The O-Circuit: Day Six, Seven & Eight

Day Six - Grey to Paine Grande

To treat myself on the morning of day six, I splashed out and purchased an hour of wifi for CLP7500/AUD12.50. It was the most I’ve every paid for internet and to be honest it was a total waste, as it was too slow to back up all my photos, and I made the mistake of purchasing it at breakfast where I spent most of the hour socialising and not using my phone.

The hike from Grey to Paine Grande was only 11km, and it was one of the most spectacular walks in my opinion. There was a lot of photo stops, and a half our stop for playing in the fierce wind on top of one of the look out points along the way.

One more annoying aspect of the day was that it was no longer just O-Trekkers you were sharing your path with. The path was busy with day trippers and W-Trekkers as well, and it slows you down a lot when you have to stop and wait for people to pass. Even though it was shoulder season, it was also Easter weekend, so it was still pretty busy. I can only imagine how much worse it would be in the height of peak season between December and February!

Paine Grande was one of the most impressive campsites. Not only were the facilities a lot larger that other campsites, it was positioned in a striking spot with mountains on one side and the sapphire blue lake on the other.

Another impressive yet slightly scary feature of Paine Grande was the number of destroyed pre-pitched tents that were in the campsite on the platforms – the guy who checked us in warned us not to pitch our tent on the platform, as the wind would tunnel through and could cause tears in the doors of the tents. We managed to squeeze into a small spot that kept us relatively sheltered overnight.

Despite the “Grande” appearance (pardon the pun), Paine Grande had the worse shower facilities out of all the campsites we stayed, bar Los Perros which had no hot water. Paine Grande had very lukewarm water, it honestly would have been better not to even bother! What it lacked for in showers it made up for in other facilities – the cooking refugio was massive, they had a well stocked kiosk that sold toothbrushes (which I’d managed to lose), and a bar that was absolutely buzzing in the evening.

DAY SIX FAST FACTS:

Time it was meant to take: 4.5 hours
Time it actually took us: 6 hours

Trail conditions: A bit muddy and rocky in parts, but relatively well maintained
Distance: 11km
Campsite cost: USD$13 per person

Top Tip: The bar is crowded with a lot of W trekkers - so I'd recommend buying a drink from the kiosk and sitting down near the lake if the weather allows!

Day Seven - Paine Grade to Frances (via Mirador Britannica)

The way back down was challenging on the knees, and my whole body was aching so much after putting it through a whole week of hiking already, unfortunately my ankle didn’t want to play game and I rolled it multiple times on the way down, and kept stubbing my already swollen toe on too many rocks to count. None of it was sore enough to stop me, just enough to drain me!

And that was exactly what my excuse was when finally, after picking our bags back up and hiking the extra 2km to our campsite, I realised I’d yet again lost my phone. Somehow I had a hidden stash of energy when my adrenaline kicked in, and I ran most of the way back to the refugio where we left our bags. Once again, I was EXTREMELY lucky, and my phone was sitting right where I had left it. After adding an extra 4km steps to my daily step count, I sheepishly entered the bar back at the campsite where I had to admit to my fellow o-trekkers that I had somehow managed to lose my phone a second time in 3 days, and buy Tim a much deserved beer for running back for it with me in the dark.

DAY SEVEN FAST FACTS:

Time it was meant to take: 8 hours
Time it actually took us: 9 hours

Trail conditions: Paine Grande to Frances was dry and mostly flat, the Mirador trail was very steep, slightly slippery in some parts
Distance: 23km
Campsite cost: USD$30 per person

Top Tip: Although there is a refuge at the base of the hike to Mirador Britannica, you aren't allowed to cook with gas stoves there. Bring a cold packed lunch instead! You can pick one up from Paine Grande if needed - you could get a decent sized sandwich for about ARS6,000.

Day Eight - Frances to Central (return shuttle from the Welcome Centre)

The FINAL day! There were many days I seriously did not think this day would come, that I would have to give up before reaching this point. My body had never been in more pain – everything hurt from my shoulders to my feet and my swollen big toe (not my hips though, thanks to my ill-fitting backpack!).

This day I had no idea how long it was. Everything I’d heard or read conflicted each other. Some websites had said 20km, some maps had said 13km, some people were saying 15km. Honestly, It was probably a good thing I had no idea as it helped my motivation knowing the finish line could be any moment.

We woke up to the most incredible sunrise on Day Seven – it made my usual slow packing morning even slower as I stopped to watch the pink and orange clouds foray over the mountains.

We left camp rather late that morning – out of all the O Trekkers I think we were the last to leave, alongside two of our British friends we had made along the way, so we decided to enjoy the days hike together.

This day’s hike was an exciting one – after 5.5km, we were able to ditch our backpacks for day packs!

We stopped at the small refugio at the base of the Mirador Britannica hike, had a quick lunch, left our bags and started the accent up to Mirador Frances and Mirador Britannica lookouts.

It was still a hard hike without our bags with a steep, rocky ascent, but compared to everything we’d endured over the past week, it didn’t feel as tough. It didn’t help though that we took a wrong turn, resulting in discovering a new lookout point – however adding an extra hour onto our walking time, and we were already hiking quite late in the day by this point. Once we finally did find the correct viewpoint, we were blown away how majestic the views were. Unfortunately, we only could spend about 20 minutes taking it all in, before we had to head back so we could reach our campsite before it got dark.

We set off on our final day around 10:30am. It was a slow walk, but a very scenic one and the trail wasn’t busy at all. There were some unexpected inclines but all-in-all, it was relatively moderate – if I wasn’t eight days into hiking, I might have even said it was an easy hike!

I still don’t know how many km it was, but it took about 6.5 hours including photo stops and a quick lunch stop.

The final steps into the Central campsite, where we had begun our hike eight days prior, were some of the proudest and most exhausted steps I’ve taken. I was greeted by other O-Trek friends who had arrived earlier with hugs and congratulations, and threw my backpack down in relief. Although, I couldn’t celebrate quite yet – I had to go and book new return bus tickets because we had well and truly missed our prebooked bus.

Once they were booked, we went to the restaurant at Central to celebrate over a couple of drinks and a meal (actually, I ate two meals, I was THAT starving!). We bid farewell to all our newfound friends who still had one more day of the trek to do (the hike to the towers, which we did on our first day), and set off at sunset on the journey back to Puerto Natales.

DAY EIGHT FAST FACTS:

Time it was meant to take: No idea!
Time it actually took us: 7 hours

Trail conditions: Dry, hilly.
Distance: Also no idea! Some places said 15km, others 18km, others 21km..

Top Tip: Don't book the earlier 3:20pm bus back unless you plan on getting up early on the last morning and rushing back - the shuttle to the bus leaves at 2pm. We ended up getting the 7:00pm shuttle for the 8:20pm bus which was late but meant we could enjoy a celebratory meal and drinks at the end at Central. Of course, this only matters if you are doing Mirador Las Torres on Day 1 like we did!