Day 8 - Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine national park

Today has been a long day driving but the scenery has been stunning in spite of the rain. It is also very cold now and we are glad of all the warm gear that we have brought with us. 

We started the day by spotting a white chested buzzard eagle and that was quickly followed by condors and lots and lots of deer like animals. We've also seen grey fox, hares, flamingoes, geese and lots of different birds.  There appears to be wildlife everywhere. 

This is a shepherdess who was busy rounding up sheep. 

A condor

Very soon we were off the national road and on to a pretty bumpy road through the park. It was difficult to know where to look at times as there were snow capped mountains and turquoise lakes. It's just a pity that it was raining. 

At 2 pm we had a lunch stop which was excellent. Cream of onion soup, followed by fillet beef and then a fruit salad thing. This lunch set us up for a brilliant walk which took us over a suspension bridge, across a 1km long causeway and then another .5 km to get to a view point where we saw a glacier and lots of calved chunks in the water. Again it's a pity it was raining but the afternoon was still enjoyable. 

Notice the chunks of ice in the background

The glacier from the viewpoint

The causeway we walked across

Himself having a sneaky sleep

The usual crowd met up again for dinner and, which was very enjoyable. 

The 'boys' propping up the bar

Can't believe that a week ago tonight we left the UK. How quickly time goes.