This section started with a long dirt road walk which would have been much nicer without the camping problem in populated areas. Everything was fenced in or a house nearby so that I was very happy when I found this little spot beside the dirt road. But when I was just falling asleep I heard shooting in the distance - and unfortunately the shots came closer and closer. Around midnight a truck with a group of rowdy hunters passed my campsite. What should I do? If I stayed quiet they might mistake my tent for an animal and shoot me. If I made myself apparent I would have to explain to a group of drunk guys what I was doing here in the middle of the night. I didn't know what was more dangerous ... I stayed quiet and the truck passed - only to come back at 3 am! But as I am still able to write this you will have guessed that luckily nothing happened to. But I was a bit sleep deprived the next day which started with a long ascent up to another volcanic plateau. And of course it was hot and of course there was not much water ....
I thought that I could cross the 20 kilometer plateau easily with 3,5 litres of water but I was wrong. There was no trail marking whatsoever and I got lost frequently. No big deal in this open landscape but it was time and water consuming ... The landscape reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park and I sort of expected a dinosaur to come around the corner any time.
It soon became very clear that I would not be able to cross the plateau and descend the same day. Luckily Jan shows a detour to a water source on top of the plateau so I decided to camp there and call it a day. But when I arrived at the water source it turned out to be a stinking shallow cow pond. The idea of having to drink this disgusting water mobilized my last energy and I decided to walk a bit further to a real lake. It took my almost 45 minutes to hike this distance of less than 1 kilometer because it was a horrible bushwhack down a steep slope. I was getting nervous now because the light was fading. If I wasn't able to camp at the lake shore I would not be able to get back in the dark ...
The lake was pristine and only few adventurous cows had ever ventured here. The beach was very small but just big enough to accommodate my tent. In fact, it turned out to be the nicest campsite of the whole GPT. It was too dark to swim in the evening but when I woke up next morning a took a very refreshing bath screaming with joy! I don't carry a towel but I dried immediately in the morning sun. I had a very late start that morning because I was so hard to leave this wonderful campsite ...
After a very steep descent I finally arrived in the valley were I came across several puestos and horse riders.
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| Argentinian GPT hiker Martin |
And then I saw a hiker with an ultralight backpack. This must be a GPT hiker! It turned out to be Martin, a teacher from Argentina who was hiking with an even lighter backpack than me. We sat down immediately and chatted. We chatted so long that I didn't make much sense to continue hiking that day and we decided to camp together. It took quite a while to find water and a decent camp spot but then we had a nice potluck dinner, an interesting discussion about the GPT and South America and of course a lot of gear talk. Martin's base weight was an incredible 1,5 kilograms lighter than mine! And South America is not really famous for ultralight hikers ...
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| View of Trappa Trappa |
Next day brought me to the small Pehuenche village of Trappa Trappa. Thanks to Martin I found a little shop that was even open on Sundays and bought some more food and ice cream. As usual I was behind schedule ...
There was another long ascent and descent and then the landscape changed dramatically. There was less and less vegetation until it finally disappeared completely. I had my lunch break at an eerie place, presumably an abandoned army barracks. Windows and doors of this huge building were open but not a single soul was to be seen. Huge ventilators made an eerie sound but were probably just part of desinfecting the place from Hanta virus. Soon I would find out what had happened here ...
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| Stone memorial for the soldiers |
I continued on a dirt which looked like being on mars. Nothing but grey volcano ashes and no shelter whatsoever. I started to worry about camping here. I had enough water for the night but if a strong wind came up I would spent a very uncomfortable night in my tent. There were few cars on that road but strangely enough each driver would stop and offer me water. I asked one of them when this desert ends and vegetation starts again. When I was told that this scenery continues for 30 kilometers I realised that it was probably better to hitchhike a bit ... A young Chilean couple picked me up immediately. Soon we passed several little stone memorials with a Chilean flag. I asked them what they meant and was told a very sad story. In May 2005 a company of conscripts were sent out from the barracks where I had just had my lunch break on a training march - despite a very bad weather forecast. Five hours into their march the ill equipped mostly teenage soldier where hit by severe snow storm. The lost orientation in a white out - and 47 soldiers died along the road. Each stone monument marked one of the places were a corpse had been found later. This so called tragedy of Antuco was the biggest modern military desaster in Chilean history. Although now in summer I would not have encountered a snow storm I was all of a sudden very happy to be in a car ....
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| This is where the tragedy of Antuco happened |
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