It is the endless light that catches you unawares; 18 and half hours of it to be precise. It throws you out of whack and destroys any routine that you possess. But what the light provides is an insight into the beauty of the Patagonian wilderness. Snow capped mountains, turquoise lakes where icebergs bob, meadows of wild flowers are grazed upon by llamas, majestic towers of rock rise Tolkien like from Middle Earth, rainbows form at will over lakes, between mountain ranges and hover above glaciers and a wind that howls like a banshee and devours your skin.
It is amongst this wilderness that our tent stands and where we are thrown to the mercy of mother nature. At first she is kind, basking us in sunshine and warmth as we journeyed to Grey's Glacier, but the wickedness of her humour could be felt as 80kms winds battered us on the cliff face over looking the glacier. The wind laughed and the sky spewed first a rain that clawed at our skin, then hail that flagellated and finally snow that blocked our final ascent to summit of Glacier Francesco. As a reward for our resilience, mother nature beckoned us to be witness to what has recently been proclaimed the 8th wonder of the world, The Towers of Paine. These colossus' punctuate the skyline and as late as 2011 stood virgin like, unclimbed until a British expedition ascended. They rise like fingers grasping for the sun and it here after hiking across snow drifts and frozen ice, we sit and once again are bewildered by the opulence of nature's artistry.
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