Having only travelled via buses up until this point, we decided to treat ourselves and not take the 18 hour bus to El Calafate, but book ourselves on to a one and a half hour flight instead. When we landed, we caught the bus straight to El Chaltén, a small town slightly north of El Calafate. The main draw to this little town is the hiking and climbing in the Fitzroy/Fitz Roy (check!) range. Having not done a huge amount the previous week in Puerto Madryn, we were looking forward to getting out and stretching our legs. As we arrived late in the evening, our first walk would have to wait for the following day.

Even a night in a dorm with several fairly vocal sleepers couldn’t dampen our spirits. The day was bright, dry and warm with a cold wind – pretty much perfect conditions for walking. We decided to start with Cerro Torre, a 9km hike to a glacial lake in the mountains. It only had three exclamation marks in the guide, rather than the hardest rating of four, so we decided it would be prudent to break ourselves in gently.

After the very slow, very steep ascent over the first two kilometres, the trail flattened out a little, for which we were very grateful! We could see the famous Patagonia peaks in the distance, though somewhat covered in cloud, and enjoyed the changing view.

We arrived at Laguna Torre in time for lunch. Perching on some rocks on the lake shore, we ate our picnic in front of the glacier. The biting wind ensured we didn’t get too comfortable and it wasn’t too long until we packed up and hiked the 9km back.

It had been a good walk so we decided we would take on a trail which had four exclamation marks, was 10km each way but which would take around two hours longer than the previous day’s hike.

Of course, Tom immediately noticed the disparity in time, but neither of us really gave it much thought. Had we been a little more switched on, we might have realised why it would take so much longer. The walk started out similarly to the previous day’s: a sharp incline to begin, though this one felt steeper, before levelling off into a pleasant walk along the clearest streams and river we’ve ever seen. At about 8km, we wondered why the guide thought it would take us so long. At 9km, we found out. It was here that we came across a rest stop with plenty of benches, a compost toilet and a sign warning hikers that anyone passing this point must have appropriate footwear, a good level of physical fitness and there must be sufficient daylight left to complete the walk back to this point. The final kilometre would take one hour. One hour of loose gravel, large rocks and a very steep incline.

In fact, it took us pretty much exactly the time stated. It wasn’t the easiest of climbs, but it wasn’t the worst we’ve done either and, as it turned out, it was entirely worth it! At the summit was another lake, but this time it was bright blue with the peaks we had seen yesterday right behind it. The view was stunning and all around us, you could see people grinning, both relieved that the hard part was over and that it had been well worth the climb. After basking in the sun for half an hour and treating ourselves to a chocolate biscuit each, we started our descent.

The following day, we were both very aware that we hadn’t walked a huge amount prior to this and felt fairly stiff, so jumped on a bus to make our way to the town of El Calafate. We spent three days here, including a rest day and a day to get laundry and shopping done. The other day was spent at Glaciar Perito Moreno, a glacier in the Southern Patagonian ice field, the third largest after Antarctica and Greenland.

There was a viewing point on land which allows you to get up close to the glacier. The national park has installed 3km of walkways so you’re able to see it from multiple angles. Pretty much as soon as we arrived and made our way down to the walkways, we saw a huge chunk of ice calving and crashing into the water. We saw various other smaller bits coming off as well, but that was the biggest.

After three days in El Calafate, it was time to head further south again, so it was back to the bus station to travel to Puerto Natales in Chile. We’ve had another three days here with the intention of hiking in the national park of Torres del Paine, however when we realised that a one day hike would cost us £80 (and there was not a great deal to do which would cost less), we decided we weren’t that excited about walking after all. Instead, we’ve spent our days listening to the sound of the rain and wind and being very grateful that we didn’t have to venture out too often!

That being said, we did make our way around the small town to see the highlights, including the life size mylodon (giant sloth) whose bones were found in a cave near here, and – our favourite – a gin distillery! This is owned and run by two Australians. Upon arrival, we were given a sample of their two gins to try before ordering our drinks and attending the distillery tour. In spite of only having two drinks and eating guanaco toasted sandwiches (guanaco are another type of llama found in Patagonia), I’ve still woken up with a hint of a hangover, so that’s me done for now. Wish me luck for our bus journey in two hours…