Another long driving day as we head to our next major destination - El Chalten in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. We pack up the truck after breakfast and we are on our way just after 8:30 AM. We have lunch by the side of the road. Along the way we come across an Encounter truck. We stop for a chat.
Most of the drive is along flat, barren plains, but as the day progresses, we can watch as ahead of us from the flat plains slowly shot-up the cloud enshrouded, snow capped mountains of the Fitzroy range with Cerro Torre standing out. We admired them as we drove along the plains and the the valley that led to El Chalten, our base for the next couple of nights.
We set up camp, placing our tent so that we had a view of the mountains. We then headed into town to check out the local scene and to may be do a bit of shopping. The moment we walked out of the camp grounds, the wind hit us. It was a struggle to walk against the wind into town center, but we made it. There are a couple of shops in town where we pick up some snacks for our walk tomorrow.
Back at the campsite (going back was faster and easier as we had the wind at our back), we were given a briefing on our walk up to the glacier tomorrow. We are told that we will need to rent boots, as our boots are not appropriate for crampons. They give us a lift into town, where we are able to find a couple of boots. They will not be too comfortable, so we will carry them with us and wear them on the glacier.
Dinner is at 10 PM , so we go straight to bed afterwards as we have an early start tomorrow.