Was Camping Grey a rest day, partially, but it was a day put aside for Kayaking on Lago Grey near the snout of the glacier and in the afternoon walking on the glacier. I’ve been lucky enough to walk and climb on many glaciers, but even now I still find the ice fascinating. It has shaped so many of our finest landscapes. It has to be one of natures most destructive of forces as it moulds and reshapes the landscape, whether that’s as it retreats or advances. So I take every opportunity I can to explore these forces of Mother Nature.
No lie in, up at 07:00 to be at the kayaking centre by 08:15. As we’d now hit the beginning of the popular ‘W’ Trek, most amenities improved and the kayaking experience was extremely professional… full wetsuits, and insulated jackets even paddles and kayaks, were all provided. Seriously we were very impressed.
The water was dead calm and the icebergs were stationary as we paddled within 50 metres of these towering, luminous turquoise monsters that had calved within the last two or three days.
This was new to me, I’ve never kayaked around icebergs before. There was no adrenaline rush, no leap of faith, just serenely paddling past these giant turquoise icebergs.
In the afternoon Holly and I returned to the Big Foot hut to do a glacier walk, whilst Andrew relaxed at camp. Although this wasn’t a unique experience for me, I’ve walked and climbed many times on glaciers, I still get that school boy feeling of excitement when I put on the crampons and pick up the ice axe and take those first steps onto the ice. Ice that has secrets locked in it that are many millennia old, secrets that are become unlocked as the ice rapidly retreats. It’s a strange feeling walking on history as it literally melts under your feet. Every calving from the glaciers snout sees a part of this world break away, then slowly melts into the glacial lake, lost forever. A sad end for such a mighty force of nature? A natural end hastened by ourselves, one day that natural cycle will hopefully reverse and repeat.
A day of rest, maybe not, but it was certainly a change and as the saying goes