Torres del Paine W-Walk – French Valley – Day 3
Day 3 of the W-Walk led me to the French Valley. As I learned my lesson yesterday by running late and didn’t make it to the “Italiano” campsite, I had more discipline today and got up at 7am. It was still dark and so I had breakfast waiting for the sunrise. I started walking shortly after 8am towards the “Italiano” campsite. It was a gentle walk in pretty flat terrain and so it didn’t take me more than 2.5 hours to reach the campsite. The walk itself wasn’t too scenic, just a few bushes and little streams.
A rope bridge led me to the campsite crossing a clear stream of glacier water. The streams in the Torres del Paine National Park are actually used to supply drinking water to hikers. Whenever I’m thirty I just fill up my water bottle in one of the streams in the park. Therefore, it isn’t allowed to wash in them. Instead you fill up your water bottle and from there splash the water over your body. The other option is just to stay dirty for a couple of days.
At the other side of the bridge my fellow traveler Ian was welcoming me. This will be his first night at a campsite in the park. However, he has already used his camping stove to cook while staying at the refuge during the last two nights. After I have put up my tent I met Sarah and Liz on their way to the French Valley and invited them to leave some of their stuff in my tent so they don’t need to carry it up to the viewpoint and back again which is a return trip of six hour. I also left my big backpack in my tent trusting nobody will steal it and just went up with a bottle of water and my camera.
Describing the French Valley is nearly impossible same as capturing it on a picture. It’s a large valley filled with colorful trees surrounded by stunning mountains and glaciers. In the middle of the valley flows a river and the trail is more or less following it. While walking you can hear the sounds of cracking ice or even see it moving down the mountains. This is really picture book Patagonia. Unfortunately it was cloudy all day and I can only guess the colors of the valley would look even more stunning in sunlight.
It was a 2.5 hour walk up to the “Británico” campsite and from there another 30min to the viewpoint where you have a fascinating panorama view of the valley. I sat down on one of the big rocks up there and enjoyed the view before walking back to the “Italiano” campsite. Luckily my tent and all my belongings were still there and I was happy I didn’t need to carry them during the last six hours.
