Tierra del Fuego has been fascinating, but also very barren and windy. It was therefore absolutely magical to cycle from Puerto Natales on a beautiful and almost windless day towards Torres del Paine National Park.

We met a guy on the road who worked in the park as a guide. He said this was his favorite road in all of Patagonia. We soon understood why. We turned from the asphalt road onto a winding dirt road. It was simply so beautiful with green vegetation, animals and just as still we could see the mountains in the distance. An absolutely fantastic sight. 

After staying one night at the Lago Pehoe campsite, we got ready for one of the highlights of our trip. Trekking in the spectacular and fascinating landscape of Patagonia. We had decided on the famous 71 km. long W-trek, which is named after the physical shape of the route. It would take 4 days. Absolutely perfect in terms of being able to have a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, food, rainwear and a warm sweater in our 33 liter backpack. There was room for nothing else.

We took a small Catemaran out to the start of the trek, from where we moved up the western side of the w. A large part of this side burned most recently in 2012, when a tourist tried to light a fire. It has happened three times in total. It is truly sad, but it was also very spectacular and thought-provoking to walk in. 

We moved further along the trek – and wow there was an iceberg. And another one. In the distance we could make out the Grey glacier. An impressive sight. It only became more beautiful the closer we got to it. We arrived at Grey camp, where we were going to sleep. Here we got a tip to continue further up to get even closer to the 270 km2 glacier. It seemed like the glacier went on forever. We saw a boat sailing towards the glacier. It looked tiny. It really put the size of the glacier into perspective. 

We sat and admired the impressive glacier. Out of the blue, two condors soared above us. It was almost too good to be true. Huge birds with wingspans of up to over 3 meters and yet so graceful. 

The middle of the w is the French Valley. It was a very raw, windy and magnificent place. We came in the afternoon, so the glacier was working due to the warming of the sun, and we saw avalanches. It is incredible how loud it sounds.

Last year the national park changed their rules for overnight stays. Now you need a reservation to stay overnight in the park. The official reason is that they want to reduce the number of visitors to the park, as it is putting a lot of strain on nature. That is good and understandable. Another reason may be that you now have to pay commercial providers to stay overnight if you don't get a place at one of the 3 free camping spots. We didn't get that. So we spent 2 nights in a tent and one night in a refugio. Besides it was a bit hard on the wallet, it was now very nice. 

The highlight of the trek was seeing the 'towers', which are three mountain peaks and the highest point of the national park. The alarm was set for 3:30 a.m. to see the sunrise over the towers at 6 a.m. It was really early, but it was also challenging to set off with a headlamp up the mountain. It was uphill, uphill, and we had heard it would be a really tough trek. In full swing, we overtook 10 American women with a guide. Then we should probably make it. It was going uphill, but it was fun, because we almost had to climb up in some places.
We arrived at the top in good time. It was a bit like being in Narnia land and experiencing the light changing from darkness to twilight to light. Watch the sunrise on one side of the mountain peak and on the other the impressive rock formations and laguna. 

The key point is whether it is cloudy or whether it is possible to see the sun's rays reflecting with red light on the towers. We were lucky. Suddenly the stones turned red from the sun's rays. It was a little cloudy, but that almost made the experience even more magnificent.

We are so glad we prioritized putting the bikes down and took the time to do this trek. The nature experience was simply so fascinating and spectacular. Although we were also happy to see the bikes again after 4 days of separation.