Torres del Paine: O-Circuit - Day 6

My Experience

We open up our tent door and are overlooking a camp covered in frost. I would be able to enjoy the sight of this if I wasn’t hunted by the hangover ghost. I’m suffering from consequences thanks to our great idea from the night before. All morning, including the first couple hours of today’s hike.

While Christian is preparing breakfast for the both of us, I’m giving all my loving to the camp’s toilet. Considering the condition I am in, I seriously question if I’ll be able to make it to the next camp. I end up not touching a single bit of my breakfast. This turns out well for Christian because he’s hungry.

The first couple hours of the hike are pure torture to me. Every cell of my body is sweating out the hangover. I try not to vomit. The track is super crowded with other hikers and tourists. I would love some of the "quietness" of the previous days.

Just before reaching the first viewpoint I start feeling fine again. Energy is fully returning back to me. With this hunger kicks in. Missing out on breakfast wasn’t the smartest idea. So wasn’t drinking to start with. But here we are.

We meet Darryn at one of the viewpoints. He gives me more snacks. The experiences regarding nourishment during this and future tracks are some of the reasons I will later begin to read and learn as much as I can about (and adjust) nutrition, fasting, physical, mental training, etc.

One very striking thing of this section are huge fields of burned down trees. The landscape looks devastating and surreal. There’s been several wildfires in the past decades that have destroyed a huge area of land. From what I read up on later, all of them were traced back to being initiated by visitors of the park. People who camped and made fires in unauthorised areas. Due to heavy winds and dry vegetation just a spark can turn into an uncontrollable fire.

We arrive early enough at Paine Grande to set up camp and go for another small walk up the hill next to the lake. We are able to watch the sun go down behind the mountains. If you take your own tent, make sure to put it up behind one of the wind shelters. It gets quite windy in this camp.

This night we decide to take advantage of installed luxuries throughout the upcoming sections of the park. We pay a few bucks to use the WiFi in camp, as odd as it feels to us. We realised during our first night that we haven't told anyone about our whereabouts before we left. It’s not the first time we’ve been disconnected from the internet for over a week. But it’s the first time that we didn’t tell anyone. After only a week I’m overwhelmed with all the messages. Some of our friends and family started to worry.