Torres del Paine 2013 - Getting Back
Posted by Mark Richardson on Mar 04, 2013
If you’ve read the rest of the detail on this trip you’ll know that we completed the ‘O’ circuit with an additional dog-leg at the beginning, four hours walking got us to the Refuge Paine Grande which is on both the ‘O’ and ‘W’ routes.
We completed the circuit ending back at Refuge Paine Grande where there’s a catamaran service to a bus drop off point across the Park, so its not necessary to walk the dog-leg back again. We caught the 12.30 catamaran and as we’d bought return tickets from Puerto Natales we caught the bus back, arriving at around 5pm.
We had a few days to spend before our flights home which we spent in both Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas.
Wednesday 22nd March
We left our hotel in Punta Arenas at 12Noon, arrived at the airport and boarded our 14.20 flight back to Santiago.
Arrived Santiago at 17.45, ready for our flight to Madrid, due to leave at 20.10, which it did. Again, a night flight across the Atlantic worked well, a mild sleeping tablet and it was all over!
Thursday 23rd March
We arrived in Madrid at 13.25 local time and had something to eat. One the way back to London we were flying into London City airport rather than Heathrow. As we had both used public transport to get to Heathrow this was no problem.
We arrived at London City Airport at 18.10. I got the Docklands Light Railway and tube to Kings Cross and caught the pre-booked 20.00 train to Darlington which arrived at 10.30.
I was picked up and arrived home at 11.00pm after travelling for 32 hours.
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Mark Richardson |
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Mark was the founder of Ultralight Outdoor Gear back in 2006 and has completed long distance backpacking routes in some of the remotest parts of the world. His favourite hikes have been Torres del Paine (full circuit), the John Muir trail and the Markha Valley trail (Ladakh, India). Although semi-retired Mark has not lost any enthusiasm for minimalist backpacking and is tackling Scotland’s Munros choosing multi-day backpacking routes over the more usual guide book excursions. |
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