To anybody that has only stayed in a house or hotel, camping would perhaps come as a shock. Sure if you have a car and only have to lug your stuff as much distance as the width of your tent then camping could be very comfortable. You can buy tent heaters, sinks, toilets and stretcher beds similar to the luxury safari camps in glossy brochures for Africa. If you have to carry everything you need for five days then you go into the minimalist realms of real camping....

We got up early to catch the bus to the Torres del Paine national park. If you remember it was this park we were prevented on getting to due to the general strike. Nothing eventful on the bus journey, loads of Reas and the same bleak landscape that you always see between the highlights. The scenery once we caught the boat got pretty good but the weather was normal - grey and horrible. Our bags were loaded with everything we need over the next five days. Food, ...

Torres de Paine supplies and planning day was the main purpose of today. Liz seemed to perk up a bit when she saw a rather nice but small tent and sleeping bags rated down to -15.

Ooh err we are going back to Chile, things there are back to normal and we have some unfinished business to attend to. In fact we learnt that a deal was made the day after we walked to Argentina. On the bus we played musical chairs but without the music. A couple were sitting in our reserved seats so we took some free ones instead and hoped for the best. However we were soon moved on by the rightful owners when they got on. Displaced we decided to move the peopl...

Banging around from other people and the threat of missing breakfast eventually got me out of bed. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was worth going to a view point around town but I didn't think we would enjoy a long walk. Liz reminded me that we really had to change the flights. The Internet at the lodge was too poor to use Skype, we had to go into the village to find an Internet cafe. Away from the hills around the lodge we could see the entire Fitzroy range...