Cerro Castillo To The Top

Riding Maya from the refugio to the fence stile saved us 7 km walk on a shingle road, from the stile we followed the track up to the back of Cerro Castillo.

First up at an intersection the directions to the camp called Neozelandés ….was funny with the name although not quite New Zealand.

IMG_7717 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

At that point there was small camp which we headed through on the way to the top.

IMG_7718 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

At camp Neozelandés the colours of autumn we making a full display of season changes, the wind was bitterly bitterly cold and with no chance of shelter other than the trees so it was lunch in pretty much the open.

This is what cold looks like

IMG_7737 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7725 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7726 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Although we were on the edge of the rain band the sun was in and out allowing us to swing the camera around to remember our day, again autumn making its presence seen with the trees all turning red

IMG_7728 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr.

At the summit we could see the wind hammered rocks that had been beaten badly and stripped back to the hardest rock, some very spindly from years of battering.

IMG_7733 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Heading back down my feet and hands were freezing, I think it was one of the coldest times on this trip so I was trying to get circulation going ASAP, Ellen too was suffering from the cold so we hightailed it down out of the exposed zone.

Part way down we met a couple coming up that we met on the ferry crossing and they were doing the three day around.

A rainbow was also hanging and had been for most of the day with the rain trying to move down the valley but the mixed back of wind keeping it at bay.

IMG_7749 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Back to the refugio we lit the fire and started heating and drying again, as the evening drew in the sunset provided a beautiful backdrop on Cerro Castillo and an extremely vibrant sunset.

IMG_7763 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7799 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Some cyclists rolled in and stayed the night too so we chattered travel etc, we also gave them a map which we did not need anymore.

Another successful day