Chapter 8 - Time to Start Heading North

Chapter 7 – 2nd – 5th January – Time to Start Heading North

We spent another two nights on Sealion Island. On the 2nd January we had a fairly mellow morning and in the afternoon we set off to explore the East end of the island. We started off following the North coast past loads of Elephant seals. Again they largely ignored us but we still passed them land side – giving them clear passage to the sea if they got spooked. There was the odd Magellanic penguin – they get called jackass penguins because their call sounds like a donkey – noisy little things they are too. Slowly the beach became a narrow strip of rocks – I headed a little higher – joining Andrea in the sand dunes. Tomos joined us too and we kept heading for the East tip of the island. Below Sarah, Elin, Gus, tessa and 

The Tussac Jungle

Oscar kept to what was left of the beach. We eventually lost sight of each other as our sand-dune path became more Tussac grass invested and harder going. We eventually battled through to a clearing in the Tussac with difficulty – Tussac grass is a pain in the arse to walk  through as it forms distinct clumps that are taller than me and too close together to pass easily. It was clear we were now in two groups so we determined that we were close to the end of the Island which it would not be possible to reach. So we eventually found a passable route that got us to the South beach and we climbed down where it started.

We rested and waited for the others and then waited some more. We moved along the beach and waited again – there was plenty of wildlife to see. We moved along the beach again until we reached a point where access to the North was again easy. Tomos sought higher ground but still no sign of the others. So we waited some more. Eventually 5 specs appeared on our beach. They were safe and on the way. When we reunited it became apparent that their beach efforts were eventually thwarted and they too were forced higher into the Tussac. They had to climb to reach it and it sounds like it was, quote, “an adventure”. They then battled through to reach our beach without finding the clearing. Team Tussac as we nicknamed them were tired but otherwise unharmed; apart from a little too much sun. They had also eaten all the best sweets! The clearing club team tried not to be too smug about their route ;)

Fun Fiction – There is a long lost tribe in Falkland legends called the “Fwcawi”; apparently their heads occasionally pocked up out of Tussac grade and they declared “We’re the Fwcawi?”… Andrea is their long lost queen.

Thursday (3rd January) was our last day on the Island we were expecting to to be picked up by plane at around 10am (as we had arrived at this time). FIGAS (Falkland Island Government Air Service) had other ideas and their facebook post (they way you find anything out) revealed we were to leaving until mid afternoon so we had bonus time on the island. In the morning, the Island had lost comms with the outside world (microwave link had failed). Our hosts have a satellite phone for these eventualities and confirmed our flight was still later. We took the landrover again and returned to visit the Rockhopper penguins. It was a calmer day and it was good to have a good look around without too much fear of being blown away (wind was Catullus under 30mph – calm for these parts).
Our flight came at around 3pm; dropped off its sole passenger and collected the 4 x Woods + Andrea. We had the same pilot. He remembered my height and had kindly removed a row of seating to give me extra legroom! We were airborne in seconds and enjoyed a lovely flight back to Stanley.

Friday was a quiet day. We did souvenir shops, online check ins and behaved like annoying tourists. Unlike the Americans we didn’t order fish n’chips. It rained lots (it hasn’t actually rained that much here), the other Woods went for a beach walk. They saw nothing new and got wet.

The weather forecast for tomorrow’s flight to Chile looks promising; we may actually leave the Falklands on schedule. All being well we will be in Santiago, Chile late tomorrow night for a two night stay – that will give us one day of summer heat on Sunday – my shorts are ready!

5th January – Departure Saturday

This had been a potential problem point. 3/5 weeks to date and the flight out had been delayed 24 hrs by rotor winds. We needed to connect with a flight to Santiago from Punta Arenas on Saturday night. As a precaution I had a second flight booked (which could be cancelled at low cost) on the Sunday night. If that failed then we would miss the flight on Monday to Madrid from Santiago with disastrous consequences – hassle and financial! As it happened the wind direction was fine and once again things went to plan (this is not our normal run of luck). We would be in Santiago at the end of the day!

We spent the morning packing and Andrea and Gus once again borrowed a company bus to take us to RAF Mount Pleasant and they timed it so that we had minimum delay to checkin (we were one of the last). Again this flight was only half full. Getting in to the airbase involved ID checks at the gate and then we were taken to the passenger “terminal”. The single checkin desk sound had our baggage off us and we said our good-byes and headed through security. Manchester airport is now in third place for strict security – Mount Pleasant takes second place. Anglesey airport you are still there at number one! We paid a our £25 a head tax to leave, had a penguin stamp in the passport and then got my bag thoroughly searched after it failed the scanner. I think they wondered what my blue tooth headphones were. The departure area (it can’t be called a lounge) had a single kiosk selling light refreshments and also a very limited selection of actually well priced duty free. I only partook of a snack as we didn’t want the hassle of carrying bottles on the long 5 flight journey ahead.

Summer in Santiago 

We departed on time and actually joined a take off queue! FIGAS 8-seat aircraft got ahead taking nature tourists out to the remoter parts. We followed and had an easy flight to Punta Arenas. Once at Punta we had a short wait at the immigration kiosk, collected our luggage, exited and then checked in again to a SKY Airlines flight to Santiago. We passed back through security (very easy going in Chile) and went into quite a busy “executive” but living room sized lounge to wait for our flight. SKY airlines seems to be the Ryanair of Chile. Yes it was cheap. I had splashed out for the front seats ($15) and this granted us priority boarding. They actually had us on the air bridge queuing to board whilst incoming passenger were exiting – that’s how quick they need to turn around their flights. We noticed a gentleman in front of us was the centre of attention from exiting passenger – wanting selfies and hugs. This went on all flight and after our eventual arrival. He was obviously a major Chilean celebrity – Tomos had the honour of being sat with him – he just have been very relived that we were were foreigners and didn’t have a clue who he was! The flight to Santiago stopped off in Punta Montt and half the people got off and then another half got on to join us for the final leg to Santiago. These people had first come, first served on seating so it was a bit of a scrum. Our celeb friend (I’ll call him Iolo as he looked a bit like Iolo Williams) was once again the centre of attention. Tomos refrained from photo-bombing the selfies with Iolo. At around 1.15am we hit Santiago runway (I can’t call it a landing). SKY airlines baggage handlers eventually returned our bags and we were in the airport Hilton by 2.30am – it had been a long day. But we were safely positioned for our long Monday flight to Madrid and giving us a day to explore Santiago.

6-7th January – Chillin in Chile and back to Europe

Cable Car

On Sunday morning we transferred to another hotel in the city (there is good reason to have multiple hotel stays if you are in the point collection game). Even though we were three hours early, rank had privilege and we were checked in, upgraded and given passes to the exec lounge (freebies) – result!

Fenicular Railway

We spent the afternoon exploring the Mt Christobel hillside park. A cheap taxi ride took us to the bottom of a funicular tram. We queued with the locals and purchased a ticket  – around £6 each secured a round trip ticket of funicular and  cable car rides. The hillside is a park, zoo and mountain bike tracks (special cable cars carry bikes up). It was mid 20s Celsius day and very pleasant. The top of the mountain has the obligatory religious icon  - here a statue of the Virgin Mary – Santiago’s answer to Rio’s “Christ the Redeemer”. The cable car took us to a park area which had a great garden restaurant where we enjoyed a great lunch (it had real chips). We returned via cable car and tram and another taxi (this time rip-off) to the hotel. Why in most world cities do some taxi drivers have to rip off tourists. I outwitted KL and Hong Kong but this guy has £10 of my cash that he shouldn’t – twat!

The lounge of the hotel provided free drinks and refreshments – Karma’s answer to taxi drivers. We had an earlier night – the long haul awaited.
This morning we were taken by hotel arranged taxi (a nice one that didn’t try to rip us off) to the airport. The place was carnage – everyone in Chile is going somewhere. But our “free” points biz class tickets paid dividends and we were shown an empty checkin desk and private emigration and security check and then direct access to the lounge. Not a single queue – bliss! The teens managed to follow as guests and actually have the delights of premium economy ahead – it will only involve passing one curtain to visit them!

So the trip is nearly over. Ahead a 12.5 hour flight, 24hrs in Madrid (not really planned but flight changes months ago necessitated) and then on to Manchester, home and work.
It has been a great and very different trip (thanks Clausens). You now know someone who has been to the Falklands.

End.

Nearly home - Madrid