Three months in patagonia!!!

On the 7th of Febuary two gringos, one huge, one not to huge at all rocked up in the dusty patagonian town of Coyhaique, immediately rushed off from the airport like mafiosi dons, they were smuggled into Raleigh International Fieldbase Chile. Raleigh is now only a memory.
Enough of that...
Me and teo were not together for any of Raleigh apart from each phase changeover which lasts four days, this means our thoughts and feeling on our adventures cannot be summed up by just me but i will try...

First Phase:
I was deployed in a town called chile chico on the shores of the lake grand general carrera, here a group us, staying in the back yard of the church, were asked to build a playground and five-a-side footy pitch for the locals. After three weeks of hard graft we repaired and made the climbing frames etc and did the ground work for the area (playground etc later completed by phase three group). we taught the local youth club some english, and played much football against the firemen in the town, we have since then been the only Raleigh team to beat them.21-20. It was an odd town, windswept and full of stray dogs, crazy old men with dummys and numerous offensive nippers shouting ´gringos,´this was until our victory against the town heroes the bomberos.
We returned over the lake and back to fieldbase awaiting, our new instructions, community phase done!

Teo meanwhile was dressing up as a girl in the tiny village of el blanco, he was working on a communnity hall they have been building for 2 years...and is currently at the opening ceremony with the ambassador of chile as i write this!He will no doubt add more...

Second Phase:

I was trekking. Our mountain guide was shared by both me and teo on our adventure phases, he was ray mears´ apprentice at one stage and has taught me and teo how to survive in patagonia, hardcore stylie. my trek took me 130km from lake to source of the rio avellano. After walking 40 km to the valley itself we climbed up to 1700m through a pass and down under the shadows of the castle mountain ´cerro castillo´and the shores of the high lake ´lago alto´. With 15-17kg on our backs and only two re supplies we trekked through dense forest,made 17 river crossings and battled through snow and white out conditions. Sleeping under bashers and in a bivi bag, and using only our new found fire starting techniques we survived on beanfeast, oats, chocolate and manjar ( chilean condensed milk). Having finished ahead of schedule we climbed up to the New Zealand base camp 1833m on the castle mountain, walking from 8am to 8pm, with no track and pitch black for the final hour..

An awesome phase, unforgetable....best moment:swapping a chicken for three potatoes and 5 carrots, from resupply, and killing ,gutting and roasting it...we were very hungry, it was no english chicken i tell the!

p.s we had to sh*t in holes dug with sticks for three weeks...its called scratching the cat...its wrong but u get to love the poo with a view..
Another three weeks gone, adventure phase done..

Teo meanwhile, was playing cricket with folk, in the remote valley of chacabuco, removing alien species from a ranch, to connect to huge national parks together..im sure he will add to this..

Phase three:

I was sent to Parque Reserve de Simpson. We were asked by the chilean tree commission CODEF to help them reforest the park with Lenga trees, this meant three weeks of moving trees around the place, sounds sh*t work...it is, it was worthwhile and we did feel like we were being hippy environment people.! We had and awesome time all the same, banter was quality, and we bided our spare time in the autumn sun playing cricket in the shit pit arena...a rickety old horse paddock...eating more dodgy rations we made friends with local farmers, and i was given a hunting hat by don juan, a top bloke, with 3 teeth..kieran its the same one as in deerhunter, exact same one...oh yes it is!you can touch it when i get back..with raleigh coming to an end we had a double asado, with the farmers and chileans at the end...an asado is a dead sheep ,cohones and all strung up over a fire, and then slammed onto a table, and everyone attacks it with there knifes..mental..
Another three weeks over, Environmental phase done..Raleigh International done..

Teo meanwhile was strolling through the very remote Neff valley on his adventure phase, sounded quality and just as hardcore as my own...he is very thin now, were feasting tommorow night...and sleeping on a bed for the first time in 10 weeks.. he will no doubt want to add even more..


PLANS: on tuesday we head to the san rafael glacier, with two others, to do some ice work on the glacier, terrified, as our guide is a raleigh guy who is 25 and doesnt seem to know that many knots, but he assures us its his job...hmmmm.we then travel up along the carreter austral and then onto the island of Chiloe, for some horsey stuff on beaches and some fishing. On arrival at the fishing port of Puerto Montt we then fly south to the land of fire ´tierra del fuego´. we have been told not to do this as it is now nearly winter, and it can be impossible to then get out of the south if winter comes behind you, but we are cos we are now hard....´er. we plan to do a four day trek round the famed torres del paine and then onto ushuaia and the beagle channel for some whale spotting in sub antarctica...

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST: sounds like its all awesome for the bishkrew ,cant wait to see you in santiago, should be quality, let us know any more plans that you have, and when you are in buenos aires, cos we might collide as we will be there in about 25 days.

PHOTOS: are on here tommorow.