Facebook, sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it, especially when I'm sat in a hostel with free Internet and the person using it decides to spend 5 years uploading photos or, more annoyingly, flicking through someone else's when all I want to do is quickly check email..... grrrrr. This time though it meant I unexpectedly met up with Chantal and Jeremy, two friends I'd first met whilst squashed into a shared jeep on the way up to Darjeeling in India! I was just back from Easter Island, they'd recently arrived from NZ and I had no idea they were even on the same continent until I logged into..... Yup this one time I loved it! I'd already spent a few days in Santiago before heading out to Easter Island and loved it, especially the Museum ... read more

Down the steps onto the runway at Rapa Nui airport and my first thought was.... at last, heat! Don't get me wrong, Patagonia had been stunning and I'd loved it but I was also thrilled at the thought of being able to put my fleece away for a few days! The owner of the hostel I'd booked greeted me with a garland of lovely bright flowers and I was whisked off to the hostel to meet up with Ann, Gordon and Eamo once more. It'd only been a few weeks since we last met for dinner on the one night we all overlapped in Puerto Madryn but there was lots of news to catch up on. Again though we were only overlapping for one day - they'd booked their flights a month after me by which ... read more

Where were those darn elephant seals hiding??! 45mins of bumping and skidding along the cliff top at Punta Ninfas in our poor little silver hire car, stopping to peer gingerly over the edge whilst trying not to be swept over by the wind and we were still none the wiser. OK so you might argue that a seal is a seal and I'd already seen plenty in Antarctica, but those weren't Elephant seals, the largest of seals with their distinctive noses. Here at Punta Ninfas, some 90 km southwest of Puerto Madryn, they were apparently (almost!!) guaranteed to be found, but with the exception of a few playing out in the surf we'd yet to see any. In the end we decided to park up, brave the winds and clamber down. We'd been warned about unattended ... read more

To be honest there weren't many lows... apart from the fifth day when I had a slight sense of humour failure but more on that later! From the little I'd seen of Patagonia the scenery was stunning and the drive from Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine National Park was no different - distant snow capped peaks, Guanaco (lowland wild Llamas) munching on grass by the roadside, flamingos wading at the waters edge and circling on the thermals high above, Condors. The four of us, me, Eamo, Ann and Gordon had come to do the W trek, the route of which, unsurprisingly, follows the shape of a W (rather than the slightly more hard core 'Full circuit' or 'Q loop'). Contrary to advice in the guide books though we'd chosen to walk from East to West... ... read more

The plan was to write just one blog on Antarctica, at least it was until I started looking at my photos. OK so there's probably only so many ice and penguin photo's you want to see, but looking at them again months after the trip has reminded me that it's still the most amazing thing I've ever done. So here goes blog 2 out of 3! I woke up early on our second day at the peninsular - the breakfast call was yet to come and I took the opportunity to head up on deck. With everyone else still in their cabins there was barely a noise to be heard apart from the lapping of water against the boat. The sun had yet to rise over the surrounding snowy peaks and everything had this stunning blue ... read more