Today is basically a transport stage back into Chile to see one of its biggest attractions.  Torres del Paine is a huge granite outcrop in the middle of the Patagonian plains unrelated geologically to the Andes.

The drive was fairly uneventful apart from Navy Car taking a gravel road short cut which didn’t please everyone but we enjoyed it.  At the end of the gravel road we met an intrepid reclining cyclist from France was doing an Argentine round trip on his solar powered machine.  Pretty impressive technology and he was keen to keep everyone away from shadowing his solar cell array during the stop to maximise charge for his next leg.  The cycle even had a small wind generator to capture energy from the Patagonian winds whenever he stopped.  And today the wind was blowing – dark clouds and a howling gale which nearly blew us off our feet every time we stopped.

At our next photo stop we met a couple of motor cyclists who were riding from Ecuador to Ushuaia.  They rode the Silk Road in 2012 and were impressed that our MGs had done the same trip in 2010.  Amazing camaraderie among adventurers of all sorts which never ceases to amaze us.

As we get closer to Torres del Paine the outcrop becomes even more impressive – lots of thing to do here but we are off at 5:15 am in the morning to catch a boat ride to the next glacier.  The pressure is on!