Argentina in the Patagonia region was beautiful. The car gave us the freedom we needed for the area. We based ourselves at El Calafate and Nev Peter and I went to El Chaiten for a day and would you believe we did another hike. Easier than the others we had done but still a fair 5 hours with some climbing up to the base of Mt Fitzroy. Two glaciers here and a stunning day. We have almost made the 200km mark with total walking. El Calafate is near the Perito Morena Glacier and we got up close and personal as spent a day on, in front of the ice face and beside this enormous glacier. At only 200metres above sea level it is amazing to see such a vast expanse of ice advancing, so the front was occasionally dropping large chunks of ice (calving) into the lake.

The men ate their fill of steak having an enormous one at a restaurant and then again by bbq at our accomodation. The salmon and trout has been my food preference most days.

A 3 hour drive back to Peurto Natales along very boring pampas country followed by a 3 hour bus ride through more pampas country has brought us to Punta Arenas. There is little here apart from the remnants of a major sheep industry (long gone) and a penguin colony that we are unlikely to visit. We are here because there is an airport and we leave tomorrow for another 36 hours of travel (including transits, Santiago, Auckland Sydney) to home. Time to get the vacumn cleaner and duster out kids!