Day 4 : although still very windy, it was a lot drier the next morning. With most of the others heading back today, we and the Swiss/German contingent headed up the final stretch to the Grey Glacier. The first 11km to the last refuge, Refugio Grey, is renowned for being a struggle against the wind in the best of conditions. It was tough, but at least we could see the views and the rain stopped soon after setting off.

Once again however a huge part of this valley was decimated by fire recently. The damage is incredible, it will take years, if not decades, to recover. The reason for the "overkill" on the park rules was clear and completely understandable.

We reached the hostel around midday and relaxed whilst eating lunch. The hostel is easily the best of the bunch, a really nicely designed (interior and exterior) place, it has the feel of a boutique hotel despite the obvious differences. Due to lack of guests, Fabrice and I had a room to ourselves again. For some odd reason the girls were sharing with a single German guy, maybe they allocate rooms based on language spoken?

By then, or rather at that end of the valley, the wind had essentially died out and we had a very pleasant 8km round trip walk through the woods to the glacier lookout point. We passed a group of American volunteers 'of a certain age' working on path maintenance. Given the amount charged to enter the park, and the amount charged by the refuges, we were surprised to see a reliance on volunteers.

The glacier is an impressive sight. The first glimpses are great chunks of ice floating in the lake, then the huge wall of ice comes into view. It stretches back as far as the eye can see, but then visibility wasn't perfect and so I guess that wasn't all that far! Either way, it's a big glacier.

That evening's meal was by far the best we'd had on the trek, in fact in a fair while. We spent the evening playing cards and, just for a change, had an early night. (Note : an early night is far from unusual on this trip, the novelty of not having to work the next day wears of quickly and sleep becomes a favourite passtime!)