiking, so we were excited for the Simien Mountains and to see some of Ethiopia’s nature. Most tourists come on organized tours, but you can very well organize the trek yourself! All we had to do was pay the entrance fee and get a scout (mandatory) at the national park office in Debark. And we had to lie about having arranged transport out of the park already, as the transport mafia doesn’t allow tourists to travel of local busses or trucks that ply the route (and which we were totally planning to do).

To begin with, we took a tuk tuk until the park entrance, from where on we hiked to Sankaber – easily achieved within an afternoon – our campsite for the first night. It was a nice start into our hiking days: first passing through some traditional villages, then hiking along the cliffs with some awesome views!

The first night’s dinner, lunches and breakfasts we carried food for ourselves. Luckily, one of the cooks of the tour groups was nice enough to supply us with hot water for our instant noodles.

On our 2nd day, we hiked from Sankaber to Geech, passing by the almost dried out Jin Bahir waterfalls. Again, we were treated to some really nice views! Even after hiking so much in Patagonia, the Simien Mountains are impressive – just so different again!

It was our shortest day and we already arrived in Geech in the early afternoon. After some relaxing, we decided to walk to the viewpoint Kedadit for some later afternoon light and sunset photos.

What we hadn’t known is that every evening you can also watch big groups of Gelada monkeys migrating down the cliffs to sleep there. It was a really cool spectacle to experience!!

On our last full day, we had a long hike in front of us: Geech to Chennek via Imet Gogo mountain. The first part until Imet Gogo went relatively quickly and we reached this – in our opinion – best viewpoint of the entire hike before lunch. Amazing views in all directions!!

What followed, after a short descent, was a loooong way up to Enati. It was tough, but in exchange we saw some Gelada baboons again aaaaand were incredibly lucky to spot the Ethiopian wolf shortly before reaching Enati. So cool!!

From then on, it was mostly down, but still quite a while to go until Chennek. Fortunately, there were again and again pretty viewpoints along the way which made it much easier and enjoyable.

In the end, we were the fastest ones to arrive in Chennek, even though we were with our heavy backpacks and took lots of photo stops. Haha, sometimes I don’t feel that fit compared to Mathijs, but days like this one show me that I’m probably fitter than I think! Chennek is probably the most beautifully located campsite with amazing viewpoints within short walking distance of the camp. We took some time to walk around again and waited for some Gelada baboons to show up. There was no big migration to observe like at the viewpoint at Geech, but it was still nice to see some more.

Next day, all we had to do was get a truck to take us back to Debark. After bargaining hard, we hopped onto the back with a bunch of locals and off we went to a long dusty and bumpy ride. At the park entrance we had to hide under a blanket for the officials not to see us (which they still did and our scout had a bit of a discussion with them, but in the end we were allowed to move on). Phew! Felt like refugees smuggling into a country for a moment…

All things considered, it was very well worth the little extra hassle to hike the Simiens independently! We saved about 170 USD each, and were able to hike at our own speed, when- and wherever we wanted.

Chile, World Trip 2018-19

Amazing days in Torres del Paine

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Time to cross the border again, back into Chile for one last time! We took the bus to Puerto Natales where we spent two days organizing things and relaxing a bit more. The reason was that we had to wait around for our bookings in Torres del Paine national park. This park is mainly famous for its „W-trek“ which I have always wanted to do.

However, since the park has become very popular in the last few years, you have to usually book months in advance even to get a camping spot! Something we didn’t feel like doing since we would have had no idea at what time we would be in Torres del Paine back then. So we chanced it and checked just a couple of days before if there were any free spots… and we got lucky! Seems like there’s always some cancellations, so step by step we found some campings and put together our itinerary which was a bit unusual, but still doing the complete W trek: We would start with a hike to the Torres Base, then go back down and sleep at Camping Central. The 2nd day would be a long hike with heavy bags from Central to Paine Grande, skipping past the middle part since all three campsites there were fully booked. We got 2 nights at Paine Grande, from where on the 3rd day we would hike back and see the Valle Frances that we had skipped past the day before. Day 4 would bring us up to Grey Glaciar, where in the last moment we still got a spot for a night at Grey Camping. On the 5th and last day, we’d only have to descend back down to Paine Grande and take the catamaran and bus back to Puerto Natales. A bit complicated and doing some extra kilometers compared to the usual W trek, but we were super happy that even without booking months in advance, we had found a way to do the W!

Day 1

We set off early by bus at 7 am in Puerto Natales. The drive took about 2 h to Laguna Amarga where we bought the tickets and waited for a shuttle bus for the last 7 km. It was crazy! There were so many tourists waiting and once the bus arrived, everyone just stormed to it and started pushing. There was way not enough space for everyone! It felt like being back in Mumbai at rush hour, seriously. I hope they get themselves better organized soon and give out numbers according to arrival.

Once at the camping, we set up our tent and then headed up with a small, light day bag to the mirador of the famous Torres. And let me just say it right away… Wow! Wow.

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Amazing, aren’t they!? What lay before reaching this viewpoint was a 3 h hike mainly uphill with many breaks, taking it slow to make sure we would only reach the Torres at the time when they were forecasted to be out of the clouds. As you can see, it worked out! The views along the way were ok but not that spectacular. It’s really about THAT view in the end…

Unfortunately, the hike is very popular (understandably) also with day hikers and tour groups, so sometimes we had to overtake many people or walk in a line for a while. Since we started a bit later than most people though, we avoided most of it luckily!

Day 2

We woke up early since we knew this was going to be the hardest day. 25 km up and down with our big heavy backpacks! We woke up to rain… so had to postpone the alarm once again and wait until it stopped which luckily didn’t take too long. We quickly packed up and got going, hiking through the hills with views of different lakes. In the beginning it was still drizzling now and then but it cleared up more and more so that we got some nice views! Overall, this day really surprised us since we hadn’t expected much in terms of views.

Around noon, we reached the middle section and had lunch somewhere between Camping Frances and Italiano. This middle part was the hardest since I was low on energy and the trail was very rocky – meaning one had to watch every step and it was exhausting for the ankles. But the views made up for it all and pushed me to keep going!

The hike from Camping Italiano to Paine Grande (which we jokingly referred to as „the Big Pain“ over the next few days) was easier again and offered some awesome views of the „Cuernos“ when turning around. It was a beautiful hike, but I was also very glad when we finally arrived at Paine Grande Camping.

It’s a big campsite that was already busy when we arrived and got even busier the next day. It felt a bit like sleeping in a dorm with 100 people. Not too much fun, hence our nickname „the Big Pain (in the a..)“. At least they had an indoor cooking area, warm water showers for the first 15 min when shower time started (Lol) and nice mountain views!

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Day 3

The third day was easier because we could do it with just a small day bag again – but it was annoying in a way since we had to hike back all the way to Camping Italiano where we had come from the day before, and where the trail into Valle Frances forks off. And then back again to the Big Pain at the end of the day! Kilometer-wise it was even longer than Day 2, but at least with a much lighter load this time. And with such great views, we can’t really complain too much about hiking the same trail three times, right!?

From Italiano, we ventured into new grounds, today hiking very fast in order to catch the mountain chain still a bit cloud-free since it was supposed to get worse over the course of the day. It may sound like we’re a bit over-obsessed with weather in the last few weeks, but for us hiking for 5 h to then be at the viewpoint some hours too early or too late to properly enjoy it would suck big time. And usually our planning works out alright… Like on Day 3 again! The first viewpoint Mirador Frances greeted us with nice views and little clouds.

On the way further to Mirador Britannico, we got some very good views and were lucky to be the first ones to reach the viewpoint and have it to ourselves for a few minutes (before more and more people arrived…). We really enjoyed the 360° views from a rock high up at the viewpoint, and made our way back down when it started to snow, more and more clouds coming in and more and more crowds of people coming up…

The hike back was boring apart from some nice glacier views in the beginning – we already knew the trail very well by now and just wanted to get it done.

Day 4

On to new trails and adventures! We had an early-ish start again to avoid most groups (and overtook the others quickly). We first hiked up to Camping Grey, past many viewpoints and lakes. It really is a beautiful national park, there is a reason why it is so popular! Slowly, the glacier came into view on the horizon, giving us very promising beautiful views. Did I mention it was a perfectly sunny and wind still day? You don’t get many of these in Patagonia, so we were excited to go and see more of the glacier!

At the camping, we first set up our tent quickly and again took a small day bag only for the rest of our hike today. Our first goal was a viewpoint just a couple of minutes walking from the camping which gives you really cool views of the glacier and floating icebergs. We have seen quite some glaciers in the past few weeks, but they’re still amazing us! I think we spent about an hour here, walking and climbing around to get different views and enjoying lunch.

We still wanted to hike a couple of kilometres further though – we had hopes of getting even closer to the glacier. We had to cross two wobbly suspension bridges which was cool but a little scary too, at least for me. The gaps between the wooden planks were a bit too large in my opinion…

But I made it past these obstacles and we climbed higher and higher until we reached The. Most. Awesome. Viewpoint. Ever! The view across Grey glacier was stunning. I was speechless for a while and we both agreed that this might beat the Torres in terms of best view on the W trek. Words can’t describe it properly, so here are some pictures…

After properly soaking it up and tattooing it to my (hopefully) eternal memory, we slowly made our way back to the camping. What a day, what an awesomely perfect day!

Day 5

This was the day we cared least about. We had seen Grey glacier very, very well the day before – so the only goal was to get back down to the Big Pain and catch the early catamaran and bus back to Puerto Natales. The 3 h hike was in grey weather and felt more like „getting it done“ than anything else. We loved our time in Torres del Paine, had some truly amazing views and saw really pretty landscapes – but we were annoyed by how overrun the park is, and how tourists are being milked for every penny even if staying in overcrowded campings. Sometimes, we badly missed our quiet hiking time on the Huemul Circuit! But still…Torres del Paine is a highlight and we wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on it in a million years.

Argentina, World Trip 2018-19

El Chalten: Gone with the wind

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Back in Argentina! El Chalten welcomed us back into tourist-land after spending a couple of weeks travelling the remote Carretera Austral in Chile. The views from town were amazing though and got us excited for our hiking days to come!

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Weather didn’t look too good for the next days but we still decided to chance it and go on a 2-day hike to Laguna Torre (with views of Cerro Torre) and further on to Laguna de los Tres (with the iconic Fitz Roy looming above it). The day was rather windy and cloudy, and from the first viewpoints we couldn’t see Cerro Torre at all – but we didn’t give up our hopes and continued to the lake. There, we were welcomed by hefty winds – one gust was so strong that it blew me over! We found a little rock shelter but realized soon that there was no point waiting around. Cerro Torre was completely covered in clouds, and the strong wind made waiting around tough.

So we sadly gave up on seeing Cerro Torre and headed further into the direction of Camping Poincenot. Along the way, we passed some pretty lakes and the weather got a little bit better, so at least we caught some beautiful views of Fitz Roy from the valley!

Once we reached the camping, we set up our tent and hiked up to Laguna de los Tres with only our camera and some water. Good decision for it was a tough 1 h hike up! The wind was also getting stronger and stronger and I was seriously struggling. At one point, a gust blew my hiking pole into my face and slammed it on my lip which swelled up. Another gust ripped my sunglasses of my face and sent them flying across the bushes…gone with the wind! Up at the lake, the situation only got worse. I barely made it behind a big rock as a shelter, but actually looking at the lagoon and Fitz Roy was a challenge – even more so was taking photos. Every time I would peak around the rock, the wind would blow full speed into my face, so that I almost couldn’t see anything. Oufff! What an experience.

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Down at the campsite we came back to a completely dusty tent and decided to eat bread and cookies for dinner, since cooking in these conditions would have been impossible (and half our plates would have consisted of dust). Mathijs then hiked up to the lagoon once again for sunrise – but there were many clouds, so not the best experience either!

After this, we were happy to return to town, where we spent the Christmas time rather relaxed and treated ourselves to two nights in a little cabaña instead of a tent. Our first normal bed in over 3 weeks!

On the 25th, the weather was too perfect to just sit around and relax though – so we quickly decided to hike up to Laguna Torre another time… this time seemed much more promising already from the first viewpoints on – we could actually see Cerro Torre peaking out of the clouds!

The closer we came, the more the clouds went away, and when we reached the lake Cerro Torre was showing himself to us in all its splendour. Wow! What a cool mountain.

This time, there was no wind at all and we were able to spend some time relaxing, enjoying and taking pictures from every angle. On our way back, we kept turning around for more and more good views of the mountain.

But we had to get back to town to get ourselves organised and rent some gear for our next big hike: the Huemul Circuit. This trek takes 4 days and requires you to rent a harness and carabiners to get yourself across two river crossings using tyrolesas. The hike is described as one of the most difficult ones in Patagonia and you really have to carefully watch the weather (wind) forecast before! There are two mountain passes that need to be crossed – Paso del Viento and Paso Huemul – which both can have hefty storms that can make crossings impossible.

Weather looked decent for the upcoming days though, so we decided to go for it! After registering ourselves at the rangers office (they check that you have rented harness and some other random equipment), we headed out into a super sunny morning with clear skies all over. So when we arrived at the crossing where the path to Loma del Pliegue Tumbado forks off, we decided to add a little side trip to our first day. We left the big backpacks behind some trees and headed up to the Mirador… and WOW, such a good decision!! Both Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy were out and the view from up there was simply stunning. In my opinion, if you get a very clear day, this is the best hike to do in El Chalten!

Once back down at our backpacks, we had a quick lunch and then headed onward to Lago Toro where our camping for the night would be. There were some pretty views along the way, especially towards the end when you descend into the valley that then leads up to the camping. But… the best views had been earlier that day, so I highly recommend adding this little detour to your Huemul Circuit.

Next morning, we got going very early, knowing it would be a tough day with the winds forecasted to pick up more and more in the course of the day. We were keen to make it across Paso del Viento before noon to avoid the heaviest gusts. After a short hike, we soon arrived at the first zipline. Zipping myself across wasn’t too hard, but attaching and sending the backpacks across to Mathijs was challenging.

Afterwards, we had to hike across some very rocky terrain for about 2h. It was very difficult to make out any trail – for the most part it was more like „find your own best trail“. We originally wanted to hike across the glacier which is next to the rocks but failed to find a good entry point so just kept flowing the Maps.me route roughly. It should be easier to walk on the glacier though and take much less time! At least we had some good views along the way though.

At the end of the glacier, we had breakfast at the Tunel campsite before the trail started to go up the pass more and more steeply. It was tough, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Only the wind got stronger and stronger the higher we got which I found a bit scary since it can easily throw you off balance. Mathijs didn’t have any issues at all and was walking as if there was nothing going on. Life’s not fair!

Up on the pass, we got almost blown away by the strong winds, up to 80-90km/h. The gusts in between were even stronger. It was a big struggle and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Then we got a view of the Southern Patagonian Icefield – the biggest one after Antarctica and Greenland. It was so impressive and made me feel so small!! But to be honest, it was hard for me to fully enjoy it in that moment since the wind was so fierce.

Going down the pass on the other side was even less fun. My knees were hurting a bit, it was slippery and the wind was trying to push me off the mountain so I had to be super careful. I’m so glad we found this one walking stick on our hike near Bariloche, else I don’t think I would have managed. We then followed the Icefield to our camping at Paso del Viento campsite where we already arrived in the early afternoon. I was tired and happy to chill in our tent for the rest of the day, even though I was very worried it might break in the strong winds (thankfully it didn’t).

Unfortunately we woke up to rain next morning. We had set our alarm super early at 4.30 to avoid the strongest wind at Paso Huemul, but there was no point in starting the hike. We would have been soaked within minutes and the rest of our day would have been even tougher. So we postponed our alarm a couple of times, until finally starting our hike around 9am only – when luckily it had almost stopped raining. Sun came out soon and we were so, so thankful for it!! The views over the icefield were awesome and this time I could even enjoy it with almost no wind during the first part of our hike.

When we got close to Paso Huemul, we took an early lunch, knowing we would need lots of energy for the pass, and readied ourselves to face the storm. In the end though…it was actually alright! This time, the wind was in our favour, kind of pushing us up the mountain which made the ascent much easier. Nice! The higher we got, the more the wind picked up though and going not just up but slightly right or left became difficult. On the pass itself, the wind was almost blowing us over again and we had to seek shelter behind a rock to enjoy the view of the Icefields one last time.

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We then quickly descended a bit to get out of the strongest wind and were surprised by another amazing view over Lago Viedma and its little bays with hundreds and hundreds of ice bergs floating around! I have no words to describe it properly, it was just SO beautiful. After enjoying lunch part 2 with that kind of view, we started the further decent which was not too much fun: the path leeds down the mountain really steeply, mostly on loose dirt and rocks. There’s lots of sliding involved, but luckily there’s many bushes to hold onto, aaand the constant amazing view of the bay and the icebergs to keep you going.

We reached the camping by mid-afternoon, and found the most beautiful campsite of our trip so far. Red mountains in the back, and icebergs floating in hundreds right in front of us, glittering in the sun. Awesome!

We had heard that sunrise should be very beautiful here too, so set our alarm early again. Again, we woke up to some drizzles, but luckily it stopped and we were able to experience a magical sunrise!! No one else in the camping bothered to wake up, so we had it all to ourselves. It was simply beautiful and one of my favourite moments of the 4 day hike.

The last day then was the most boring and in a way hardest. My whole body was in pain from the days before and especially my knees were hurting. We first did a little detour to the small peninsular nearby where we got some more beautiful views, this time not just of the icebergs but also the glacier behind.

What followed then was a bit of an odyssey through the hills. Since Maps.me had been so helpful so far, we followed it again, but at one point there was no trail anymore and we got ourselves properly stuck in the mud. Damn! We then had to navigate with GPS and just follow some cow trails here and there, mostly going without a trail. It was a bit frustrating and we were wondering how we had lost the main trail in the first place. But in the end…we made it down the hills to the 2nd zipline – this time much longer but also much more fun!

After that, it was only a short walk to Bahia Tunel, where some girls (bless them!!) waited for us to give us a ride back to town. We were so happy and thankful! There’s no bus, and walking back to town would have added another 7-8 km to our last day. A good way to end a tough, but super awesome 4 day hike!