From Buenos Aires we caught a flight south to Patagonia spent the night in the Argentinian town of El Calafate. After having a steak for lunch (which was declared by Rob as the best steak he'd ever had supassing the one 18-hours prior) [it was!! - Brisbane's steak reserauntts have a lot of catching up to do] we managed to procure some beer and retire to the hotel. The next morning saw us on a bus heading toward the Chilian boarder and ultimately the Torres Del Paine National Park for a week of trekking the 'W' circuit.

Meeting our group to trek with was a bit of a shock......it was stocked with retirees, not what we'd expected from previous trekking efforts. [luckily Ben and i were able to bring the average age of the group below 60] It was an interesting mix, two retired professors of zoology (both entomologists and avid bird watchers) and spouse, an annoying retired school teacher from England, who had been everywhere and seen everything and who constantly talked despite no one listening, a retired health department worker from Queensland and a very, very strange American lady with more issues that you could poke a stick at (apparently she'd told her husband that she was at a conference in Miami NOT deepest darkest Patagonia). Generally they weren't a bad mob but after the first day of hiking it was clear that Rob and I were in a different league to the rest, this just became an excuse for us to drink more beer at each refuge - so much for drying out!`

Unfortunately for the bulk of the week the weather was pretty crappy with rain, wind and even snow - it IS susposed to be summer down here. The landscape of the Torres Del Paine was spectacular particularly the Grey Glacier which we camped near at our last night on the trail. The really amazing thing about the Grey was that it ended in a lake so as it moved chunks of ice broke off and became icebergs floating around the lake. The walking was a bit (disappointingly) easy however credit must be given to the Chilian National Parks who have an excellent sytem of refuges and trails around the park.

[One thing Ben fails to mention here is the size of the tents. Neither of us are obese, but fair to say we are at least average sized guys. The tents supplied were "two man" tents, but obviously Argentinian men are smaller than Australian men. Luckily there was just space to put a line of bags between us to avoid any unintended intimacy but it was a relief to get back to the hotel where there was at least a bed side table between us. Ben snores!!].

Having the last word 'veto' as it was I'll defend my snoring........it was only used as a mechanism to down out Rob's snoring. However I'll give him his dues, he is very tallented as he managed to snore face down!