We decided to don crampons, grasp an ice axe in each hand, tie ourselves into a rope anchored on the top of a glacial mound and then chip our way up the slippery slope... that's just something you have to do if you are visiting an area crammed full of glaciers, which is exactly what we were doing in the aptly named Parque Nacional De Los Glaciares. I assume no translation is needed there?

Our long journey here began with a 32 hour bus journey from Bariloche. Travelling is meant to be uncomfortable and a trip this long should have made sure of that except that the buses in South America (Chile and Argentina anyway) are amazing. When you buy a ticket you get the choice of al least Classico, Ejectivo, Semi Cama or Cama. For the non-Spanish speakers the latter two mean semi-bed and bed. The seats are massive, like business class plane seats and they recline nearly all the way back. The buses play back to back films until it's time to go to bed and even occasionally muster up a game of bingo played by the whole bus for a bottle of 'premium' wine. This meant we reached El Calafate feeling pretty much fine.

We stayed there for a couple of days just soaking up the atmosphere and going for a couple of runs down by a huge lake near the town, running through fields of marshes filled with bright pink flamingoes. Of course, a runner needs his sustenance so we made sure to stop off at one of the traditional Patagonian BBQ's, whole lambs, balanced together in a wigwam of meat and slowly cooked over an open fire. After that, we got bored and carried on down south to El Chalten.

El Chalten is right across the border from the Chilean Torres Del Paine Park. It is next to the Rio de Los Veultos and within the Los Glaciares National Park nestling in the base of two tall, thin and spiky peaks which look like giant, uneven canines and are called Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitzroy. It's a tiny little place with about 5 places to eat but a ridiculosly friendly atmosphere and a long list of hiking trails make up for its size.

We started our stay there with a shortish 3 hour hike to a crystal clear mountain lake being overlooked by one of the small glaciers that trickled slowly down the opposite mountain. Our second walk was harder - uphill for about 3 hours to about 1500m through grassland to start with, followed by mountain tree forests and finally scree to the top of a hill overlooking a big glacier, 3 or four lakes and a generally great view. Going down hill we finally reached town and ordered some more (guess what?) steak and were impressed with the half kilo monster that was placed in front of us (I say us and mean me).

But, these shorter walks aside, everyone comes here to see the glaciers up close and personal. As such we set out on the 13km walk to (and then on) the Torre glacier - joined by a friendly couple from Buenos Aires and the grumpiest guide we've ever met who said not one thing more than he needed to all day. The walk was pretty though and when we finally reached viewing distance of the glacier we found there was a river separating us and the target of our walk. No probs, the guides here have set up a permanent tyrolean traverse. You put a climbing harness on, clip yourself to a wire spanning the river and pull yourself across, unclipping at the other side. All across safely and we made our way up a final steep ascent to the glacier itself.

Getting there, we dropped back down from above to find ourselves face to face with a large, undulating glacier stretching off up and around a corner into the distance. We put on our crampons and stepped carefully onto the ice. The crampons were not the best in the world but even though, gripped the ice well with no slips. The thick ice was melting all around us in the summer sun and we regularly heard huge crunching, crackling sounds as water somewhere deep below or far away burst through an ice wall on its path downhill and to the glacial lake at the foot. After a while of wandering around we picked a spot to sit down and eat our packed lunches before we had a go at the ice climbing…

Which was disappointingly not as steep as we'd hoped, albeit harder than it looked and a lot of fun. If you are looking at some of our photos and questioning our definition of steep then remember...cameras can be tilted...

After the glacial fun, the 13km walk back inevitably followed. We got back to town as the sun was setting, tired and ready to get on with our trip but not before a couple of the locally home brewed beer sold in town.

Back to El Calafate the next day for a couple of more nights. With little to do in this resorty, touristy place we went on a day trip to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier - this time only from a distance though. The glacier is famous as one of the most quickly advancing glaciers in the world - about 2 metres a day. When you are 3 miles wide, 19 miles long and tower an average 74m above the water of your very self made lake, this is pretty good going. The cracking, groaning and splitting sounds echo throughout the area in deep rumbles like a complaining giant just waking up from a hungover sleep. As you sit and watch, huge blocks of ice occasionally crack and fall off the face smashing into the blue water of the huge, blue lake below. Quite amazing to see and hear.

With that done, we'd had enough of glaciers. And trekking. To resolve the situation we booked ourselves on a bus to Puerto Madryn - Still in Patagonia but on the east coast of Argentina, a long way north in this massive country. Still, with any luck we'll win the bingo this time around.