31st December Lago Roca – El Calafate 91 miles

Packed up camp today and for the second day running we were able to fill our camelpacks from the tap as the water is once again potable. Must be because we are in the mountains, I guess.

Off to the Moreno Glacier today, this is only about 30 miles away, the first 18 on ripio and then a smooth road which gradually became more twisty as we progressed along it. We are riding down beside a lake with the odd iceberg on it and then we wind around the mountain, this is a great riding road for all you motorcyclists.

Then it happened, we round a corner and there it is, or at least part of it, the Moreno Glacier. You will have to wait for the photos once again but this is stunning. It is a living moving Glacier and is about 5 miles wide, I told Martin that I would have to go back and do that bit again with the video.

You can take a boat trip which takes you up close. The glacier towers between 45 and 75 meters above us and feeds into 2 lakes. We went on from the boat to the end of the road where a new visitors centre has been built with a very comprehensive and complicated walkway. Whilst we were there watching and listening to the glacier, every now and again there is a noise like a clap of thunder, where part of the glacier collapses, often you cannot see this but just hear. Everyone wants to see a peice break off the face, you can watch a listen for ages and not witness this, but fortunately for me I was standing next to a German guy who shouted and pointed as a massive piece broke from the face and crashed into the water. Many photos later and an exhaustive walk back, up all the steps we had previously strutted down we headed back along the fantastic twisty road to El Calefate.

On the way up to the visitor centre we saw Mark and Michael, two Canadians who are father and son we had previously met in El Condor nearly 3 weeks ago. Having had a chat with them they recommended the hostel they were staying in, it has secure parking, Wifi and we can join them for dinner later, this is great as it is New Years Eve.

Having got booked in I can now get the blogs posted as we have been incommunicado since Christmas Day when we left Ushuia. Both Martin and I caught up with our families, which was fantastic. I spoke to Jo at 12.30 UK time after she had celebrated New Year, it was only 9.30 here so we then went out for dinner and celebrated New Year ourselves. We were joined by a Dutch lady called Helena who is busing her way around and is staying in the same hostel.

A good evening and a late night, off to Chaiten tomorrow which is an active volcano, ironically it is in the Los Glaciers National Park, but I guess one leads to another.

We will get some photos posted soon but we have lost Martins laptop, broken not missing, so will sort as soon as possible. We will also try to keep the posts regular but it all depends on internet access and the places we have been recently have not had electricity let alone phones.

Happy New Year.