I wanted to do two walks during the three full days we had in El Chalten, one was extremely long and the other obscenely long. The extra day was useful if the weather was bad or we needed a rest day.

The weather was as good as you could hope - so a walk was definately on the cards. Liz wanted to get the obscenely long walk to Laguna de Los Tres over with. This decision was based on it being 12.5 km but I didn't dare correct her when she thought that was the entire distance. In fact the walk was double a cool 25km with a 750m steep ascent at the end.

Despite it not going dark until after 11pm I wanted to set off early as possible for the obscenely long walk. Having difficulty getting out of the nice bed, having to move hostels for one night and a lovely breakfast erroded the time.

At 10am the walk started in pleasant flower filled countryside with panaramic views of the valley, river and surrounding snowy mountains. In most other countries this would be the highlight of the trek however after an hour we got to the official first view point. This is the first time on this world trip that I was literally gob smacked at the beauty and grandure of the mountains and the surroundings that lay ahead. We have seen some pretty amazing things but most come up slowly giving you time to get acustomed to what was coming. This vista came into being within a few strides giving you that rush effect.

After numerous photos we pressed on, this will be the last view we will have of these mountains until we reach their base in a few hours time. However there was lots of interest on the walk making the time fly by. Soon we were crossing a river that marked the hours climb point. We filled up the water containers from a crystal clear stream and headed on. The weather which was so good at the view point had since deteriated. It was very dull with some rain at the end of the trail. A lake separated us from vertical rock and hanging glaciers. A thick layer of cloud clung to Fitzroy and the tops of the lower tores. We however weren't cursing the weather, the view this morning was stunning.

We had very strong winds for the long walk back. We arrived back completely knackered facing the prospect of moving our stuff to another hostel that had availability for tonight. At the hostel we dropped the bags, took our shoes off, flopped on the bed and fell asleep - too tired to go out for anything to eat.