Day 1

The Torres del Paine experience starts with a 7am bus ride (11,000 pesos) which takes 3.5 hours to the National Park. The entrance fee is a hefty15,000 Chilean Pesos (c. £19) but I consider it quite a reasonable exchange for the numerous free camp sites throughout the park, and the fact that my fee will be used to help dozens of other protected parks across Argentina. From the park entrance, we take a short, bumpy, dusty minibus ride (2,500 pesos) to the start of the track which crosses a bridge only an inch wider than the bus on either side - I found myself jealous of the quite incredible driving skills I witness. We say hello and good-bye to two Swiss-French guys we have been meeting along the way as they set off to tackle the full circuit (8-10days) whereas we set out to do the touristy "W" circuit - named after its W shape.

The first day of hiking is a good one with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Despite being summer here, its far from hot - the snow capped mountains and vast surrounding glaciers are testament to that. To keep the Kim & Erik team moving quickly we have managed to get 90% of the gear and food into the pack I am shouldering while Kim takes my day bag for some of her clothes and the daily snacks. We ascend along a steady dry path up the side of a mountain which then drops around the side of the mountain into a valley lined with healthy green forest and a strong life-giving river washing its way towards the distant lake.

The last hour of the trek today is under a canopy of bright spring green trees and weaves along the edge of the river until we reach a peaceful campsite in amongst the trees - very much at one with nature rather than the bulldozed camping acres you might find elsewhere. Small clouds of sandflies are my only complaint - but hey - I've seen far worse in NZ.

I leave a zip-lock bag of meat in natures refrigerator (a small stream) before we take a side walk up to the 3 peaks which symbolise the Torres del Paine National Park. Its a steep climb but after a short hour amid well over a hundred "tourists" (who are here for the day only) we reach the lookout. I find myself longing for the tougher trails across the world which keep the overweight mid-life crisis tourists at bay.

After a few hours enjoying the views and trying to impossibly capture the beauty on film we return to camp to make our new favourite hiking dish - good old English cottage pie. I retrieve the meat from the stream to find no less than 30 leeches sucking their way onto the bag - a bit disgusted at first but after a close inspection I am happy that none of them have made it into our dinner so I simply wash them off and get dinner started.

Day 2

Setting off by 8am we wander out of the valley the same way we walked in, but veer right before the steep descent, taking a much more gradual path which also has the benefits of no tourists and saving us an hour in walking time. As I walk down the mountain side I admire the steep, jagged black mountains on my right, blue and green lakes ahead and to my left, and too many snow capped mountains wrapped in long shredded clouds in the distance. It feels good to be alive and I appreciate my chance to witness the natural beauty that still exists in the world.

We rejoin the main track and meander along the lake shores and rise and fall over the feet of the mountains. Stopping for lunch at one of the pay campsites I see a dozen rodents, and reluctantly drop a stone from my hand as Kim growls me for making them target practice. After many more hours of walking in the forest along the edge of a large lake we head up into a valley to set up camp for the night. This free campsite is short walking distance from 2 very high glaciers - so we head off to take a look. Along the way I enjoy drinking from a few of the cool glacial waterfalls - pure water from the source tastes better than any overpriced bottled water in any board room on the planet.

An hour from camp, we bear witness to several small ice avalanches as chunks of ice break away from the glacier and slide and crunch their way over rocks and ice until they resemble icing sugar at the foot of the glacier. It sounds like thunder as the tonnes of ice smash and grind their way down hundreds of meters of icy slopes.

Day 3

The weather today is a little better than yesterday with patches of blue sky which really brings out the colour of a magnificent turquoise blue lake just before our first stop. After a short snack break two hours in, we head away from the lake up through a valley with a strong cold wind gushing through it. Up and over the low pass at the back of the valley we walk a high ridge which hugs the edge of the vast Lake Grey. We see numerous icebergs floating down the lake, being pushed along by the high winds after having broken off the distant glacier. As we round a corner we see an iceberg the size of a small building and I wonder about the size of the wave it must have made when it broke off.

After 3.5 hours we get to a perfect campsite situated on a beach of dark coarse sand. Out tent is pitched under a big over hanging tree and the door opens up to a view of slabs of ice making their way down the lake. Over the next few hours our campsite becomes packed with dozens of tents but its pretty social. I even meet 2 kiwis who have left London and are thinking of relocating to my home town of Whangarei - I quickly talk them out of it. As its a paid campsite we enjoy the hot showers included before heading out to a spectacular lookout which affords us views of the enormous Glacier Grey and also a bay fully crowded with icebergs making it resemble a punch bowl.

Day 4

The last day is a short one which has us retracing our steps back to the turquoise lake. We have lunch and take an expensive 30min boat ride across the lake to reconnect with our return bus. A few hours on the bus gets us back to Puerto Natales for hot showers and a big dinner.

Torres del Paine is a spectacular park, but as its pretty easy there are numerous others enjoying its beauty which takes a little away from the hiking experience for me. The combination of the numerous large glaciers, lush forest, and varied lakes makes this definitely one of the world's best treks. We managed to see Condors every day too, but that was unfortunately the only wild life we saw, except for leeches and rodents of course.