Category Archives: Uncategorized

Los Dientes de Navarino promotes itself as “the world’s southernmost hiking trail”. Located on the Navarino isle at the southernmost tip of the American continent, this might hold true (unlike half a dozen restaurants in Patagonia calling themselves “Fin del Mundo” ;). The GPT includes it as section 67 and – unsurprisingly – extends itContinue reading “GPT67 – Autumn”

Though we have hiked more than 600 kilometers on what’s called the “Greater Patagonian Trail”, we didn’t travel in Patagonia yet. We stayed fairly north, where the weather is dry and stable in the summer months. In Patagonia though, the weather gods are fickle and may swap pleasantly sunny for freezingly snowy in less thanContinue reading “GPT45 – Torres del Paine”

At some point, things start to feel familiar. Climb up above the treeline, enjoy great 360 views after reaching a windy peak or pass. Descend to a verdant valley where the piñones drop on the ground around you when strong gusts of wind bend the araucarias’ branches. Arrieros come over for a pleasant chat, orContinue reading “GPT12 – Some wind and rain”

GPT11 is pretty short, and the route connecting GPT11 and GPT12 first drops about a thousand meters in altitude, to promptly go back up the same amount. You’re basically hiking from one +2000m pass to another, with a 1000m valley bottom in between. Instead, if the weather is fine, the GPT provides an alternative routeContinue reading “GPT11 – Mistake”

Blast, at the end of GPT08 I promised that GPT09 would feature Chile’s national tree: the Araucaria. While we did encounter our first Araucaria there, it was only in GPT10 that the tree became characteristic of the landscape. In a nutshell, the Araucaria is a “living fossil”, unchanged since the mid-Jurassic. It resembles a pineContinue reading “GPT10 – Trees”

In general, the GPT tries to steer away from civilization and roads wider than a horse’s ass. This gives the impression of passing through uncharted lands to deliver landscapes not touched by humans. This could not be further from the truth. The paths we travel have existed long before Jan Dudeck strung them together toContinue reading “GPT09 – People”

When we mentioned that the highest mountain in Belgium is about 700 metres tall, we were sharing a perfect temperature hot spring with three adventorous Chileans. They smiled, and I could see them think “No wonder these tourists like our mountains a lot.” And maybe it’s true – the historic center of Bruges was notContinue reading “GPT08 – Steam, Sights & Shoes”

Even though the rain gods are firmly on holiday (somewhere in Europe I’m afraid) I think ‘water’ is still an appropriate summary for GPT08, simply because there was so much of it! Most of the time, we followed river valleys, with the occasional rapids and cascades. Higher up, the landscape transformed into a high-altitude meadow,Continue reading “GPT07 – Water”

We’re beginning to understand how the Tuareg people travel through the Saharan desert. The trick seems to be to fully cover the body with loose-fitting clothing, so that in the absence of any shade, you basically make your own. At least, that’s what seemed to work for us when hiking through the volcanic sand dunesContinue reading “GPT06 – Sand”

Getting to Patagonia is hard. It took each of us a double covid test, triple vaccinations, and a handful of affidavits to simply be allowed entry to Chile. After that, the regulations require a ten day online self-report on whether you show any from a very broad list of symptoms. As the trail we planContinue reading “Finally”