It´s a shorter and easier walk to the Grey Glacier or 'Grey' for short. It´s only 11km so I´m relieved after yesterday´s ordeal. We start in scrubby valley walking up and down through rocky terrain until we reach the lookout point over the glacier. There are even icebergs that have drifted down the lake from the glacier. My first thought is that is looks remarkably similar to Pio XI - craggy with blue slits that glint like rough diamonds - but it´s beautiful and I can´t wait to get nearer.
We stop for lunch in field of dandelions before reaching Grey Campsite at 2pm. The lake really is grey in colour because of sediments in the glacier but it´s drinkable. I get my first close-up of blue icebergs floating in the lake. I climb to a viewpoint where I can clearly see the face of the glacier. It´s huge and dwarfs a passenger vessel cruising past. The glacier is part of the massive Southern Patagonian Ice field, which is the third largest in the world after Antarctica and Greenland.
At the campsite we are treated on Baileys on (glacial) ice. Later that evening the guys that run ice-climbing on the glacier (we couldn´t go as there was a problem with the boat) start a campfire and bring out the Gato Negro (cartons of red wine) to kill the cold. I start talking to one who´s been working in the park for a while and ask if he has any desire to travel outside Chile. He tells me he has no interest in seeing Europe or the US. It´s beautiful here (in Torres del Paine) and he gets to meet people staying at the campsite from all over. Well, he does have a point. It is beautiful.
The stars are out in abundance tonight and I haven´t seen so many since Dorset, April 2003. I remember it clearly.
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