26th February 2017 – Chile here we come !

26th February 2017 – Chile here we come !

Today we have a land transfer to our hotel in the Torres del Paine National Park. 4 hours across the flat, empty landscape of the steppes and a land border crossing into Chile.

This was also the day of the solar eclipse, so our guy had been asked to find us a good sport to watch this so he stopped at this wonderful panorama spot where we could see Mount Fitzroy and the whole range of the Andes peaks.

Eclipse glasses on, camera masked with special paper and we sat and watched the total eclipse.
Steve had shot this image with his new filter that Janette's nephew, Dean and Lisa had bought despite having critical allen keys required for this shot removed by security at Birmingham airport.

Its quite easy to stand in the road and
take pictures without getting run over

Onwards to the border with Chile which wasn’t quite what we had expected. It was a couple of sheds on an Estancia with a little chain fence the border guard had to run out and open for you !

We then left our Argentine driver and were collected on the Chilean side by the hotel. A further 45 minutes over unmade roads in a Toyota Landcruiser with the most stunning views of the Massif and the Towers of Torres del Paine and we arrived at the Awasi Patergona.

These clouds are Venticular clouds that form
at high wind speeds of over 800 mph

Our room with views of the famous
Three Towers of the Torres Del Paine

What can we say, it is a stunning hotel, built of sustainable wood with a main building and all the villas are off on their own blended into the hillside with a full view of the Massif and the Towers of Torres del Paine. Just wonderful and just what we needed after 10 days in a ship’s cabin.

We have a Landcruiser and ranger for our exclusive use so we sat with him and went through the maps discussing what we wanted to see and do. I'm sure he will get used to stopping every 5 mins for a picture because it sure is that kind of place.

Needless to say, photography likes a sunrise or sunset and it looks like tomorrow has the best weather so mad fools that we are, we have a 5.00 wake up tomorrow !!

Sitting now in the bar in the main part of the hotel with a drink in hand watching the sun set over the mountains, just fabulous but with the arduous travel, sleep is not too far away..zzzzz

25th February 2017 – Back on Terra Firma…….or not

25th February 2017 – Back on Terra Firma…….or not in Janettes case.

This was going to be a long day!

Wake up call this morning by Boris was 6am just as we docked back in Ushuaia. Luggage was off loaded and after breakfast at 7am it was time to say farewell to our new friends and the crew. It had been like a big family and we had all been through such a mega experience together it felt terribly sad saying goodbye to everyone especially as we had seen some sights that many people don't get to see on these expeditions.

Back on dry land, we had a couple of hours to kill before heading to the airport. It was then Janette discovered that while she had been fine at sea, she developed motion sickness on dry land !! Fortunately one of our boat friends suffered from this too and told her to put on a sea sickness patch so Janette spent the next three days looking like she had her bolt removed as she sported a little circular plaster.

Off to Ushuaia airport to catch the flight to  El Calafate airport, the gateway for our land transfer across the Chilean border into the Torres del Pain National Park. 

All was well, we boarded and the plane pushed back and then stopped………….turned out there had been an emergency landing at El Calafate of a private plane which had problems with its landing gear and they had closed the airport to get this plane down and repair the damage to the runway.

After 3 hours at the airport, (great view from the airport..) they flew us to the nearest airport to El Calafate, which was Rio de Galleos and then bussed us through to El Calafate which took 4 hours.

We arrived at the bus station at midnight !  Mercifully our pick up transfer was there waiting for us so by 1am we were checked in and having a Patagonian beer at the bar across the street ! 

The joys of travel... but at least we made it without messing up our next plans. 

24th February 2017 – Heading North to Cape Horn

Another rock & roll night and then it was time to pack which was not easy as the swell sent us from one end of the cabin to the other, plus you had to watch the cupboard doors didn’t catch your hand as they swung back in the swell.

By lunchtime the swell had settled a bit and Boris came in to announce that we were through the majority of the Drakes Passage and the worst of the weather. Big cheer for that one !

We were able to get back on deck and Steve tied out his new lens on the albatross that were following the ship

As the weather was good we got our first sight of Cape Horn from far out, very exciting ! 
We had read about it since childhood but never thought we'd see it for ourselves.

Cape Horn Ahoy !

We made it !

In the afternoon, we were told that as the weather was better than expected they would try & get us closer to Cape Horn. This involved discussions with the Chilean navy as Cape Horn is in their territory. Once agreed the Chilean authorities gave us permission to go to 3 miles out & then turn.We were close enough to see the Cape, the light house and the memorial to sailors. Everyone was out on deck for this.

Memorial and Lighthouse on Cape Horn

As this was our last evening, Dave the photographer & Boris the Expedition leader had put together a slide show for us telling the story of our journey from Day 1 with some very funny stories & images. 

Dinner followed in a party atmosphere followed by a heavy session in the bar celebrating our survival and an epic journey.

23rd February 2017 – The Dreaded Drakes Passage !!

23rd February 2017 – The Dreaded Drakes Passage !!

The wind picked up and the ship rocked & rolled through the night. Not enough to tip us out of our bunks but close… After another "Good Morning Vietnam" awakening at 7.00, we staggered down to breakfast like a bunch of penguins with a wide gait desperately trying to keep our balance.

“One hand for the ship “was the rule as it stopped you falling sideways into stairwells or some stranger’s cabin. Breakfast was fun, running into people’s tables as we staggered back from the buffet, but overall it had not been any worse than when we travelled down.

Boris’s breakfast announcement was that the weather front had passed us by and the weather wasn’t any worse than when we passed through the Drakes’s Passage on the way down……………once again - the travel gods were on our side.

We had all the experts running lectures during the trip back through the Drakes passage as it wasn’t possible to be outside for too long because of the rock & roll. Mike the second whale expert told us all out being on the whaling commission & showed us how the whale recovery had progressed since the moratorium on whaling.

Simon the ornithologist spent time with us on our favourite penguins and Dave the resident professional photographer showed us some of his work from this trip, which was really good. 

The Shackleton Whisky Story
We were treated to a great lecture on the discovery of Shacketon's Mackinlay Whisky.  It transpires that under his hut and only discovered last year was a case of whisky which appeared to have been buried and subsequently frozen.
Upon discovery, the whisky was taken to New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, the head blender was flown from Scotland (by the Indian owner of the distillery and Kingfisher) and confirmed that it was the best scotch he had ever had and they set about re-constituting it by the use of science.  Of course, Steve could not resist the temptation to have a $20 shot of Shackleton's whisky with all proceeds going to the Antarctic charities (Steve's excuse anyway).
You can now but this blend for about £135 but Steve says its only any good when you have it in the Antarctic but was a brilliant story for Steve who is a big Shackleton fan.

22nd February 2017 – Heading North to Deception Island

22nd February 2017 – Heading North to Deception Island

This little but strange island is in the North of the South Shetland Islands and was undiscovered until the early 1900s.  This is an active volcano whose destructive power has wiped out many research stations based here in history. 

The landing beach on Deception Island.

The entrance to Deception Island is through a narrow channel with a large rock right in the middle called Neptune’s Bellows, so tricky navigation and also the reason for the name Deception Island as many ships passed right by missing the entrance.

Off the Zodiacs and into the caldera of the volcano to beaches of black volcanic sand, chunks of Ironstone and pumice, the beach was warm and as a result, gave off steam along the beach. 

It was also home to several fur seal families that seemed unbothered by our existence except when we walked too near a derelict tub which turned out to be one's home & he came out giving us a very angry reception ! Fur seals can be aggressive so we were all given walking poles just in case we needed to fend them off, but they were far too interested in sleeping and swimming to bother with us.

This wild alien landscape was littered with old buildings, storage tanks and pieces of history were scattered everywhere.  Nobody is allowed to remove anything from here but the site is not going to be restored and is to be allowed to fall apart and eventually disappear.
The constructions had developed leans due to the volcanic activity which has rendered the site impossible to use commercially.

The site was originally a whaling station and the conditions here must have been truly terrible but whale blubber was a very significant commercial product so whaling stations were important.  

Derelict landing pontoon devoured by
the islands volcanic activity

Later, it became a British Antarctic Research Station but was destroyed in the volcano of 1970s.  Later, Britain had heard rumours of an increase in interest in the Falkland Islands and the government then opened it up again a “research” station.  

Remnants of commercial whaling in the middle of nowhere.

Lick of paint, it'll be as good as new ....
with sea lions in residence !

Recent volcanic activity destroyed the station again and it was just left to rot leaving a ghostly lunar landscape now only occupied by sea lions, occasional explorers and the graves of a couple of people lost to the deadly sea.
This day, the sun briefly tried to shine though the thin mist of volcanic steam that covered the island.  It was the first time we had seen the sun but it was only for a couple of minutes.

Not the prettiest of ships but we loved her
.....especially when we could see it !!

By the time we returned to the ship, there was a major swell and the exits from the RIB’s onto the gangplank was pretty tricky and had to be timed as the ship rose & fell. Not Janette’s favourite landing !!

The final expedition due for the afternoon was cancelled.  The sea swell by then was too high for safe Zodiac launch and so our trip to see the final Chinstrap penguin colony in Half Moon Bay and the last one of the trip had to be ditched.  Janette had a  coronary trying to get of the Zodiac onto the ships steps with the Zodiac going up and down by 2m but she made it in the end although we never heard the end of the episode all night.

No-one felt let down by the weather as we had seen some chinstrap penguins on the last stop where they were living in amongst the Gentoo's. We all felt extremely lucky we had experienced so much on this wonderful adventure, plus we had all had more than our share of the smell of penguin poo !!!

We are now assuming that we are going to cross a stormy Drakes Passage and whilst everyone was in good party mood as we neared the end of our Antarctic Odyssey which surpassed all of our dreams. News was slipping out that later tomorrow, the forecast was for 16m wave height and we would be lashing everything down including ourselves.  So now everyone is reaching for their seasick patches, wrist bands, tablets or whatever they have…we’re on our way back to Ushuaia in Argentina arriving in 72 hours from now, one way or another....but who knows what the weather will be like.

Remnants of the British research station
minus the plant pots

Storage tanks now house a very house
proud sea lion family who tells us that we are not invited

21st February 2017 Mainland Antarctica Danco Island and Fournier Bay

21st February 2017   Mainland Antarctica Neko Harbour  and Fournier Bay

STOP PRESS   

Steve and Janette and other passengers celebrate having done all 7 continents !!

Today, was an earlier start than normal as we had to travel further north during the afternoon.  Many of us were still feeling a bit smug after the whale experience of yesterday, there seemed a distinct lack of traction, however, as you might expect on this continent of change and challenge, this was also going to be a good day.

They smell bad but they are hard not to love !

Kitting up with our customary 5 layers, re- sterilising and boarding the Zodiac boats, our first expedition today was to Neko Harbour to land on the Antarctic Mainland for the first time. 

Neko is home to a huge Gentoo penguin colony and pretty spectacular this was. As it was further north, some of the chicks were younger and they are so funny to watch. The chicks especially curious, walk very close and in Steve’s case, almost over his boot.  
There are of course rules when here such as don’t go more than 5m close to a bird unless they choose to investigate you, but nobody had told the penguins these rules ! Within minutes they were all heading towards us like hundreds of little charlie chaplins heading down over the ice to check out the newcomers.

The smell was epic .........People had made reference to  the smell and in the end, we just called this fresh air.

Away from the danger area - ice chunks weighing 

many thousands of tons regularly falls off creating 

waves on the beech aras

We are not allowed to stay on the beach after landing as the Glaciers are very mobile and huge 1000+ ton chunks of ice regularly (hourly) fall off and create small tsunamis on an almost daily basis. 


 Stunning as the area is, we were always made aware of the danger and after a walk around, went on a zodiac tour of the coast with a small group but didn’t manage to get far due to sheer amount of glacier ice (brash ice) hitting the boat or clogging up the outboard prop of the boat.  

We found a happy family of crab eater seals who played with us for a while and saw some spectacular icebergs.
The scenery was about as forbidding as it could possibly be here and we could not help feeling that we were grateful that the crew checked us off the boat and checked us back in again...its hard to imagine you could survive here even in these suits for more that a day and nobody would here you.  We were exploring a 500 mile stretch of the South Shetland Islands but Antarctica is as big as Europe and Australia combined so the feeling on insignificance is always with us.

Eventually, after many fantastic pictures and mild frostbite, we went back to the boat to de-kit, de-ice and feed. 

On the way back to the ship, we took the Zodiac to explore the local glaciers and to try and get close to the mouth of one - which was forming new icebergs. This get progressively harder as you get to the glazier mouth as the ice gets more and more and wants to try and clog the propeller of the engine up so sometimes we have to reverse to free the prob.  All of our crews have radios to each other and the ship but at no time did we have any issues that required additional help - thankfully, these Canadian crew members are extremely experienced. 

No Two whale tales are alike and all
pictures of them have to be submitted for ID

There was no need for the Zodiacs in the afternoon as we ventured down the Fournier Bay.  The sister ship has emailed to say that there was a collection of whales feeding here but that was over 10 days ago.  


On deck, with our binoculars, cameras and everybody trying to wear as many hats and gloves as they could, we sat and waited as we drifted into the bay looking at the whales “bubble feeding”.  

A Group of Whales "Bubble Feeding"

Ari the whale expert confirmed this is a new behaviour in the Antarctic where the whales circle in a group and blow air bubbles to ambush the fish, then in one giant mouth full, they are consumed and although he had seen it in the Arctic, he had never seen it in the Antarctic until now

Our first group brought masses of excitement and another terabyte of photography but eventually we realised that there were so many of them, we just needed to witness this rare sight of 50-80 whales feeding and whilst we all nearly froze to death, nobody was going off deck.

Totally satisfied that we could say that we had seen a rare and new for Antarctica feeding method, a rare event for the non specialist general public to see, we needed food, alcohol and sleep…tomorrow is our last expedition day and whilst many are on the last legs of energy, nobody is going to miss anything on this continent of awe inspiring scenery and constant surprises.

Hello Gorgeous !

Did you know there is a penguin on my foot !
Steve had a penguin nearly walk across his foot.