Offering dramatic views at the mountain peaks above and turquoise lakes below, as well as unforgettable experience of trekking in the wilderness, Torres del Paine National Park is one of the best places for hiking in the world. It is located in Chilean Patagonia, the southern end of South America. Granted, these beautiful landscapes are hard to reach, but it is well worth it.

At a glance

Level: Medium
Time: 4-6 days
Weather: Windy
Accommodation: Campsites or dormitories in refugios (huts)
Food: Bring your own food or buy meals at refugios
Water: Plenty of water, considered safe to drink
Prices: Very high
Map: Install maps.me and download the free South Chile offline map
Guidebook: Cicerone (but you can do without it)
Getting there and away: bus connection with Puerto Natales

Need to know

• There are two famous hiking routes: O, the 11-day loop around Torres del Paine, and W, the best 5-day part of this loop. Only counter-clockwise direction is permitted for O trek, but you can do W in any direction you want.

• Book accommodation early, especially the campsites. They were fully booked a month before our travel, and you don’t want to pay $150 for a refugio while still having to carry your tent for the other days.

• Get a strong tent that survives high winds.

• Each trail has its closing time, often unreasonably early, like 1–4 pm. The closing time for each trail is printed on the map you get on entrance. After this time you will be stopped and turned back by a ranger. (It doesn’t apply to pre-dawn start from Chileno: the trail is closed, but there are no rangers at 3 am)
  

In details

Level

If you are fit and have some experience of hiking in mountains, you will find no trouble with this route. The trail is not a hiking superhighway, but it is clear and not challenging.

The ascent to the viewing points at Mirador Britanico and Mirador Torres is physically demanding, especially if you are in a hurry to see the sunrise or to get there before the trail closes; but you can leave your backpacks at the base and go lightweight, which is much faster and more enjoyable.

Time

Torres del Paine is a huge national park and you can easily spend a couple of weeks there without getting bored. Actually, the full hiking circuit — O trek — takes 11 days. W trek is designed for 5 days, but I believe it may be shortened to four if you are in serious hurry. It doesn’t matter which way you are doing the W, and it allows some flexibility with your schedule. If you don’t know where to start, my advise is first to book the most popular sites, such as Italiano or Chileno, and then book the other places accordingly.

This is the schedule that my favourite Cicerone guidebook recommends:
Day 1: Refugio Las Torres – Mirador Las Torres (return)
Day 2: Refugio Las Torres – Campamento Italiano
Day 3: Campamento Italiano – Valle Francés (return)
Day 4: Campamento Italiano – Refugio Grey
Day 5: Refugio Grey – Refugio Paine Grande

This is how we travelled:
Day 0: Evening bus from Puerto Natales to Camping Pehoe (pronounced peoˈe), which allows splendid views on the mountains across the lake;
Day 1: Camping Pehoe – Refugio Paine Grande by hitchhiking and boat (+ a short amusing walk by the lakeside and back);
Day 2: Refugio Paine Grande – Refugio Grey;
Day 3: Refugio Grey – Mirador Grey and back – Refugio Paine Grande;
Day 4: Refugio Paine Grande – Campsite Italiano where we dropped the backpacks and started a late ascent to Mirador Britanico and back (which was shortened by a very polite, but very persistent ranger) – Refugio Francés;
Day 5: Refugio Francés – Refugio El Chileno;
Day 6: Refugio El Chileno – pre-dawn ascent to Mirador Las Torres and back – Refugio las Torres – bus to Puerto Natales.

You can make your own schedule that suits you better, there’s no way to go wrong. Just make sure you allow more time to enjoy this terrific place.

The best months to go there are January and February, but bear in mind that it is also the most popular time among all the fellow hikers. Don’t worry, you will still get your share of wilderness on the trail. It might be crowded at the campground, though.

The huts and campsites are located in such a way that the day hike is not very short, and is not long and exhausting. Still it is better to get up early and allow yourself plenty of time, because the trails close unreasonably early.

Weather

It is hard to describe Patagonian weather, because it changes literally every five minutes, and varies depending on your location. Think of summer in mountains, but not of happy cows and green meadows, but of the sun burning your face while your jacket is still wet from the rain that poured a minute ago. It tends to be very windy in Patagonia, and Torres del Paine national park is not an exception. Be prepared for the gusts of strong wind, especially in more exposed areas. If you are camping, make sure that your tent will withstand the strong wind and an occasional rain. Always pin down all your stuff while putting up the tent: we’ve seen some camping equipment flying around the campsite while the owners were busy with their tent poles.

Accommodation

There are refugios and campgrounds at the end of each stage. The camping sites allow you to pitch your own tent, or to hike lightweight and rent the camping equipment at each place: usually they provide new and spacious North Face or Marmot tents.

Everything needs to be booked well in advance, especially if you are doing the full circuit. We planned our trip about a month before visiting the park, and some campgrounds were fully booked, so we had to stay in huts while still carrying heavy backpacks.

Both campgrounds and huts are reasonably clean, with hot showers, and enough toilets to avoid long queues. The campgrounds become quite crammed during the day, especially with some people sneakily arriving after dark with no booking at all. So if you need an incentive to walk faster, think of having to pitch your tent in the most unwanted dusty and windy place if you arrive late. That said, even the worst place inside a campground will be suitable for a good night rest, so don’t worry too much.

Food

Scattered along the trek refugios give you full flexibility with your dining options, from carrying all the food and snacks with you, to splashing out and having three meals a day at the refugios. We decided to split it in half. There is no freeze-dried food in the outdoor shops in Chile or Argentina, so bring your own, or you’ll have to survive on macaroni-and-cheese from a supermarket in Punta Arenas.

Most of the refugios have special kitchen areas, where you can safely light your stove, cook and eat, and clean your dishes afterwards. There are also shops where you can buy snacks, and in one of them we spotted freeze-dried food packs, which was surprising, because we haven’t seen them even in the outdoor shops.

If you opt for eating at a refugio, you still have several options: you can buy just one meal, or half-board (dinner and breakfast), or full-board (dinner, breakfast, and a lunch to go, usually a sandwich with some other snacks and juice). This is usually pre-ordered when you are booking the accommodation.

Price

Everything in Torres del Paine is quite expensive, so try to think of it this way: how much would you pay to get rid of a couple of kilos of food and cooking appliances? to sleep soundly, without hearing your neighbour’s tent flapping on the wind? to be able to simply get up and go, without packing your wet tent in the morning? For us the answer was: not much. If you are thinking the same, start booking campsites early. Some campings are fully booked even two months in advance.

Don’t forget to bring cash from Puerto Natales for the entrance fee and ferry ticket! The entrance to the park costs 35000 pesos ($44), if you are going to stay for more than three days (and you should!). If you have Chilean passport, you’ll enjoy much lower prices throughout the park, but in that case you are unlikely to read my blog, so I’ll show the prices for foreigners here. If you are coming by bus from Puerto Natales, it will cost $12-15 to get to Torres del Paine, and same for return.

There are only three companies running the refugios and campsites on the half circuit W route.
CONAF is some kind of governmental company, which runs campsite Italiano. Their camping is free and the bookings are gone fast, so this is the first one to check.
Vertice runs refugios Grey and Paine Grande.
Fantastico Sur owns refugios Frances, Los Cuernos, Chileno, and Las Torres. However, at the moment I don’t see any possibility to book Frances or Chileno through their website. Maybe they will fix it later, meanwhile you can communicate with them via email.
Previously mentioned Camping Pehoe is accessible by road and is used mostly by trailers and car owners. They have lovely covered shelters for tents, which one starts to appreciate after enduring Patagonian winds for a couple of weeks. It is not on W trek, which doesn’t mean you are not welcomed there.

Getting there and away

There are two airports where you can start: Punta Arenas and El Calafate, both are 250-350 km away from Torres del Paine. If you are travelling from Chile, most likely you will fly to Punta Arenas. We were coming from Argentinian side of Patagonia, having spent a nice week around El Calafate. Wherever you start, after the flight you have to take a bus to Puerto Natales, the gate town for Torres del Paine national park. Our journey from El Calafate took approximately 5 hours, including border control.

There are a few buses a day that go from Puerto Natales bus station to Torres del Paine. They stop at the national park entrance and wait for all the passengers to pay the entrance fee and fill out all the forms. It is better to book your ticket early, especially for the morning buses.

If you want to do W in an eastward direction, take a ferry from Pudeto to Paine Grande to begin your hike from there. There is a bus stop at Pudeto, so you can get off the bus and go straight to the ferry. At the other end of the trek take a bus from Hotel las Torres to reach Laguna Amarga, where you can catch a bus to Puerto Natales.

Drop me a letter if you have any questions! See you on the trail ;)

If you want more…

Our plan was to hike the northern part of the Cambrian Way, the hiking trail that goes from Cardiff in South Wales to Conwy on its north shore through national parks, beautiful valleys, and, of course, mountain Snowdon. The trail’s designer Tony Drake dubbed it “the mountain connoisseurs’ walk”, and for a reason. The views from the path are outstanding. That is, if you got a chance to see them through the rain clouds.

When we saw the weather forecast before heading off to Wales, we were ready to get quite wet, because our weather apps looked like this: 🌧🌦🌧⛈🌩🌦🌧 (translation: you are going to hike inside a cloud most of the time). But we shrugged the bad premonition off. Who doesn’t know the mountain weather, which changes every five minutes, when you are showered in a storm one moment, and then sunburned another one? It can’t be worse than Navarino, when our sleeping bags soaked the moisture from the damp air and declined to warm us during a stormy night. Right?

So we arrived to Barmouth full of beans and were looking forward to hiking. The first couple of hours were really amazing, with outstanding views right from the start, and a nice hidden place to pitch a tent without being noticed. To be honest, we haven’t seen a soul on the trail, so we didn’t have to bother about being noticed, but that’s just a habit we can’t overcome.

The next morning, however, gloomy clouds lay low on the mountain tops. After soaking in rain and fog for a couple of hours, we decided that the weather is bad enough to take the bad-weather alternative route, which instead of climbing up the mountains goes down trough a valley by Taith Ardudwy Way, entertaining walk at the lower level with easier terrain. When we got lower, the rain changed to sun and then rain again, but it wasn’t bad, so we still entertained the idea of hiking Cambrian way when we join it the next day.

But the next day showed us who’s the boss in the mountains. It’s always the weather. We had to walk 22 km under such a heavy downpour, that even my waterproof camera case didn’t help and now one of the screens talks to me in an alien code. The rain ceased towards the end of the day, but only to start with new force during night. We woke up to witness increased waterfalls, flooded rivers, and complete absence of will to ascent the mountains in the centre of cyclone. So we took a taxi to our next planned stop in Beddgelert, and stayed in that lovely village doing circuit hikes for the next few days.

That’s how we failed to hike the Cambrian way, but discovered the beauty of Snowdonia and had fun lightweight hikes with guaranteed hearty dinner in Beddgelert. In the hindsight, I always blame the weather and the hiking level for my faults in planning. Like, who ever can manage in one day 22 km with 1300 m ascent and same descent with 13-kilo backpacks — even when the weather is good? Let me know if you exist, because it’s definitely not me. The views were very promising though, so I plan to return and hike lightweight next time (and hopefully not during cyclone, too). More pictures from Beddgelert area and the North cost will follow.

More travel photos here:

the Cotswolds is the best choice for cycling

If you want to travel to the quintessential England, with its old limestone churches, green rolling hills dotted with sheep, and cosy pubs, the Cotswolds is what you need. Its web of quiet undulating lanes between dispersed villages ensures that this ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ is the best choice for cycling. In just a few hours of admiring its rose bushes and old stone churches I found myself short of synonyms to the word ‘nice’ and just kept exclaiming ‘look, how cute!’ every ten minutes.

People from the Cotswolds say that tourists often wander into their gardens and even houses, mistaken their homes for museums. Despite being inconvenient, the mistake is well grounded: the villages are too cute, too well-kept, too good to be true human abode. Everything in the Cotswolds looks like a postcard (except maybe a queue to the local bakery). There is a lot to enjoy besides the villages: dramatic views of rapeseed fields in yellow bloom, refreshing shadow of tree tunnels, and an occasional bridleway to practice off-road cycling or to take break from riding and enjoy a short walk.

The Cotswolds cover a large area, without a well-defined centre, and it’s hard to find a hiking route that goes through many villages in one day. I imagine that driving a car may feel uncomfortable on those narrow roads; there also might be few parking spots in ancient villages designed for horseback riding. Travelling there is easier and probably more enjoyable for cyclists, especially now, when cycling is the best way to hang out with friends and still practice social distancing. So I developed a two-day cycling route from one train station to another, going through the heart of the Cotswolds and passing some cutest villages. Our cycling group really enjoyed it, and I decided to share the route.

At a glance

Level: medium-advanced
Time: two days
Distance: 110 km, total elevation gain ≅ 1000 m
Map: download a free offline map on maps.me and import our cycling route for day 1 and day 2
Eating: not all villages have a pub or a restaurant, so plan ahead and pack some snacks
Water: you can ask to refill your bottle in a pub
Sleeping: inns or BnB’s near Bibury
Transportation: train, bike
Start: Cheltenham Spa train station
Finish: Moreton-in-Marsh train station (might be done in reversed direction)

In details

About the route

This route is a combination of several overlapping cycling routes from a Cicerone guide book “Cycling in the Cotswolds”. I love Cicerone guides and have used them extensively for hiking in the UK as well as in other countries. I would gladly just pick any route from the book and follow it, but it is not easy to transport yourself and a bike to any starting point in the Cotswolds without a car. So we had to improvise and were not disappointed.

My favourite villages from this trip are Bibury and Lower Slaughter, but there are tons of small cute villages and old churches on the way. Don’t miss the Model Village museum in Bourton-on-the-Water. There is also a trout farm in Bibury, where you can allegedly catch and barbeque your own trout (we visited only their cafe, it was nice).

On the first day you will see more nature and rolling hills, and there will be more villages and small towns on the second day.

Level

While this route is certainly not for the beginners, don’t be discouraged by its ‘advanced’ part. If you are generally fit and prepared to cycle steep uphill or downhill most of the day, you can do this route. The hardest part is in the very beginning, where the route starts with the long exhausting 150 m ascent (with some rewarding views on the way), and it will be easier from then on. It might help to have a lightweight bicycle with lots of gears that allow you to climb the hills at your own pace. It doesn’t have to be a mountain bike — in fact, our group had only hybrids or road bikes (and even one folding bike) and managed pretty well. There are a couple of bridleways, but one of them is easy enough to ride through, and one is short enough to walk your bike and has a short detour option if you want to avoid it. We were lucky with the warm and sunny weather, but I would allow some extra time in rainy days, because I assume that safe descent will take more time on wet surface.

Time and distance

The route is more or less evenly split: we tracked 60 km the first day and 50 km the second. Overall ascent was 632 m on the first day and 462 m on the second, however, there is a huge discrepancy in elevation gain numbers between different trackers, so don’t rely on that information much.

Starting early allows you to have lots of stops and travel without a rush. It took us around 5-6 hours to cycle each day, with all the short stops for pictures and snacks. However, eating in a restaurant takes at least 1.5 hours, plus you’ll need time to walk around a lovely village or two, and it will be a shame to miss the Model Village museum, so the whole day might take up to 10-11 hours. Together with trains from London and cycling to/from the train station, we were busy and entertained for two full days.

Food and drink

The restaurants are few and far between, especially during the first day. So plan accordingly, and bring snacks and plenty of water. Prices in the Cotswolds are very high, and the service is slow, so better relax and enjoy the garden view (or the cosy fireplace).

Our stops were:
Day 1: breakfast at home, lunch in Cheltenham (lots of restaurants and take-aways), dinner in Bibury at the Swan Hotel restaurant (expensive but excellent food);
Day 2: small breakfast at the inn, brunch at Bibury trout farm cafe, quick snack with what was left over by hungry tourists at Bakery-on-the-Water, and snacks along the way (we were a bit in a hurry and decided to skip lunch in a pub, otherwise there are a couple of cafes in Bourton-on-the-Water).

You can ask to refill your bottle in pubs and restaurants, but since there are not many of them, better carry extra water with you.

Sleeping

We wanted to stop in Bibury for the night, but there were no places available for our budget, so we cycled to the Keepers Arms in Quenington, which is around half an hour from Bibury. Our prices were £90 for a room, with breakfast that allowed us a couple of hours to explore Bibury before getting hungry again. A part of our group stayed at the New Inn (no breakfast served) in Coln St Aldwyns, which is a bit closer to Bibury.

Getting there and back

The hardest part in planning the Cotswolds trip was resolving the train problem. There are few train stations in the area and some of them can only be reached with rail replacement buses, which do not allow bikes (as of August 2020). Going from London, we had to make a loop through Bristol to get to Cheltenham Spa. From Moreton-in-Marsh there are direct trains through Oxford to London Paddington. Most of the trains go once an hour, which is quite flexible.

GWR and Cross Country, the train companies that we used to get to and from the Cotswolds, require bookings for bicycle spaces on their train. The booking is free; however, there are only four bike spaces on GWR trains, and only two on Cross Country trains. Yes, that means you can take only two bikes on that train. So our company with four bikes had to split to get to Cheltenham by two trains that are an hour apart (you don’t have to book a space for folding bike).

That said, there are people who flout these rules, and they still get to their destinations. When we had to split and ride two different trains, there were six bikes on our train with only three places, and no one could do anything about it. I myself boarded a train from Moreton-in-Marsh without reservation, when we were late for our planned train. However, I didn’t like the feeling of being in the way, and I advise you to reserve the bike spaces in advance, especially since it is quite easy to do via Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp.

When your train arrives, look for a bike sign on the coach walls. There are bike racks behind the entrance marked with that sign. Don’t worry much if you can’t find it immediately, the driver sees you and won’t depart without you. Sometimes they will go out on the platform to help you find the suitable space. Don’t forget to pack your mask and wear it on the train!

That’s it, I hope this information will help you to plan your journey and enjoy your cycling in the Cotswolds! If you have questions, drop me an email: martreya@gmail.com. See you on road :)

Wait! I have more photos

Now go and book yout train ticket :)

More from my blog:

Travel photography doesn’t have to be a heavy burden… said who, a girl with 3-kilos camera dangling from her hip? Well, at least travel photography doesn’t have to be heavier than it already is. That’s why I want to share a backup solution that is lightweight, sturdy, comparably cheap, and lets you browse and edit photos from your camera memory card with your phone only, without using a laptop. I will also show how to speed up the copying process during the long trip.

I don’t receive any sponsorship from the products listed below. It took quite a lot of time to find the best backup for my needs, I paid my own money to buy it, and I want to share it because it brought me a great peace of mind in travel.

Why do you need a backup

I didn’t use any backup in my previous travels, because I was sure that it can be only my laptop, and I don’t need to tell you that laptops are too heavy and don’t survive well in hiking and camping expeditions. I haven’t had any problems with CF cards before and was pretty much sure of my camera safety. I have to admit it was silly, because a card can become corrupted without any previous warning, and camera can get stolen or lost any time at any place.

This time I was preparing for 7 weeks in travel, which meant a possibility to loose more than a month’s work if something goes wrong. Besides, I wasn’t even sure if two of my 256 GB cards are enough for the whole trip (they weren’t). So I started to search for a backup lightweight and sturdy enough to use in a hike. It would be a huge advantage if it allows me to browse and edit the photos using my phone.

The lightweight option that doesn’t cost a fortune

Taking the laptop to a hiking trip is not an option: my backpack is already heavy with camping gear and freeze dried food; besides, all the dust and humidity of great outdoors might kill the fragile office tool. I need an external solid-state drive (SSD) to keep my pictures safe and work with them fast, with the capacity no less than 1 TB.

After a couple of hours reading photographers’ blogs and gadget reviews I found a wireless backup WD My Passport SSD designed especially for photographers and videographers, which copies all the new photos from a memory card and even connects to your phone by wifi, so you can see and use the photos on the backup. This is the progress for you! But something stopped me to buy that fancy device. Maybe 500 g weight, maybe the high price, maybe the small power bank capacity. I needed a lighter and cheaper option...

I continued my search and found a polar explorer Aaron, who explains how to back up a camera card with a tiny Sandisk hard drive and an iPhone without laptop. This was exactly what I needed! Sandisk SSD weights 36 g (it is lighter than my toothbrush) and is almost twice cheaper than WD drive. The decision was made. At first I thought myself smarter than Aaron and bought cheaper USB hub and just a cable from iPhone lightning to USB C. It didn’t work, so I returned everything back and bought exactly what he says: uni USB C hub, lightning to USB 3 adapter, and USB 3 to USB C cables. It worked like a charm. If you have SD or micro SD card in your camera, you don’t even need a card reader, there are slots in Uni USB hub for these memory cards. I shot in RAW+JPEG format at first, but seeing that iOS doesn’t have any problem recognising RAW files, I dropped JPEG and used only RAW to save space.

As a power bank I used Anker PowerCore 20100, which has enormous 20 000 mAh capacity, though it is more on the heavy side with its 331 g weight. This power bank could charge two phones and provide energy for daily backups from CF card for five days on our hikes in Patagonia, and it certainly could last more than that. This capacity may be an overkill for a two-three days hike, but it is a must have for a longer expedition. I was considering leaving out a power bank altogether and using our solar panel instead, but it weights more than 500 g and accumulates energy too slowly to use it as a substitute. For comparison, the wireless WD drive has three times less capacity at 6 700 mAh, so even if it lasted five days, I’d have to carry a small power bank to charge my phone anyway.

Now I don’t know how I could live without this freaky backup system. Not only it keeps my mind at peace, it also helps to transfer photos straight to Lightroom app that I’ve installed on my iPhone. So I don’t need to wait until I come home to edit and post the photos. 

How to back up your CF card to SSD disk 

Here are all the devices you need. Click on a picture to open the Amazon page for each of the items.

The order in which you connect the devices doesn’t matter much. I have an extra lightning port on my lightning to USB adapter, so I can connect it with the power bank to charge my phone while the photos are copied, but that’s not necessary. As soon as you connect everything and turn on the power bank, in your Files app you’ll see EOS_DIGITAL (or whatever name your camera uses) folder for CF card, and Extreme SSD folder for Sandisk. Go into your CF card folder, select recently made photos or the whole folder with photos, and move them to SSD. There is no safe ejection when you work with iPhone only, so when you are done, just physically disconnect CF card first, then SSD. Your photos will be fine :)

How speed up photo transfer

After using this device for a couple of days I discovered a problem: it took ages to open and copy the photos from my card. Files app constantly crushed or froze during these attempts. So I invented a solution: I started to organise my backup not only on the disk, but also on the memory card itself. In my Canon EOS 7D camera all the photos are stored in a single folder, named 100EOS7D or 101EOS7D. After a couple of days shooting, there were thousands of pictures in that folder, and it took all the time and phone capacity to process that amount. I could not delete them — remember, backup works only when there are at least two copies of your photos! So after each time I copied the photos to the SSD I created a new folder on the CF card itself, and moved all the pictures to that folder, leaving the default folder empty for the next day pictures. Actually, working with the phone only, it was easier to just rename the default folder with the name you use for backup, then create another folder named 100EOS7D, and then copy the backup folder to SSD.

It is more important than ever to keep the backup organised, because it takes some time and effort to browse through photos with iPhone, and you want to omit any unnecessary move. I copied the pictures almost every day, so I used ‘YYMMDD_place’ system of naming, where YY is year, MM is month, DD is the day when pictures were taken, and ‘place’ is a name of a town, camping, or whatever destination I travelled to this particular day. If I stayed somewhere for a few days, I would add more description to the name. 

That’s it

Hope this post helps you to enjoy your travels and stress less about your camera and all the nice pictures you’ve shot on vacation!

Dientes de Navarino circuit is the southernmost hike in the world, and one of the boggiest for sure. It is picturesque, hard, long, remote route, and has very few people on the trail. The route goes around the toothlike peaks sticking out of the middle of Navarino island in the very south of Chile. There are stunning views over countless lakes and rugged cliffs on the way — a mountain landscape, but without altitude sickness. In other words, a perfect hike.

At a glance

• Level: hard 

• Time: 4-5 days

• Weather: rainy, strong winds prevail

• Sleeping: your camping equipment

• Eating: carry food for all days  

• Water: the running water is more or less safe

• Map: offline map of South Chile in maps.me has the path marked

• Start/finish: Puerto Williams

• Guidebooks:

  Official brochure with all new landmarks

  Older official brochure with more details

  Lonely Planet trekking guide 2009

In details

Level

What makes this route hard is not only the physical challenge, though there are some exposed parts, scrambling ascents through small rivers, steep scree, muddy swamps, and surprisingly hard, almost vertical, descent through slippery wet woods. 

What makes this route really hard is unfriendly weather, route finding, and total absence of civilisation in a close proximity. Once you walk out of Puerto Williams, where the hike starts, you are on your own. Some days we didn’t see more than three persons on the route. There is no official rescue service, but guides might help hikers if they see them in distress. Of course, it will be safer to hire a guide yourself, but you may go on your own if you have enough experience and good equipment. 

The route is marked with cairns, red or white paint, or even simple plastic strings tied to a tree, but sometimes the marks are confusing or disappear completely, especially during the last day. Don’t go very fast and always look for the next mark, and you won’t have to return too far if you get lost. Painted arrows are often confusing, pointing not to the direction, but to the trail itself, so check twice.

Dientes de Navarino circuit is famous for its boggy terrain, which is the result of beaver invasion. In 1946 Argentina brought ten beavers to Tierra del Fuego in hopes to start fur industry. Despite the fears that they will die, animals survived and reproduced, and in the 60s some of them crossed the Strait of Magellan currents and reached Isla Navarino. Without predators to keep it in check, beaver population increased wildly, and they started to do their thing: chewing trees and making dams that shortly flooded the island. The result is devastating. South American trees did not evolve to being chopped and living in wet ground, so the landscape changed dramatically: instead of lush forest, Isla Navarino now is covered in white twisted tree trunks. It is a sad sight for a hiker, like walking through wriggled carcasses on a battleground. Not to mention the constant mud, that sometimes gives way to a river, and higher up — to shaky rocks. By the way, the fur trade never took off. Now Argentina and Chile are looking for the way to eradicate beavers, which may cost up to £26 million.

Time

The distance is only 55 km, but it is not your relaxing Alpine route. No matter how experienced you are, you will definitely spend some time and effort just in route searching. Most people we talked to finished the circuit in 4 days, combining the last two days into one and hitchhiking 7 km of the empty coastal road to Puerto Williams. We spent 5 days hiking. In the extremely good weather for a very fit hiker it is possible to finish the route in 3 days, but such experience will not be enjoyable.

Before the hike you have to register at the police station in Puerto Williams, which is open 24/7, and don’t forget to visit them after the hike to let them know you are back.

Weather

‘Cambiante mucho’, said a guy at the police station. And it was true indeed. Wind, rain and sun changed each other every few minutes, and sometimes even combined together to create a rainbow or to puzzle a hiker who can’t decide what to wear. I remember sunbathing near a laguna one afternoon, and hiding in our tent from a terrible storm just an hour later. After being soaked in a day-long rain the next day, we woke up to a snowstorm that changed for sunlight every now and then. There were patches of snow to cross during second day, and I imagine there is more snow during cold summers. Despite all the sudden changes, the overall weather forecast was quite relevant. We checked windy.com the week before the hike, and, seeing a sunny window between rainy weeks, decided to buy tickets to Puerto Williams and were not disappointed. 

Sleeping

The only place to hide from the elements on the route will be your tent. There are designated camping spots at the end of each day, some of them are more or less sheltered. It is possible to rent the equipment in the town, but I don’t know much about that as we used our own. Because of the horrible weather and little choice of sheltered camping spots you have to be absolutely sure it is reliable. The route is a challenge for all the equipment. Our new tent passed with high mark, standing up to the strong wind up to 120 km/h, but not without the help of heavy stones on each of the pegs. 

Our down sleeping bags, however, absorbed the humidity from the air during the last night, and we were sleeping wrapped with patches of wet down that didn’t warm us much. This is the first time I saw it happen: there was no leak, no wet clothes touching the sleeping bags, but the air was so humid, that they visibly deflated. So I guess synthetic sleeping bags could save you a hassle in a swampland like this. We also lost a cooking pot to the gust of strong wind, so I’m in a good position here to remind you to pin down every little thing with a stone :) And one more thing: one night I woke up to some rustle and turned on my torch just to stare into gleaming eyes of a weasel stealing our trash bag. So if you have a possibility, use a tree to hang up the food and trash bags.

There are a few camping grounds marked on the route, all the other places are not a camping option because of a steep slope and lack, or, in most cases, excess of water. Some spots are quite exposed to wind. It is possible to find a more or less sheltered place, but one has to be persistent in search. Sometimes we walked for an hour before finding a suitable place to camp.

Eating

The best thing you can do is to bring your own freeze-dried food to Puerto Williams. Since we had run out of it on our previous hikes in Argentina and Chile, we had no choice but to go to one of the few shops in the town and buy a supply of old-school macaroni and cheese there (I had to forgo my vegan diet for these hikes). Cheese did a good job of surviving for three days, and when we were done with it, we switched to instant potato or quinoa with knorr sauces. We found the diet quite agreeable, if not very much balanced. Most of all we were cheered up by chocolate, which, as we have discovered during our second day of hike, contained rum-soaked raisins in generous quantity.

Gas cartridges are available in the same small shops, together with crunchy pieces of flat bread that can hold up for a few days in a cheese sandwich.  

Water

Because of the beavers and their damned dams, the water is everywhere on the route, but it is not safe to drink it in most cases, including lake water. We were told that the running water from rivers is safe, but even then we checked the source of the river on a map, picking the ones that don’t begin in the lakes. The water used for cooking can come from any reasonable source, we just boiled it for 2-3 minutes before making our cups of tea. In this fashion we never carried more than a litre of water at any time and didn’t have to treat water.

Getting there and away

Puerto Williams, where the circuit starts, is like a closed club for tough hikers. Few other tourists visit the town, it doesn’t yet have an infrastructure suited for its southernmost fame. So all the people we met in our hostel were divided into two groups: apprehensive hikers, looking for information about the route, or relaxed hikers who finished the route, looking for booze and pizza. We were staying at Refugio el Padrino on the west end of the town. Its family atmosphere means no booking is available, no questions are asked, and no rules are explained. But it is a perfect place to share a few drinks together with other hikers in a small kitchen warmed by wood burning in the stove. It is cheap and cosy, and feels like home.

There is a ferry from Punta Arenas that comes and leaves once or twice a week, and it is recommended to use it at least one way, though it takes 32 hours to get to Puerto Williams. The ferry navigates between islands and passengers can see great landscapes, approach close to huge glaciers, and observe wildlife on the way.

However, we were tight on schedule, so we had to take a flight from Punta Arenas, and book an expensive ride in private boat that takes only 30 minutes to get to Ushuaia from Puerto Navarino, a tiny port in two hours of nauseating ride from Puerto Williams.

At a glance

• Level: very hard (scrambling, exposure, route finding)

• Time: 4–5 days, December to April

• Weather: strong winds

• Sleeping: dormitory beds in refugios (around 1000 ARS / £14) or free campsites near refugios

• Eating: bring your own food or buy meals at refugios (around 1900 ARS / £24 full board).

• Water: no need for purifying tablets or filter, bring extra bottles or camelback

• Map: offline map of Argentina in maps.me has the path marked

• Guidebook: Lonely Planet «Trekking in the Patagonian Andes» 2009

Schedule

During first two days of hiking we’ve learned that difficulty of the route is serious, and, knowing that day 3 is the hardest and most dangerous part, we decided to skip it because of our heavy 15 kilos backpacks. Instead, we went down to the road and hitchhiked to Colonia Suiza one day and ascended to refugio Segre the next day. Both descent and ascent are longer, but they are very easy comparing to constant scrambling and bouldering of the route itself. So if you are concerned with day 3 difficulty, or simply are unfortunate with the weather, you can follow our schedule. 

Day 1: Villa Cathedral to Refugio Frey

• Time: 2¾ – 4 hours, 8.5km 

• Our time: 6 hours

• Transport: bus 55 from Bariloche to Villa Catedral (pay with Sube card and make sure there is enough amount left for the way back), cable car Telecabina Amancay (1050 ARS / £15), then Diente de Caballo chairlift to the top (it didn’t work when we arrived, so we hiked up in 40-50 minutes)

• Download gpx track

• Sleeping: Refugio Frey is popular with climbers, so it is important to have a booking when you come — yes, camping needs to be booked, too!

• Refugio Frey prices

  
  

Day 2: Refugio Frey to Refugio San Martín (Jakob)

• Time: 5 – 6 ½ hours, 8.5km 

• Our time: 8 hours

• Download gpx track

• Sleeping: Refugio Jakob is my favourite, with good food and bright staff. There’s no need to book a camping spot anywhere except Frey.

• Refugio Jakob prices

  
  

Day 3: Refugio Jakob to Colonia Suiza 

• Time: 5–7 hours, 18 km + 7 km hitchhiking to Colonia Suiza

• Our time: around 8 hours in total, we took it easy :) Though the road looked empty, hitchhiking was extremely easy, because locals are friendly and happy to help.

• Download gpx track

• Sleeping: we stayed in a lovely camping Ser (400 ARS per person per night) with their hot showers, warm friendly atmosphere, and huge kitchen. There is a couple of other campings around.

• There are lots of cosy cafes and lively bars around.

  
  

Day 4: Colonia Suiza to Laguna Negra

• Time: 5-6 hours, 14km

• Our time: 5 hours

• Download gpx track

• Sleeping: Refugio Laguna Negra aka Italia is famous for its candlelit dinners and rustic atmosphere. Camping is a bit too far from the refugio and its toilet.

• Refugio Italia (Laguna Negra) prices

  
  

Day 5: Laguna Negra to the end of route

• Time: 5½ – 8 hours, 11 km

• Our time: it took us around 9 hours, but it felt like eternity.

• Staff in refugio Italia has photos of the route and can explain directions.

• Download gpx track Laguna Negra – López and López – end of trail

• Sleeping: the route goes past refugio López. However, it is located quite close to the end of trail: 1½–2 hours of steep dusty descent to the bus stop. So we stopped there for a cup of tea (they didn’t have any food except snacks) and continued our hike.

• Transport: At the end of the route, when facing the road, with a kiosk on your left side, turn right and walk around 300 m to the T-intersection. It is the bus stop. There is no sign, but most likely you will see a crowd of people waiting for the bus.

  
  

Tips

• Before trekking, please register online or in the tourist office in Bariloche.

• Drop unnecessary items in Bariloche.

• Check the weather before heading out.

• Don’t do day 3 in anything but perfect weather conditions.

• Trek Bariloche, Bariloche Trekking, Best Hike websites have a precise description of the classic 5-day route as well as the side treks.

In details

Level

I know we are all made different, so it is hard to judge the level of any route from reading a blog post by a person you don’t know. That said, I promise you, this trek will be hard. Brace yourself.

It is an exhausting route, and includes lots of scrambling, some exposure, hours long arduous descends through steep scree and unstable shaky rocks. We were preparing for our first marathon run before heading off to Argentina, so I would say we were quite fit when we started the trek. Though neither of us lived in mountains, we did a few long distance hikes, including in Alps and Himalayas, so we thought we’ve got enough experience to do Nahuel Huapi Traverse. Still, we were not expecting it to be that difficult. We were moving with speed of 1 km/hour most of the time.

Obviously, the difficulty depends not only on your fitness level, but also on the weight of your backpack. And our backpacks were around 15 kg each, because we carried out own camping equipment and food, not only for this trek, but also for the next one. Looking back, I’d say we could improve our weight by a couple of kilos by leaving in Bariloche all the stuff we didn’t need for this trek. In addition, one can go completely lightweight by staying and eating in refugios.

Anyway, the route was worth all the effort. The views were among the best I’ve ever seen in my life, and there were some rewarding moments during the trek where we could relax and enjoy ourselves.

Time

Nahuel Huapi Traverse takes 4-5 days in total, and its beauty is in its flexibility. There is an easy link between any refugio and the road to Bariloche, so backpackers with less amount of time can choose to do only a part of the route (in fact, there are one- or two-day hikes to the refugios); less skilled or unlucky in terms of weather trekkers can skip the most demanding day 3, as we did; and people who are not keen at hiking can just use the easy ascent to camp near refugio for a couple of days and enjoy the views around.

We planned five days for hiking, so after we’ve spent two days instead of one getting to Laguna Negra, we had to combine day 4 and 5. Day 5 is just a couple of hours of steep descent by a dusty path in a forest — not much, but after the whole day of fighting with the terrain and rocky boulders, it is tiring. After the descent you have to ride fully packed with hikers and their backpacks bus to Bariloche, so prepare for the long day if you don’t want to stay in López.

Weather

The best time to do Nahuel Huapi Traverse is in summer, December to February in southern hemisphere, though some people say that fall time in April is more beautiful and less crowded. We did it in January and were very lucky with the weather. It wasn’t much wind and there was only one overcast day with a bit of rain.

The good weather is vital for this route. It is usually quite windy in mountains, but here gusts of wind can throw a person down from the cliff, and rain makes every step more dangerous than it already is. Check the weather forecast when you are still in Bariloche, because there will be no coverage on the route. The tourist office in Bariloche used windy.com, and it turned out to be a reliable forecast even for a few days in advance. Some refugios have an updated forecast, some just look at the sky and tell you what is already obvious. If weather is anything from perfect, don’t do the day 3.

Even in summer period don’t leave back the warm clothes, especially if you are camping. It is not very cold during the day, but it is hard to enjoy a sunset if you can’t move your frozen fingers. I had 5 top layers: base, fleece jacket, dawn vest, dawn jacket, waterproof jacket — I haven’t used only dawn vest on this hike. As for the bottom layers, I used all three of them: warm base layer, trekking pants, and waterproof, but never all at the same time, so if you don’t have the base bottom layer, don’t despair, it will be fine. Campers will find useful a pair of fleece gloves.

Sleeping

Backpackers can stay only in refugios or designated campsites on the route. Refugios are crowded and may seem expensive, but they are a good way to hike lightweight. Campsites, which are located near each refugio, are free to use, more or less sheltered from the wind, and have nice views. 

It is necessary to book camping in refugio Frey (first night), because it is always full with climbers who practice their skills on the mountain nearby. There are only slots for the next three days available, and they go fast, so wake up early 3 days before you plan the trekking, and book your place. Sometimes people cancel the booking, so if you missed it, don’t despair, and check now and then for a slot available. The other campsites have enough space and don’t need to be booked.

Using refugios is a good way to leave a few kilos of camping equipment out of your backpack. Our backpacks were too heavy to enjoy the route. Next time we will probably leave all our stuff in Bariloche and do the whole thing lightweight — and I’m sure there will definitely be the next time :)

Sleeping in the tent makes the whole experience more enjoyable, if not fresh. To improve your sleep and make sure you’ll make only good memories, pick the tent that can withstand Patagonian winds and occasional gusts up to 120 km/h. We’ve just bought a new Hilleberg before this trip, and it did an excellent job of not moving an inch. But we’ve heard unpleasant stories about broken tents, so choose wisely.

Food

Here, too, hikers have plenty of choice and combinations. You can buy in refugio anything from snack or sandwich to full-board — provision of full three meals: dinner, breakfast, and packed lunch. Otherwise, you can bring your own food, cook it on your stove, or in refugio kitchen (for around 300 ARS). Usually we cooked our own food and bought sandwiches for lunch in refugios before heading out. But again, that meant carrying all the food for five days. So it may be wiser to eat at the refugios, or at least bring the food for the first two days and eat most of it before day 3 if you plan to stick to traverse route. Keep in mind that refugios have set time for the dinner (usually at 7-8 pm), so hurry up if you rely on that.

There is no freeze-dried food in Argentine outdoor shops, so if you are spoiled like us, bring your own. There are supermarkets in Bariloche where you can buy usual food like macaroni and cheese, or whatever you prefer. La Anónima supermarkets are my favourite to shop in.

Water

All water in refugios is safe to drink. We also drunk water from lakes and rivers without purifying it. But there are long stretches without any water at all, especially during days 3 and 4, so check the map and fill your bottles before heading out of refugio.

Если вы ещё не добавили поход в Альпы в планы на следующее лето, то сейчас самое время сделать именно это. Берёте листик, пишете на нём: «План отпуска 2020: 1. Haute Route in Swiss Alps» — и вешаете на стену. Потому что:

Пейзажи

Не обязательно ехать в Исландию и фигачить по 30 км в день с палаткой под дождём, чтобы получить невероятные пейзажи прямо под своим носом. От зелёной травы до чёрных камней и слепящих ледников, в Альпах есть виды на любой вкус. За некоторыми видами нужно пройти по узкому хребту, скатиться по снегу или пролезть по здоровенным чёрным камням, а какие-то открываются прямо с порога хата. Поднимемся на перевал — а снизу на нас смотрит озеро такого яркого цвета, что кажется, кто-то пролил краску на карту.

Приключения

Самым большим приключением этого похода была отмена самолёта в Женеву, откуда у нас был забронирован автобус на начало маршрута. После того, как нам пришлось добираться разными видами транспорта с кучей пересадок и вообще через другую страну, проблемы на самом маршруте стали казаться не такими уж серьёзными. Да и какие там проблемы: поход на высоте 2-3 км в Альпах — довольно простое мероприятие, если оно хорошо спланировано. Медведи за туристами тут не бегают, и в ледниковые трещины никто не падает. Наш план был разбит по дням, на каждую ночь были забронированы места в хате. Не очень гибкое расписание, зато рюкзак без палатки и еды весит почти как городской, 6-8 кг. С таким весом даже проливной дождь, шаткие камни и скользкий ледник не помеха (но лучше не совмещать, конечно).

Люди

Не знаю, что наши подруги думают про нашу компанию, но я считаю, что нам с ними повезло. Сложно найти людей, с которыми настолько легко в походе. Чтобы с ними поссориться, нужно сильно постараться, а сил на это после пятнадцати километров по горам обычно уже не находится. Но если вы уж умудритесь поссориться, то всегда можно будет найти кого-то другого, с кем посидеть за чашкой чая в ожидании ужина. Из-за того, что маршрут расписан по дням, обычно находится много людей, которые идут в том же направлении и останавливаются в тех же хатах, и за пару дней все начинают друг друга узнавать и знакомиться. Это люди разных возрастов и профессий, из разных частей света, которых объединяет любовь к природе и горам, а также некоторый уровень физической подготовки.

Зоопарк

Все эти перевалы вверх и вниз значат, что дорога проходит через несколько высотных зон. Внизу на зелёной до боли в глазах траве валяются или угрожающе стоят коровы, бегают стада овец, а козы обгоняют нас, чтобы потом проситься обратно к своему стаду и бояться нас обойти. Каждые две минуты мы останавливаемся поесть малины, которая выше сменяется на чернику. На зелёном холме хорошо видно рыжие пятна оленей, бегущих в укрытие. Если в хорошую погоду затихнуть ненадолго и присмотреться внимательно, в камнях всегда можно увидеть прыгающие комки шерсти — это задницы разбегающихся сурков. Ещё выше по падающим камням можно угадать, скорее чем увидеть, толпу серн. Вечером к хату может прийти ибекс, который боится нас немного меньше, чем мы его.

Фитнесс

За две недели похода мы прошли около 230 км, поднялись на 14 км и спустились на столько же. Не всегда было легко. Обычно нужно было преодолевать как минимум один перевал в день, а в какой-то из дней было целых три перевала, и все по шатким здоровенным камням, где иногда идёшь, иногда скачешь, но чаще всего лезешь. Конечно, к такому походу стоит подготовиться заранее, и мы обычно готовимся серией забегов с интервалами. Но сам поход прокачивает выносливость как ничто другое. После двух недель ходьбы со средним подъёмом 1 км в день я начала бить все свои залежавшиеся рекорды в беге, что оказалось очень кстати перед холмистым виндзорским полумарафоном, к которому не подготовишься в плоском Лондоне.

Этнография

Путь проходит через сёла и деревни, не сильно испорченные цивилизацией. Здесь время течёт другим руслом. Деревянные домики с кружевными шторами наверняка выглядели так же сто лет назад, только во дворе не стоял джип. Иногда над обрывом прячутся пара сараев для сена и детская горка, вот и вся инфраструктура. Другие городки на пути — хорошо развитые горнолыжные курорты, но летом и они превращаются в тихие посёлки с пабом, отелем и церковью.

Увидимся на трейле!

Это одно из самых красивых мест, где мы были. Разнообразные пейзажи один круче другого: туманные джунгли сменялись пыльными холмами с видом на море, потом каменистыми горами, где с извилистой тропинки видно озеро в кратере вулкана, которые уступали зелёным долинам и бродящим по лесу коровами. Среди зелени листьев и мха краснели ягоды кофе. Тучи окутывали склон и уносились под порывами ветра, чтобы уступить место удушливой жаре. Когда деревья перешли в кустарники и потом низкую траву, ботинки покрылись толстым слоем пыли, а тело — слоем пота. Но это было уже не важно, потому что вчера мы купались в море, а сегодня под нашими ногами облака, под ними синее спокойное озеро, а под ним вулкан.

Те, кто не обладает паспортом страны семнадцати тысяч островов, обязаны нанять команду носильщиков в местном турагентстве. В результате к нам двоим была приставлена группа из одного гида Мохаммеда и трёх портеров, которые несли себе и нам еду и воду на три дня, палатки, спальники, туалет, и даже раскладные стулья и стол. В начале похода каждый портер, обутый исключительно в шлёпанцы, нес около тридцати килограммов на бамбуковой палке через плечо, и при этом бежал впереди, чтобы к тому времени, когда мы с гидом придём на стоянку, на разложенном столе была готовая еда, нарезанные фрукты и горячий чай. Это один из самых шикарных походов, в которые мы ходили.

Заодно это одно из самых грязных мест, что мы видели. Каждый день на вершину поднимаются тысячи туристов. Но мусорят там не они. Мусор оставляют портеры, которые не хотят тащить его ещё два дня по горам. Весь маршрут оброс пакетами и обёртками от сигарет и печенья. По туалетной бумаге, зацепившейся за кусты, можно было понять, что скоро будет место стоянки. Из пыли под ногами торчали скелеты бутылок. После того, как мои карманы заполнились найденным по дороге мусором, я стала избегать смотреть вниз. Спотыкалась чаще, зато было красиво. Мохаммед рассказывал, что они проводят раз в год субботник и выносят мусор мешками, но за несколько недель все кучи возвращаются на место. 

Из лагеря до вершины нужно подниматься километр по сыпучей тропинке. Когда мы вышли в два утра, под полной луной по хребту тянулась дорожка налобных фонарей. Где-то внизу горели огни городов: Мохаммед сказал, что это на соседних островах. В начале подъёма люди толпились как в метро в час пик, месили ногами пыль плечо к плечу. Часто ловила себя на мысли, что вместо того, что продвигаться наверх, я опускаюсь вниз к палаткам. По краям тропинки стояли призраки, переводящие дух. Некоторые были рады показать свою физическую подготовку и стартовали быстро, но так же быстро выбились из сил. У кого-то и не было никакой подготовки, они приехали сюда с пляжного отдыха на острове напротив, настолько маленьком, что за час его можно обойти вокруг. Их мы встретили второй раз, когда спускались вниз: гиды тащили их наверх за шарф или палку, бледных, выбившихся из сил. 

Последние двадцать метров до вершины были одни из самых счастливых, которые мы проходили. Даже на перевале Торонг Ла, куда ведёт невероятно напряжный подъём, нет никакого счастья, а есть головная боль и желание спуститься как можно быстрее. Вершина Ринджани оказалась тесной для успевшей подняться толпы людей, но всё равно из любой точки были видны растянувшие до горизонта облака, красные под рассветным солнцем. Когда глаза привыкли к блеску моря внизу, оказалось, что некоторые из облаков на самом деле острова, а тёмный треугольник в небе — вулкан Семеру.

Вниз скатывались почти бегом, обгоняя облака пыли, поднятые ботинками уставших людей. В одной из приютившихся на хребте палаток нас ждали блины, а рядом сидели лидеры обезьянней мафии в ожидании своей доли завтрака. Ещё нужно было спускаться два километра вниз по долине такой зелёной, что не верилось, что эта зелень растёт на вулканической пыли.

Пока, Ринджани.

С момента выхода из автобуса на удивительно чистый тротуар, по которому ходят улыбающиеся, стильные, довольные жизнью люди, хочется остаться в Орхусе навсегда. Желание это значительно уменьшается после того, как гость города переходит дорогу, заходит в магазин и смотрит на ценники. Никак здесь научились превращать воду в вино — чем ещё объяснить цену простой бутылки воды? Но к ценам привыкают быстро, а чистотой вокруг можно любоваться бесконечно. Какими-то странными подводными сигналами город даёт понять, что жить в нём комфортно. Не в последнюю очередь это передают лица людей, не обременённые страданием. И как тут печалиться, когда на улице лето, из каждого угла пахнет розовым кустом, а ночь опять отложили на месяц?

В Орхусе есть два старых города, один из них — музей под открытым небом, типа Пирогово. Ворота после рабочего дня не закрываются, а остаются открытыми открытыми всем гуляющим под дождём парочкам (всем двум парочкам, то есть). Улицы там построены в порядке возрастания времени. Посетитель заходит в средневековый посёлок, где на пустой мокрой площади кашляет и насвистывает зацикленная запись работающего плотника, а выходит из города прошлого века, с фотографиями голых женщин в витрине фотомастерской и косматыми мужчинами в романтическом полуобороте на обложках альбомов.

С нашей любовью к еде и десятикилометровыми забегами по утрам мы бы здесь быстро обанкротились, потому что в манящих кафе со вкусной едой недостатка в городе нет. На спасенье приходят ларьки уличной еды, заботливо перемешанные с барами на территории одного рынка. Втиснись между двумя галдящими компаниями на лавку, смети со стола остатки картошки фри, сходи за забытой салфеткой и наслаждайся своим карри, рассматривая приходящих людей в мокрых куртках сквозь стакан белого. Есть только одна проблема: всё сразу не попробуешь. Кафе в латинском квартале выглядели так привлекательно, что нам пришлось разбить обед на два блюда, чтобы посидеть хотя бы в двух из них. Пока мы запихивались круассанами и боролись с местным проигрывателем, мимо нас проходили закончившие полумарафон бегуны, сначала бодренькие, потом вспотевшие, а позже пошли уставшие, с подгибающимися коленями, но большими группами поддержки. Позже медали орхусовского забега встречались нам везде в городе, что впечатляет, потому что моя любовь к архитектуре и искусству резко стремится к нулю где-то километра после пятнадцатого. На месте финиша уже никого не осталось, кроме статуи, терпеливо ждущей очереди в туалет.

В музее современного искусства самый впечатляющий экспонат — радужная галерея, с которой видно старые крыши и новые здания в оживляющих цветах. Внутри выставка про будущее повергает в депрессию, от которой можно излечиться выставкой про порно этажом выше.

Несмотря на то, что Орхус очень старый город, он выглядит свежим из-за студентов, современной архитектуры и зелени вокруг. Олени перепрыгивают тропинки дворцового сада, шмели летают вокруг цветов в садике твоего airbnb, а в ботсаду пьяная компания танцует под дождём на зелёной лужайке. Новые постройки пытаются нарушить представления об основных свойствах здания, постоянно вызывая вопрос «а что, можно было?». От рассматривания очередного неожиданного способа построить дом начинает болеть шея. А в университетской библиотеке хочется усесться под пальму, задрать на стол ноги и не уходить, пока не перечитаешь все книги под названием love. Ну и что, что закон скучный, зато книги красивые и диван мягкий.

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Если вы можете поехать только в один город Шотландии, пусть это будет Плоктон. После сурового острова Скай он кажется раем, с яркими пятнами цветущих кустов на берегу, тропическими лопухами высотой больше человека, многочисленными островками вокруг, и главное, тремя отличными ресторанами на триста человек населения. Правда, в городе делать особенно нечего, кроме как есть в этих самых ресторанах. То, что делает его незабываемым, находится вокруг. Стоит чуть подняться наверх, и станет видно маяк на небольшом острове, и рыболовный корабль, за которым тянется броуновское движение чаек. За железной дорогой брошено нечаянное озеро, где в отражении старого моста плавают жёлтые цветы кустарников. Из поляны торчат заросшие папоротником печные трубы внутри давно уже развалившихся домов. Тропинка к замку идёт под тяжёлыми ветками деревьев, зелень мха на стволах незаметно переходит в зелень кроны. И ни. Одного. Человека. Вокруг. Правда, есть коровы, которые весной привыкли размножаться. И хотя они выглядят очень милыми, пока стоят за забором и облизывают телят, начинаешь относиться к ним совсем иначе, когда кто-то забыл закрыть калитку, и напротив тебя на узкой тропинке стоит немного нервная корова-мать. Так что пришлось и нам вторгаться на чужую территорию путём перелаза искусственных ограждений, чтобы продолжать любить животных на расстоянии и не лезть им на рога. 

Inverness

Милый провинциальный городок, с крепостью в цветущих нарциссах, кучей старых церквей, подсвеченными ажурными мостами, тенистой тропинкой вдоль реки, репродукциями Веттриано в каждом кафе. И главное, кучей туристических магазинов. 100% которых закрыты в воскресенье. Так что скажите мне, хайкеры: куда вы деваете газовый баллон после похода? Нам пришлось сдавать в аэропорту, потому что выбрасывать в урну или оставлять его под закрытым магазином показалось очень подозрительным.

От ветра очень помогают палки. Их должно быть две: одна нужна, чтобы не упасть, когда ветер подует, вторая — когда перестанет. Ветер лезет в нос, как будто мне мало своего сквозняка внутри черепа, пытается за меня дышать, пробует нежно выдавить глаз. Даже ветер в спину, подталкивающий на очередной холм, не радует: в ушах постоянно звенит, как будто прямо над головой уже пару часов пытается совершить посадку военный вертолёт. Когда к вечеру гул утихает, кажется, как будто мы вернулись с особенно громкого и отстойного концерта. Впрочем, никакой концерт не сопровождается такими видами, какие наблюдаются с хребта каждый раз, когда можно разлепить глаза.

Скай трейл — самый безлюдный маршрут в нашем небольшом портфолио. По дороге мы встретили куда больше овец, чем людей. Раньше овец было не много и народ занимался земледелием, но лордам захотелось богатства, и они разогнали поселения крестьян, чтобы на их землях пасти овец и продавать шерсть. До сих пор можно встретить следы деревень, из которых жители с плачем уходили в рыбацкие посёлки, унося свои пожитки, ведя за руку детей и помогая старикам. Сейчас под разваленными стенами мирно чавкают овцы, стараясь всегда стоять задом к проходящим мимо.

Шотландцы неожиданно оказались офигенными людьми, очень дружелюбными, всегда готовыми помочь. Даже туристы, которых мы там встречали, оказывались такими милыми, что хоть к ранам прикладывай. Но местные побили все рекорды европейской дружелюбности и приближаются по шкале к иранцам с их знаменитым гостеприимством. Идеальное место для дня рождения!

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Горным сёлам сложно быть хмурыми, да Петной сильно и не старается. Милейший городок из пары улиц примостился в долине недалеко от Санкт-Антона, горнолыжного курорта с немыслимым количеством соединённых друг с другом склонов: 340 км лыжных трасс спускаются с 94 подъёмников. Нужно ли говорить, что я как начинающий лыжник не смогла оценить всего размаха и каталась в основном по одной трассе, на которой после крутых спусков можно было перевести дух на длинных пологих склонах. Но само существование этой трассы, а также постоянная поддержка друзей, спасли меня от катания на детских горках несколько дней подряд.

В Петной тоже когда-то были подъёмники, но всё, что от них осталось, это печальные следы на гуглъ картах. Поэтому когда в первый день закрыли въезд в Санкт Антон из-за опасности лавин, нам ничего не оставалось, как гулять вокруг и смотреть на снежные вершины. Кстати, по-немецки лавина будет lawinen.

Старые пузатые домики всегда свежевыкрашены, и почти на каждом аккуратно нарисован герб или какая-нибудь похожая по настроению картинка, которая иногда работает фоном для солнечных часов. Свежий морозный воздух иногда заменяется на запах тёплого навоза, и если оглянуться, то действительно видно расширенные козьи зрачки за досками сараев, и очень часто деревянные двери украшены наградами с фермерских выставок.

Salzburg

Зальцбург хотя и приятный, всё же очень туристический город. Там нельзя плюнуть без того, чтобы не попасть во что-то с названием Моцарт. Местные прячутся от туристов в монастырской пивной. На деревянных панелях над столами висят таблички с еженедельным расписанием брони для завсегдатайских групп. Группы приходят со специальными чемоданчиками с отделениями для домашней колбасы и литровыми пивными кружками с крышками от мух. В большом зале трапезной их можно наблюдать сразу во всех состояниях: кто-то только пришёл — отряхивая снег с ценного чемоданчика, пробирается к своему месту у окна; кто-то уже идёт с охапкой полных пива кружек к галдящей компании, пена капает на пол, очки сползли на нос, их нечем поправить; кто-то сильно раскрасневшийся и с остановившимся взглядом заводит песню; не в такт звучит музыка восьмидесятых из соседней комнаты, там танцуют, выбегают запыхавшиеся покурить в лёгких блузках, а на мне две пары штанов и не жарко.

Туристы прячутся от туристов на холмах, благо их несколько и с них красивый вид. Если вас, конечно, не замело метелью. Потому что тогда мало того, что ничего не видно, так ещё и больно бьёт снегом по лицу. Но нам, отвыкшим от зимы, только это и подавай. Особенно при условии, что до ближайшего кафе, где можно высохнуть и обогреться, рукой подать.

Innsbruck

Над городом парят заснеженные горы, и довольно часто можно увидеть хайкера или бордиста, попрыгивающих на автобусной остановке. Тем не менее, здесь кипит своя жизнь, люди ходят на работу, в церковь, в театр. Местные заведения поражают лоском. Пиццерия выглядит так, что я начала опасаться за свою потрёпанную куртку и капюшон до бровей. На входе нас действительно развернули, но из-за нехватки мест: весь город вышел на субботний ужин.

Австрийская кухня сытная, с большим количеством жира, теста и картошки. После ужина из одного блюда сложно встать из-за стола, но возможно, что это из-за смеси глинтвейна и шнапса. В Австрии относительно щадящее для вегетарианцев меню: среди шницелей и сосисок обычно прячется два-три вегетарианских блюда, и это не салат. Нашим фаворитом были большие клёцки со шпинатом. Они есть почти везде. В некоторых кафе даже слышали, что есть такие люди как веганы, но пока ещё не все поняли, что с этим фактом делать.

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