Our first day (which happened to be Christmas Day) was spent in Buenos Aires. We had a free morning to do as we wished, so Alison, Anna and myself went for a walk to get our bearings (and find the Money Exchange to get some Argentinian Pessos).

We then had a briefing with Donal, our tour leader, where we found out a little bit more about the trek and were formally introduced to the entire group. Following the briefing and some lunch, we were taken on an afternoon tour around Buenos Aires to see some of the sights such as the Estación Catedral and the Cementerio de la Recoleta.

The day was meant to be spent in El Calafate, but our flexible airline, Aerolineas Argentinas cancelled our early morning flight and put us onto the later flight. In the end, we still had a few hours to check out El Calafate, pick up some last minute shopping (gators and a sun hat) and visit the local nature reserve.

After arriving in Patagonia the following day, we then proceeded to head south by chartered bus to the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The journey was pleasant enough, along paved roads initially and then once into Chile, unpaved roads. There were plenty of stops along the way for mountains, wildlife and the border controls.

We arrived at the start of our trek at about 3:30pm and then had a 3h30 walk to Camp Seron, our campsite for the first night. The walk was fairly easy going as it gently undulated through the now burnt woodlands and then into the Rio Paine river valley (Valle Encantado) and daisy meadows.

Our first full day walking, starting from Camp Seron and ending up at the beautifully situated Refugio Dickson.

The weather today was perfect - it started out a bit overcast, but it cleared up giving us beautiful blue skies with big white fluffy clouds. Perfect! A hat was essential though - thankfully there aren't any embaressing photos of the hat that I bought in El Calafate!

The walk started by following the Rio Paine, before the path turned and climbed a few hundred feet up to bring us to an amazing view looking out over Lago Paine. We then stayed up on the hillside, with the lago below us and the snow-capped mountains in front. We were meant to cross a bit of a bog, but a new path had been cut through the tress and shrubs, which meant that we managed to keep our feet dry. Further on, the path climbed again, bringing us up onto a slight ridge where another vista appeared before us, with Refugio Dickson and Lago Dickson in the foreground and Ohnet (the big pointy mountain) and Glaciar Dickson in the background.

We spent two nights at Refugio Dickson (with such a beautiful location, how could you not!). Today was an optional walk which most of us decided to do, and it took us up closer to Glaciar Dickson.

The day started with a boat crossing over Lago Dickson - a rather interesting experience as one of the refuge staff pulled the boat over using a rope strung across the lake. It was quite surprising just how strong the current was as well. Thankfully no one fell in.

The walk was pretty good going, through a mixture of mosquito infested woodland (not one bite despite not wearing any repellant nor an interesting looking net hood!) and open hillsides. As always, it undulated up and down, never climbing far and never really flat (and I don't think it was ever really downhill either...)

We eventually passed a Chilean border post and came up to our lunch spot (and turning point), looking out towards Glacier Dickson. And as if the view was enough, we were entertained while we ate (or in my case tried to eat - it was hard to put down the camera) by up to four massive condors circling and swooping overhead. Donal was an excellant organisor - good weather, fantastic views and now an overhead display!

The return to Refugio Dickson took us back along the same path (which I'm sure climbed just as much as it did on the way up to the viewpoint). The weather improved a bit as the day wore on, to the point where when we reached Laguna Quemado, Julian decided to go for a swim!

An easy days walk, leaving the beautiful Refugio Dickson and starting to head up into the mountains a bit more towards Camp Los Perros.

The path was mostly in woodland following the Rio de los Perros. It occasionally climbed up above the trees to offer us more beautiful views and then brought us up to Lago los Perros where we were greeted with a fantastic view up to Glaciar Perros.

One of the highlights of the day was probably the Magellanic Woodpecker that we saw in the forest. It hardly seemed to mind our presence, even when Peter and I crawled through the undergrowth to get a bit closer.

Today was to be one of the longest days trekking. We were told to expect to be out walking for at least 12 hours. It wasn't so much the distance but the climb up over the John Garner Pass and the tricky descent down the otherside.

We started the walk at 6am wrapped up and bleary eyed. The path was meant to be very boggy for the first part of the morning, but because the weather had been so good for so long, plus with the excellent guidance of Marcello, we managed to keep our feet pretty dry.

We reached the top of the pass with it's superb views out over Glaciar Grey at about 9am - slightly earlier that expected and in far better weather than anyone was expecting! Not even the slightest hint of a Patagonian wind. To celebrate, I pulled out a bottle of wine!

The first part of the descent was fairly easy, walking over fairly easy boulders along a well defined path. Further down the descent steepened as we dropped down into the trees. In a number of places ropes were strung between the trees to hold onto, but it was generally fairly easy - the good weather and dry ground help immensly here.

We had our lunch at Camp Paso and from there we walked south-east, running parallel with Glacier Grey. After the fun descent, we had some more interesting sections - two gorges to cross using ropes and ladders!

What an interesting way to spend New Year's Day - one of the optional extras was a walk on Glaciar Grey which was taken up by Jill, Dave, David, John, Danielle and myself.

We were taken over Lago Grey by boat to the western shore. Along this side of the glacier, the ice moves less than elsewhere making it safer to walk on. The highlight of the ice walk was the ice climb at the end - harder than it looks though!

After returning to Refugio Grey, we had our lunch and then Donal led us on the walk down to Refugio Pehoé. The rest of the group had already left to make sure that they would get there in time for dinner - we were going to be cutting it a bit fine... the afternoon walk was beautiful, following Lago Grey (although not down on the shore where it would be flat, but high up on the hillside, undulating rather a lot!). The weather was fantastic again as well! Despite our rush, photo stops were frequent so that we could turn and look back up towards Glaciar Grey.

Arriving at Refugio Pehoé - we were greeted by one of the nicest refuges we'd stayed in and with a view to die for!

Our longest day walking took us from Refugio Pehoé to Refugio los Cuernos (Los Cuernos, or the Horns, are the huge sandstone peaks topped with black granite - one of the classic views of Patagonia is of these mountains from the other side of Lago Nordenskjöld). The distance between the two refuges is only 15km but we took a diversion up the Valle del Francés (French Valley) which added another 13 or 14km.

The first 9km was from Pehoé to Camp Italiano and took us along and above Lago Skottsberg. For most of this section we had Cuernos Norte in front of us. From Camp Italiano, we headed up the French Valley, with the Cuernos on our right and Paine Grande on our left. This took us right into the mountains which toward high above us. All day long, as we were walking we heard huge rumbles and looking over to Paine Grande we could see snow tumbling down the mountain side in huge avalanches.

Having run up (well, Marcello and I raced some of the way up!) and walked back down the French Valley, we headed east towards Refugio los Cuernos.

The penultimate day trekking and the completion on the Circuit. Today we had a short 12km walk from Refugio los Cuernos to Refugio las Torres. The route followed the line of Lago Nordenskjöld, running roughly north-east, but we stayed higher up on the hillside. As with every other day on this trek, the terrain could best be described as undulating!

After a longer the usual lunch break (bird watching) we arrived back at Las Torres, eight days after leaving it!

The final day of walking took us from Refugio las Torres up to one of the most spectacular view points I've visited, looking out over a glacial lake towards the massive Torres del Paine. An early start was required to make sure that we missed the crowds of people all heading up to viewpoint.

The walk took us up the Valle Ascensio, initially climbing high above the river where it had cut a massive gorge, and then later dropping right down to the bottom of the valley and walking along the river bank. From Camp las Torres we turned left and went straight up the side of the valley, over a huge boulder field, aiming for a massive glacial corrie.

As we were getting used to by now, we reached the lip of the corrie and the breath taking view of the Torres del Paine opened up in front of us. It really was an amazing view. The towers reach up to over 2800m (Torre Sur, the most distant of the three is 2850m) while we were standing at around 900m.

After a very enjoyable lunch taking in the view, we returned back down over the boulder field to the Rio Ascensio. From there we were given a free afternoon to head back to Las Torres as quickly or slowly as we wanted to and Donal and Marcello hung back and walked at the rear. Jill and I sauntered down the valley together, joining some of the group at Refugio Chileno for a cold drink.

From there we drifted away in our own time and enjoyed a beautiful walk back down the valley. A perfect day to end the trek with... (and the ice creams at the hotel at Las Torres were an added bonus! Having two wasn't greedy after all that exercise was it?!!)

The long drive back to civilisation... we left Las Torres after breakfast and headed back towards Argentina and El Calafate. The drive back was fairly uneventful and only a handful of photos were snapped. We got back to El Calafate about mid-afternoon and had an afternoon in town (shopping with Jill) before a farewell meal (as Klaus and Danielle were heading south the next day while we were heading north).

Our final day in Patagonia was spent in Los Glacares National Park visiting Glaciar Perito Moreno.

The drive out to Perito Moreno was rather "interesting" - you really had to be there to understand what the tour guide was like!

After arriving in the National Park, we took a boat trip out into the south-western leg of Lago Argentino. The view of the glacier was outstanding and we got quite close to the face. It was very impressive watching the huge chunks of ice falling off.

After the boat trip we were taken up to the board walks which allow you to look down on the glacier. We had a few hours and there which were spent taking photos, chatting in the sun and watching even larger chunks of ice falling off the glacier (but be warned, don't get too close).

We then headed back to El Calafate for our flight to Buenos Aires. The return flight was fairly uneventful until we neared Buenos Aires. On the approach we were treated to an electrical storm... Thankfully we flew around it rather than through it.

The final day in Buenos Aires was very relaxed and chilled out. Jill and I spent the day exploring the small (and not so small) streets, looking at paintings, buying gifts and checking out the subway. A very nice way to end what had been a fantastic holiday.