Verena und Jan unterwegs

5 days of trekking. 35kg backpacks, 4 nights in a tent, 65km walking trails and 31 amazing pictures.
Pictures are online already –> “See Us!”

After a big day in El Calafate we drove to Puerto Natales in Chile. This little town is the entrance to the spectacular national park “Torres del Paine” (=“Blue Towers”). A very famous hiking track in the park is called the “W” and means a 5-day walk through different valleys with amazing landscapes and breathtaking views. The whole park covers 180.000 hectares and the variety of different vegetations leads to a large presence of mammals like pumas, condors, guanacos, flamingos and an enormous bird fauna.
Click here to go to Torres del Paine Nationalpark
After a long bus ride, we arrived the town at 10 p.m. Our hostel was overbooked so we had to find a new one. We ended up at another hostel with a weird owner called Omar. He looked like a child-eating ex-prisoner, but close to midnight we had no other chance. The next morning, surprising Omar baked fresh eggs for breakfast, helped us to plan the trip and was really friendly.
The first day started at 6:00 a.m. We drove to the park and caught the catamaran to cross the lake that we could start from the beginning of the “W”-circuit. This way takes 5 to 6 days, covers 80kms and is about 35 hours of walking.  Verena carried 13 kilos (8 kilos more than in NZ) and Jan had 23 kilos. The backpacks were full of food, a tent, sleeping bags, mattresses, clothes, cooking facilities and lot more stuff. After the first day we realized that the information signs for time & distances were not really realistic. We always took more time with taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery. We finally came across windy lakes and a mirador (lookout) of the Glacier Grey after we stopped for lunch. It was a stunning sight to see the Glacier in the sun. The 1^st day stayed sunny all day with only a few high clouds and strong wind much better than we could have expected in Patagonia. The night in the tent was uncomfortable and full of noisy wind around us. The 2^nd day we walked the long distance of 18km – too long for not well experienced hikers. Marco got pain in his knee and Verena had aching muscles. Therefore we decided to make a shorter walk on the 3^rd day. We arrived at the camp after a 5 hour hike at 3:30 in the afternoon and had enough time to relax.
The 4^th day Marco stayed at the camp to recover his knee so Verena and Jan walked alone the next long way. A light drizzle started to fall as we trekked along the mountains followed by sun, followed by rain, by sun, by rain … Verena nearly got a nervous breakdown while changing clothes all the time. We were done when we arrived the last campground before the three high towers of Torres del Paine. The next morning we were too lazy to start at 4 a.m. to see the sunrise so we went up 5 hours later but the view was still amazing. Finally we were happy to make the long track and met Marco at the bus station. Furthermore we enjoyed the shower and fresh clothes and a big “bife de chorizo” (Steak) in the evening .

2 Kommentare »

To reduce the costs of the rental car we hired, we created a handout titled “Share a ride?” and put it at the blackboard in the hostel in Puerto Madryn where we stayed. Just a few minutes later we got a call from a really nice couple from Israel. We made an appointment for the next day to visit the Península Valdéz again, because two of the roads were closed the day before so we could not visit Punta Norte, the favourite place of the Orcas …
We checked out the times of high tide and low tide to have the best chance for spotting the killer whales, we displaced the lunch into the car during the ride, we accelerated the speed to reach the top of the peninsula in time and  f i n a l l y  we saw them – it was  a m a z i n g !!

Keine Kommentare »

On our way through NZ’s South Island we met some cute animals. The Yellow-eyed Penguin is one of the rarest species of penguins in the world. We apologize for this shaky video but they were light-years away from our spot so we had to zooooooooooooom… anyway enjoy!

6 Kommentare »

New Zealand stretches 1.600km from Cape Reinga (North Island) to Bluff (South Island). Almost 4 million Kiwis, how the New Zealanders are called since the WWI (World War I) live here. We arrived Auckland on the 4th of January after Jan did canyoning and abseiling during our last day in Sydney. Jans shoes were so wet and dirty, that they had to get washed and disinfected before we could get out of the customs at Auckland Airport. We drove to the Wicked Camper office and took over our Camper. 90 NZ$ per day is cheap but the equipment is very basic! Most of the time we avoid the official campgrounds and spent the nights anywhere apart from the road. Only once we got caught by the park ranger, but he was very friendly and instead of giving us a fine (for camping illegally) he told us about beautiful spots where we should go. We explored the Northland, breathtaking beaches and wonderful national parks, driving along New Zealand’s winding roads over the mountains and through cold rainforests.

In Rotorua we met Janet & Michael again on their way back to Auckland. We had only one day but we celebrated it as good as possible. Janet cooked tasty meals and we killed a lot of wine, champagne and beer   We stayed on the beach overnight and after breakfast next morning it was time to say goodbye. Thanks again for all the stuff and we definitely will see you in Argentina!!
The life in a camper can be very charming as long the weather is warm and the sun is shining. After we reached the South Island it got colder and more rainy so it was not always funny to stay in a minivan…
Jan got a fever attack only for just one day and after he felt better Verena got a cold – of course for a longer time than Jan.

2 Kommentare »

Visiting Thailand without seeing elephants is like visiting Italy without enjoying Pizza.
There has been a long history of the domestication of elephants and through the last centuries, these monumental creatures have been played an integral part of the “Thai way of life”.
From the time of its birth up until the age of 4-5 years, an asian elephant is categorized as a kid.
A baby elephant is totally dependent on its mother’s milk for survival.
From between 14 to 60 years, the elephant becomes a “working adult” and at approximately the age of 60, the elephant is “retired” from work.
On our way through Thailand searching a place where elephants a treated well and live close to their natural environment it was just a lucky thing that Verena found “Elephant’s World” just beside the Road next to the Kwai River.

This project which gives the senior elephants a safe home to relax was established in 2008. Seven Elephants are living here at the moment. Five are older tha 50 years and spending their last part of   life in this beautiful area. Two of them are 6 and 9 years of age, found in Bangkok and were given over to Elephant’s World.As we arrived we were appreciated by Dr. Samart , the veterinarian.  He attended us during our visit. After our walk around we enjoyed the bathroom time of the grey giants and during the lunch we helped them with some bananas.
Have a look!

1 Kommentar »

The Republic of Singapore is the biggest independent shopping- mall nation in Southeast Asia. Located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, it is a prosperous nation whose 4.2 million people enjoy one of the highest living-standards and most foodcourts in Asia. Coming from Indonesia it was sort of a culture-shock for us being in a taxi incl. air-conditioning, non-smoking driver, waiting on red traffic-lights and not non-stop using the horn. But Verena loved to enjoy the shopping malls with public toilets, cleaner than in every hostel room we’ve had. Looking around Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada & D&G it was a pity that she could not buy anything, because she would have to carry all the stuff in her backback… So we went out of the shopping malls without any bags to enter the “swissotel”-bar to enjoy some cocktails in the 71th floor (265m above sea level) and having a phenomenal view of Singapore’s skyline.
The next day we had our first couchsurfing experience. Unfortunatley we did not get a couch but we met Angie for dinner, a really nice chinese girl from Singapore and another couch surfing members.   Click here for the german version –> Den ganzen Beitrag lesen »

1 Kommentar »