Rare Adventures

Tag: trekking

El Chalten – the hard way

Trekking capital of Argentina, but where do we start?

This was a difficult trip to work out. El Chalten is known as the trekking capital of Patagonia, but I found it difficult to find an organised trip that went somewhere. The answer I had been seeking became quite straight forward when I arrived as there are no organised treks. The very helpful receptionist, Mattheus in our hotel explained that all the treks are well marked out so there is no need for a guide.

Being in a foreign land, we didn’t really fancy wandering off into the Patagonian mountains in search of a good time on our own, but in truth, it was that simple. All the treks leave from the same car park, and you can choose the route you to take, ranging from an 8km return to a look out over Mt Fitzroy or much longer treks to the various refuges on the mountain where you can restock on provisions and spend the night.

Knowing what I know now, I would not have done it the way we did I would have taken the bus, stayed overnight, and given myself 8 hours to enjoy the trek and the mountains. This is what a lot of the guidance says, and it was our plan, but the guidance also glorifies El Chalten, which to be honest is a bit of a one horse town and there is no reason to be there other than a hike or trek.

We are also out of season, so I suspect in the high season there will be more group treks available to see the main sights and lakes up in the region. We were dithering over what to do when I spotted a one day excursion from El Calafate which included a couple of guided treks with a company called South Road, which seemed to solve the problem. It involved a transfer up to El Chalten, a picnic pack, and 4 hours free time to do a hike.

At this point, their organiser called Liam intervened. The evening before he sent us joining instructions that involved a 630am start rather than an 8am as we had expected, plus links to organise a visitor’s visas to Chile and a ticket for the national park. This was an exciting development as we hadn’t realised we were going to Chile. After 2 hours of pain on websites with no English translations, plus battles with our credit cards who were reluctant to fund the trip, we finally had the necessary documentation ready to go. As the clock hit midnight, we hit the pillow looking forward what was now only 5 hours kip.

Next morning we were up and ready for the tour, and in reception for 6.15 am and annoyed the breakfast lady by making a dawn raid on her croissants and coffee. She actually chased me out of the dining room at one point. At 630am we were ready to go, time ticked on, 645, 700, 715 still no bus. I contacted the tour company and discovered a moron named Liam had sent us the wrong details and the bus would be with us at 745 for an 8am departure – FFS. Thanks Liam, that was 3.5 hours of my life, or in fact sleep that day, that I will never get back.

They even failed that target time, and the bus turned up sometime after 8am, I didn’t really notice as I’d lost consciousness with frustration. Eventually we got on a magnificent looking off road bus and had a bouncy 3 hours’ drive up the famous M40, which is part of the Panamerican highway and runs along the Patagonian range and into Bolivia.

We arrived in El Chalten about midday, and if ever there was a one horse town this is it. You arrive out of the desert and joined the main street which ends at the car park where the trails start, along the road there is procession of single story coffee shops and gift shops that don’t really grab your attention.

At the end of the street is a canyon with a milky glacial river, and through that canyon blew freezing cold winds and there was even a flurry of sleet to greet us, it was bitter.

So, we piled on the trekking gear, and within 20 minutes we were stripped down to our t-shirts, that is how quickly the temperature was changing.

With 4 hours to play with, our hike options were limited so we headed for Cerro Torre in the hope of seeing Mt Fitzroy and the massive glacier. We also hoped to get to Largo Capri, but the hiking was pretty tough with lots of ups and downs, so we settled for the lookout.

The weather and visibility were changing all the time and occasionally supported by icy rain when closer to El Chalten and that valley. Whilst we sat eating our picnic overlooking the valley, we were lucky enough to get a break in the mist and clouds and caught a glimpse of the two most spectacular views.

Mt Fitzroy suddenly appeared to our right, with a brief view straight to the peak, and then a break in the clouds along the valley exposed another massive glacier 10km in the distance.

It was then back to meet the coach. The courier, Sandra, had warned everyone that the coach would leave at 1530 on the dot, and definitely no later than 1545 (already a compromise). Not surprisingly the coach didn’t leave at any of these times, in fact, we were stood by the coach in the freezing rain until gone 1600, at which point Sandra and the lunch brigade appeared from the restaurant, and after the various pickupss, we were well on our way 1 hour late.

We got back to El Calafette at 7pm, roughly 13 hours after our journey started and we had a 4 hour hike, so you can see why there are probably better options.

So, there we have it, we have done the trekking capital of Patagonia and did a hike to prove our credentials, now it is time to head south and the freezing seas of Antarctica and give some appropriate feedback to South Road.

14/11/2025
Exploring Kilimanjaro: One Day Trek Insights

As we were staying at the foot of Kilimanjaro it was natural to want to explore the biggest mountain in Africa. It had always had a mystical quality for me since I was a teenager, I had bought an album by Teardrop Explodes and it had a picture of the mountain on the cover.

I wanted to do the trek to the top, but our experiences from Peru and Wooksie’s quite serious issues with altitude sickness at Puno did make us cautious.

This is a pretty typical view of Kilimanjaro – it’s there somewhere

There are various options for trekking to the top, ranging from 5 to 10 days depending on your route. The one thing they all have in common is camping and altitude which isn’t Wooksie’s thing nowadays so we needed a different option.

Hanging out in Moshi we did notice that the mountain is always shrouded in mist. We only saw the peak once in the week we were around there so we were keen to get a better look.

One of the options is the one day trek on Killi. This is a very attractive option as you get the kudos of doing a trek on the famous mountain. It doesn’t come cheap mainly because of the need for the day pass into the park. There are some other 1 day treks that don’t technically enter the park and are a lot cheaper.

So we plumped for the official trek with a company called Killinge Adventures which we booked via Trip Advisor. They were very good but basically it was just the two of us with a guide to take us up the mountain.

And we are off – register at the entrance and off we go

The trek involves a 10km climb to the Mandara camp, this is about a 3rd of the way up Kilimanjaro. On the way up you don’t see much other than trees as the mountain is covered in forest, plenty of knackered looking trekkers making their way back down from the top though.

There are surprisingly few animals or birds. Apparently this is because it is a volcano but I was really amazed at the lack of wildlife, bearing in mind we are in the middle of safari world! We saw a couple of monkeys and the odd bird but that was about it, apparently it was much more interesting for people intrigued by odd vegetation.

Nice place for lunch

So after a couple of hours climbing we get to the camp, full of anticipation for something exciting but in general it was a bit disappointing. There are a few huts you can stay in, it isn’t in a particularly good location for views so not sure why you want to stay here.

So we had lunch, went to look at the Maundi crater rim, which wasn’t particularly impressive partly due to the visibility but a dead crater is a dead crater !

I did take the opportunity to recruit our guide into the Plymouth Argyle supporters Green Army while we were on the crater and get some photos, so it was time well spent !

Moshi Green Army battalion

Exhausted with all the fun, we headed back down and to be honest, the walk down felt tougher than the walk up. The visibility isn’t great in the shade so the return trip carried some jeopardy with the rocky paths and we were glad to get back.

So in summary, it is a 22km round trip, we climbed just short of 900m and took 5 hours 38 mins so it was a good workout after sitting in the safari truck. We can say we’ve trekked on Kilimanjaro but apart from that is wasn’t a particularly exciting experience, and at £200 each, very expensive.

22/04/2025