Our first port of call in Patagonia (excuse the pun). We were a bit worried that our choice of clothing we had left Buenos Aires may be a little cold for Patagonia but were pleasantly surprised that shorts and flip-flops were fine as the sun was blazing as we got off the bus. Puerto Madryn is a buzzing hive of activity in the peak summer season with all accomodation booked up and prices are sky high.

We decided that today would be the best time to put our new tent through its paces and headed for the campsite at the end of town. After a few teething problems our luminous orange abode was standing and we set off to get some transport sorted for our trip to Peninsular Valdez the next day. By the time we had got things booked and eaten, the sun had long gone down and our beach attire was no longer warm enough. During the night the temprature dropped even more and our little tent felt more like an igloo. In the morning we were being picked up at 8.30 and the sun had only just risen meaning that we took a while to warm up in the minibus to our first stop on our wildlife watching tour.

First stop on route to the peninsula was the visitors centre where which also had a look out tower so we could see the landscape, as well as the ocean on both sides as this is the narrowest part of the land bridge. The land is completely flat and seemingly featureless,but never the less it is the home of many land mammals such as the patagonian hare, armadillo, patagonian llama, as well as a few farmed sheep.

From there we drove to a point on the most eastern edge of the peninsula where we were promised a few penguin sightings and a colony of elephant seals. The penguins were in residence, well four of them at least. The lazy ones that hadn´t yet followed their fellow magellanic penguin friends out to more northerly seas for the winter. Even so Paul did almost explode at his first sight of penguins in the wild! It was a half hour walk along beautiful coastline to our view point for the elephant seals. Like huge giant grey turds they were basking in the sun, looking fat and doing not much in particular. We were told that they are very active and the males particularly agressive when they arrive competing for the ladies at the beginning of the season.

From there we drove for about an hour north to the point where a colony of sealions hang out on the beach. It is also one of the very few places in the world where orcas use the high tide to actually pluck unwary seals straight from the sand before catching the next wave back into the water. March is the time they begin to do this and it lasts a couple of months so we had high hopes for catching a glimpse at this spectacular sight. We arrived half an hour before high tide full of excitement and settled ourselves down for the wait. We were next to some photographers with tripods and huge lenses set up pointing at the seals and waiting, so despite our lens-envy we felt like we were in a great position. We watched the seals, including some impossibly cute cubs and waited, and waited, and waited some more. An hour later and high tide had come and gone, as well as it being our time to leave. The orcas were either feeling shy or were simply not hungry. Either way we took our dissapointment on the chin and headed off to see more.

The next stop was at the one and only village on the peninsula, in the high season you can take boats out whale watching from here. We were told that at this time of year, if there are wales about (Southern Right Wales) then they will be close to the shore as they birth and rear their young in the shallows. Katie caught a glimpse of a water spout out in the bay so was very hopeful of our next beach stop allowing us a glimpse of these magnificent creatures. They had been spotted at this particular beach in the previous days, BUT the day we arrived they were not in residence. Such a shame, but we both vowed we´ll come back one day.

Back at our campsite we were looking forward to the next days trip which would take us south to Punta Tumba, the location for the largest colony of Magallanic penguins in the world.

Pick up was again at 8.30 and having packed up our tent to move on we started on the three hour journey south. The colony of penguins arrive in this area to nest in September, all 175,000 breeding pairs. They pair with the same mate and return to the same nests their whole lives. Each lay two eggs and by the time they´re hatched the total comes to around half a million penguins!

We were arriving at the very end of the season just before the last of the chicks and parents take to sea for months where they stay before returning again in early September to start the process all over again. David, our guide had told us that he was there a week previous and there were at a rough guess around 150,000 penguins left but they were slowly starting to move on mss towards the beaches. As the minibus pulled up and we paid another extortionate national park entrance fee and were told that we had about 2 hours to wander around these crazy birds. I was hoping that there would still be some who had stayed out of the water long enough for us to be able to see them. I wasn't disappointed. About 10m away from the bus was a rather plump baby chick penguin busy pulling and shaking out the remainder of his chick down preparing for his first swim in few days. He was just standing in the shallow nest in front of us as bold as brass looking extremely overfed and awaiting his parents return with more regurgitated fish. As we got over the brow of the first hill the landscape was peppered with empty penguin nests. Some were close to the path some tucked away, some were under bushes and some were just in the open in the middle of the path that we were told to keep to at all times!The Magellanic penguins keep the same mate for their entire lives. They will always return to the same spot at the same time each year to roost and more amazingly they will seek out the same nest each time. Every year the pair will improve the nest slightly by maybe making it deeper or patching up any damage since leaving it the previous season. The amount of predicted penguins that we could see was nowhere near the 150,000 seen the previous week and I think we were lucky if we saw 150 in total. On the beach there were a handful staring out to sea possibly psyching themselves up to spend the next 5 months out there in the cold waters. The rest of the remaining birds were scattered abouteither in or next to their nests and all looked much the same as the first penguin we saw. Some actually looked too stuffed to move but these made great subjects for the photos! Although we didn't get to see the place packed full when the visiting people have to use the bridge over the "penguin highway" it was a great experience to finally get to see them in the wild. After our encounters it has got us planning our next big trip... We want to see the Emperor and King penguins of Antarctica. We reckon for my 50th Birthday we should have enough money!