Our first stop in Torres Del Paine N.P. was Torres Central. The dirt road ends here and besides the campground there is a refuge and a posh hotel! Even though we could see loads of camping spots it was supposedly full and we were booked for a premium platform tent (already set up) for 60USD a night (camping with our tent would have been 12USD). It had been a superb day travelling to the park, anyone trekking this day would have had fantastic views. On our long distance bus journeys we have tried to photograph llamas but they were always too far away, during our ride into the park we saw hundreds of them close up and due to the road condition we weren't travelling very fast. Besides expecting to have a large album of mountain photos for this blog we also acquired way too many pics of llamas as well - you have been warned. As there have been fires in the park caused by trekkers, use of camp stoves is restricted to designated areas. Besides being told this it is also compulsory to watch a video informing you of this when entering the park. It turns out that the authorised cooking areas are picnic tables spread around the campsite. They all seemed to be in the areas for camping with your own tent. We had to pay top Dollar for their tent yet there were no tables in the pre-pitched area, how wrong is that. Donna got her bangers, mash and gravy regardless. Later in the evening we saw a Japanese couple cooking right outside their pre-pitched tent (very close to ours). We warned them that if a ranger saw them cooking there they would be heavily fined and kicked out of the park the following day - they moved to a table to cook. Upon turning in to get some sleep we realised the same couple had gone to bed and left outside their cooking pots still full of uneaten food. I woke them up and asked them to dispose of it - they have foxes here, the last thing we want is them in our tent after they have finished our neighbours leftovers. The foxes also steal footwear for their young to sleep in! Our boots were still clean and were spending the night zipped in the inner tent not under the flysheet. Our 'I' walk was up to 'Mirador (viewpoint) las Torres' - the famous vertical rock towers of TDP. It was a grey day with lots of cloud. Donna had read the walk description and was sceptical about reaching the Mirador as the last section is supposedly rocky, loose and very steep. She did get there and was delighted. The tops of the towers were shrouded in cloud but it was still worth the effort. Windy, wet and cold up there though. The campsite had a toilet block but Donna wasn't too impressed - worst showers / loos she had ever used. Cooking dinner was going to be a windy event but then a camp official opened up a small marquee tent that said 'no cooking in here' and let us cook in there. We were in like a flash, there was only 3 small tables and it was full in no time at all. A group of guys later came in asking to borrow a stove as theirs wouldn't work. They later came back saying the stove they borrowed also wouldn't work - they had the wrong type of gas cylinder for their stove and then borrowed one. Their gas cylinder was supposed to last them their 5 day trek, well it would certainly last as they couldn't use it. Luckily for them the refuge sold the gas cylinder they needed. We woke on our second morning to find a mouse had nibbled through the tent inner, through our food bag and had a helping of some of our bread, biscuits and chocolate - our limited food supply just got smaller. At the 3' o clock briefing someone actually asked if it was necessary to bag and hang food from a tree because of mice and the answer was no. The campsite offered no advice either and it transpired that others experienced the same problem as us. Thank goodness it wasn't our tent that had a hole in it. We transferred by bus and catamaran to Paine Grande campsite. Crikey was it windy here, there were several tents flattened by the wind that trekkers were going to return to later in the day. We sought out as much natural shelter as possible and that wasn't much. The wind was gusting and our poles were bending so badly we feared they would break. Even though we had unpacked everything we had to look for a more sheltered spot. We squeezed the tent into a spot surrounded by low bushes on two sides and I fixed two extra guylines on the exposed poles. Now our tent 'Aggie' was coping with the gusts - it was damn difficult accessing either of the tent doors though. They have a large cooking / dining hall here for campers, an absolute godsend. Whilst we were enjoying a cuppa a guy was struggling to pitch his tent and the wind broke a pole before he had finished pegging his flysheet out, he wasn't best pleased. More people arriving on the later boat looking in despair for a sheltered spot to pitch. We didn't want a mouse nibbling through our tent so we stored all our food in heavy duty dry bags under the fly. If the bags were nibbled through at least there wouldn't be a hole in the tent. Next morning and no nibble marks, but just to be on the safe side I carried all of our food on both our day walks from here - we did however see a fox in broad daylight wandering between tents. Our first walk was up to refugio grey and beyond, around 9 hours in total there and back. Donna made the sensible decision to only go part way, but she arrived back in camp in a deluge of rain. Her flask of whisky came in handy to warm her bones. A guided group of Japanese trekkers set off in the morning all with umbrellas up, in less than a minute they put them away before they were damaged beyond repair. It was a grey day to observe glacier grey. I came back after several down pours with my (PF) foot aching like hell. They have a new toilet block here, the showers open at 6pm, Donna was first in the queue. They didn't unlock them until 6.15pm as they couldn't find the key. Once unlocked Donna and 3 other ladies with their kit off weren't best pleased to find out there was no hot water. A lady in the queue went to complain, the upshot was the gas bottle had run out, so it was 20 minutes to change the bottle and 20 minutes for the water to warm. Donna came back after having a tepid shower feeling colder than before she went in - another great shower experience (time for another whisky!). During the night I had to get out for a pee, boy was it cold outside. The sky was so clear you could see the milky way - awesome. Our last day trekking was up to Frances Valley and back. We had a magnificent sunrise followed by a blue sky calm day. Todays full walk according to the map was 11 hours. Donna made another wise choice to stop after 3 hours from a viewpoint overlooking glacier Frances. Whilst I carried on Donna sat for an hour in the sunshine watching avalanches (see the video tab for Donna's avalanche footage). I carried onto the Britanico lookout, for me a mountain lover the views were stunning. I could have sat for hours just taking them in but it was a long walk back. From where I left Donna the rest of the walk out and back should have been 8 hours, despite my aching foot I managed it in just over 5 hours (the exercises are helping but I'm not cured yet). Donna decided to have a wet wipe wash rather than brave the showers again. I showered and was glad to take off my briefs I had been travelling / trekking in for 5 days and put my clean evening pair on - Donna is more diligent in her underwear hygiene than me! The forecast was for a very windy night, we didn't get much sleep! We got the tent down before breakfast as the wind was getting stronger and stronger. A couple were repairing a broken pole with a splint, their tent had collapsed on them whilst they were snug in their sleeping bags. They relocated and were struggling to get their tent up, I went out and showed them our vacant pitch. Soon afterwards they had shoehorned their tent into 'our' spot and were very thankful that their tent was standing up okay. Torres Del Paine is known as the jewel of Patagonia. It lived up to its name, fantastic scenery. Time to head back to a proper bed and a decent hot shower. We left TDP hungry thanks to that damn mouse raiding our larder. We ate everything we had except for half a box of cereal. We would have eaten this dry on the bus back except it was the strangest cereal we have ever encountered - every colour of the rainbow and tasting strongly of various fruits. There was a grocery store at the campsite, everything was hugely overpriced. They did have some special offers but even Donna refused to take advantage of them - a 375ml bottle of wine and a small Toblerone for £16.00!! We did splash out on a packet of crackers at £2.50 to keep us going until we arrived back in Puerto Natales.