Reflections

Magellanic buddies.

And Gentoo buddies.

 One of 14 landings, in mostly calm conditions.

A sheathbill. 

Adelies on ice.

Commerson's dolphins.

On the march!

The blue eyed shag, or cormorant.

Can you spot the imposter?

A water logged King penguin chick. The feathers are not waterproof and he is probably chilled through.

A black browed albatross

Thanks guys!

Monday, November 25th.

I planned, researched and booked this trip last spring as what I euphemistically called my ‘graduation’ from school. After 27 years as an elementary school teacher in Toronto I decided to retire in June of 2019. I remember hearing from a principal I had about his newly retired buddies who would phone him at school on the first day from the golf course and bug him about still working. I wanted to do something special, more than phoning former colleagues who were still working. I have travelled extensively and have visited every continent except one. A few fellow travellers over the years have regaled me with stories of the Antarctic. So, it was only natural I cast my eyes south. I investigated what my favourite travel company, GAdventures, had to offer. They had several trips on their website. The longest one, three weeks, left from Uruguay once a year and only had a couple of berths available for this year’s voyage. It was expensive but considering where you were going and what was included seemed reasonable to me. I messaged my travelling companion John in England to see if he was interested and viola, it was in the works. We got Denise, my travel agent to book the trip and the flights. Then I decided since the tour ended in Ushuaia at the southern end of Patagonia, to do some travelling there as well. I booked another ten days there for John and I through a South American travel agency and we were good to go. We just had to wait six months!

Now it is over and I have been reflecting on the experience. Well in a nutshell it was probably the trip of a life time. The only other single trip that rivals it was the 54 day Ultimate Africa trip where John and I met in 2010, also run by GAdventures.

The whole experience was exemplary and incredibly well run. The ship, the Expedition, was not a luxury cruise ship. It was a converted car ferry used previously in the Arctic, but it was a functional, comfortable, well-appointed vessel and well equipped for a voyage such as this. It made us feel like we were on an adventure or an expedition rather than a luxury cruise. It felt exciting and slightly dangerous that we were heading out into the remote and frozen areas of the world in this relatively small ship. The crew enhanced that feeling with their stories.

Along with the 130 or so of us, were the incredible crew. They can be divided into three groups. There was the captain and his staff of officers, engineers and sailors who sailed the ship to all of our destinations and transported us from one site to another so we could experience as much as possible. There was the GAdventures staff that included 17 people. They included: geologists, naturalists, a glaciologist, an ornithologist, a marine mammal biologist, a professional mountain climber, an artist, a musician, Zodiac pilots, and kayak experts. Their experiences in polar environments, scientific knowledge and camaraderie were exemplary. Two of them had made over 100 trips each to the Antarctic and Scobie had spent 40 years of his life in this region doing a wide variety of things. And finally, there was the excellent ‘hotel’ staff, the waiters, bartenders, and cleaning crew.

We sailed a total of 4295 nautical miles (which are slightly longer than regular miles – don’t ask me why) or 4942 regular miles. The furthest south we got was 64 degrees at Cierva Cove.

We made 14 landings on the islands of the Southern Ocean, including the Falklands, South Georgia, the South Shetland Islands and the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula. We only missed one planned landing, at Gold Harbour on South Georgia. Given the remoteness and potential weather conditions, this was remarkable and believe me the crew remarked on it repeatedly. One staff member said ‘If you are looking for better conditions don’t come back!’ We were indeed very lucky with the number of landings, the weather conditions and the calmness of the sea.

I got a taste of sailing on the high seas out of sight of land for days with nothing but water all around, trailed by petrels and albatross with the occasional whale sighting. I had always thought of sailing across the Atlantic, now I know what that would be like.

I got to see first-hand the places where Ernest Shackelton and his crew landed. Elephant Island, Wild Point and South Georgia Island are all incredibly remote and isolated now, I can only imagine a hundred years ago without the means of communication we have now and the technological advances we have made in ships and clothing. We saw these places in relatively fair weather, again I cannot imagine being there during the winter storms and gales that they somehow survived.

I learned many things from the lectures, especially about the variety and species of mammals, birds, and plants. But also, about the sealing and whaling industries that were the first reasons that people ventured into the South Atlantic and how they almost decimated the mammals. I learned more about the Antarctic explorers who risked and often lost their lives in the search for new lands, treasure and adventure.

The wildlife viewing was spectacular and a big reason for my coming in the first place. We saw tens of thousands of penguins of six different species, the Rockhopper, the Magellanic, the Gentoo, the King, the Chipstrap and the Adelie. We saw elephant, Weddell, crabeater and leopard seals. We saw a wide variety of sea birds, including several species of albatross (the wandering and the royal being the largest of them all), petrels, skuas, fulmers, shethbills and the South Georgia yellow billed pintail duck and the rare most southerly song bird, the South Georgia pipit. We saw several species of whales, but ultimately, they are usually a distance away and all you see is their back, their blow and if you are lucky, their tail as they dive. I thought we might see lots of dolphins, but we only saw a couple of the beautiful Commerson’s dolphins as they swam past in front of our ship. Timing, as they say is everything, and being the first voyage of the Antarctic season we were there sadly before the arrival of the killer whales. And the penguins were in the process of nesting so we did not see chicks, except for last year’s King penguin chicks and wandering albatross chicks which have to over winter for their growth and had not yet fledged.

The landscapes and scenery were incredible and really have to be seen in person to really be appreciated. I got to walk on sea ice and on a piece of land of the Antarctic Peninsula.

My fellow passengers were a dynamic group of like-minded people. People with wanderlust and a love of nature and the great outdoors. Most of us were not big fans of cold weather, but in order to see and experience what we did, we put ourselves out there. Most weather is doable if you are kitted up properly and you know you have a nice warm ship to return to! I made several new friends whom I hope to see in the future, perhaps in the Arctic, but of course Bruce needs a special shout out. He tolerated a lot of nonsense from us and gave back an endless series of one-liners and jokes. He was a great cabin mate and a lot of fun.

And to have John along again on another of my adventures was excellent! Together we have now been to six of the seven continents. He needs to visit me in Australia to complete the list.

So, what’s next? Well a group of the passengers are planning a potential trip to the Arctic in 2021, John and I are talking about a trip to the ‘Stans’, but first Australia beckons. So thank you for following along, or dropping in and out. If you are so inclined please drop me a line on the blog. I would love to hear from you. Until next time!

Homeward Bound

Drinking our bottle of bubbly before noon! as we wait for our shuttle. 

Waiting at the airport. 

 Black faced ibis

 Flamingos

 Long tailed meadowlark

 A barn owl on the prowl.

 Arial fight between the owl and a southern lapwing defending its nest.

Thursday, November 21^st.

Sadly last day! We had a relaxing sleep in and then got up and packed for a 10am checkout. We were notified that our transport to the airport would be at noon, so John went for a workout and I went for a swim. Then we met in the lobby and drank the bottle of bubbly wine that Gabriela from Signature Tours had placed in our room when we arrived. Nothing like being tipsy before noon.

The drive to airport was easy and we were both taking the flight to Buenos Aires. I was given the three boarding passing but for there seemed to be a problem with John which took about fifteen minutes to sort out. We never really knew what the problem was. Then we wound up being paged over the PA for the flight! When we arrived in BA we had a five hour layover. John had to pick up his bag from the carousel as it was not forwarded to the second airline and he couldn’t recheck it for the flight to Madrid for another two hours, so he had to carry it around. We hung around, had a chai and then after asking where the best restaurant was (turned out there was only one!) we had dinner and a couple of beer at the Hard Rock Café. We sat and talked, worked on our computers and then finally I decided to go to my gate. As always it is sad to say goodbye to each other, but we have a couple of ideas for future trips, so we’ll see. I had been watching the board and it never said it was boarding but when I got there they were looking for me and again I was paged!

The flight was long, nine hours, and quite turbulent. In fact they held off dinner for an hour because we were rocking and one of the waitresses had all of the stuff fall out of her cart.

Arrived in Houston on time at 5 and went through all the hoops before getting to my final gate to catch the 7:30 flight home. That’s it. Done and sorted. I will write up a reflections post shortly.

Horseback Riding and Rafting

I love this kind of landscape.

Getting an old man on a horse.

It was horse back walking, but fun with great views.

Trigger happy on 'Trigger'.

This dog's best friend is the lead horse which he followed after the horse was moved to a new farm.

Deserted stony beach with frigid waters.

Riding back through the typical steppe vegetation.

Safely back home.

Our after lunch serenade from Matteo.

        

Paulo and Natalie.

Let's go!

Although the water was flowing swiftly, this is as rough as it got.

Thank you Argentina.

The beautiful glacial colouration of Lake Argentina.

A guanaco, which we ate a couple of nights ago... not this one.

And the lesser Rhea, as close as we could get.

Wednesday, November 20^th.

We were picked up at 8:00 for our last day of adventure. Today it was to be horseback riding and rafting. Our driver was Matteo and our female guide was Paulo. In the van already was a young Australian from Western Australia named Natalie. We drove for an hour and a half out through the beautiful barren Patagonian steppe and rugged terrain. We saw many guanacos (llama like animals) and a couple of lesser rheas, a large flightless bird. Who knew? When we arrived at the lodge we immediately got kitted up with helmets and chaps and a horse. Paulo led us out for a two-and a half hour ride over the steppe and sand dunes to the beach on the lake. When we returned we were served an excellent lunch of empanada, steak and potatoes. Matteo entertained us with a few Argentinian songs on acoustic guitar. He was a great singer.

After lunch we went rafting. You couldn’t call it white water rafting, even Paulo called it a float. It was level one rafting down a swiftly moving river, but we had fun. We went for about an hour and only had to really paddle hard twice as we were going around a bend. When we finished we loaded the raft on the trailer and then Matteo drove us back to El Calafate. On the way back I challenged them to find some guanacos, some rheas and the beautiful glacier blue Lago Argentina for us so we could take photos. They found all three, okay the lake was easy.

Back at the hotel John and I decided to go into town before dinner and walk to Laguna Nimez which is a local environment sanctuary where we heard there were flamingos. It took about 15 minutes to walk there and then we found out there was an admission that we didn’t want to pay as we were only going to stay a half hour before dinner. So, we walked along the road on the outside and with our cameras were able to get some photos of a few of the flamingos. But, we also got some of the other birds and an owl that was flying around. At one point it was chased off by two lapwings as they defended their nest. I have put the bird pictures on the next post as I ran out of room here.

Then we went for our last dinner at the sister restaurant to the Casimiro from last night. Both of us opted for fish after the big steak at lunch. Then back to the hotel for the last time where we again made use of the pool and got ready for tomorrow’s departure.

Moreno Glacier

The ferry to the glacier on a drizzly morning.

Our first view. See the boat for scale!

Not a very nice morning for such a beautiful place.

We were going ice trekking. This is the group before us.

So we got kitted up with crampons.

And away we went.

Our guide describing the features of the glacier.

The views were spectacular!

We all got a shot of whiskey at the end of the two hour trek.

John Travolta lives!

A Southern crested caracara, a predatory bird.

In the afternoon the sun came out! What a difference!

Immense sheet of ice and gorgeous colour.

Doesn't it make you want to try to climb it?!?

Tuesday, November 19^th.

Today we were off to see the Moreno Glacier. We were picked up at 7:30 on a gloomy, drizzly day, the first for a long time. The van picked up other people at other hotels before taking us to a large coach where we boarded with still other people. I remember the other day our guide told us the meaning of the word Patogonia, which was giant bigfooted people. Interestingly, the travel company here is called ‘Gigantes Patagones’ and their logo is a big foot.

We drove for an hour and half on the coach to a boat launch where we boarded a ferry to take us to the other side of the river. On the way we sailed past the front of this massive glacier. It is huge! But this is only part of the ice field that is farther up the mountain. It is the third largest sheet of ice in the world, behind only Antarctica and Greenland. Up in the Andes lots of snow falls and the weight of it creates ice, hence the glacier and the continued weight and pull of gravity causes it to ‘flow’ down the mountain valleys. There are three major glaciers that come down the mountain from this ice field, and Moreno is the smallest of the three! At the highest part of the face at the river it is 70 metres tall! In 1986 it was 836 km2 and by 2011 it had shrunk to 750 km2, so like glaciers worldwide it is melting.

When we docked, we were met by a couple of guides, one for Spanish speakers and one for English speakers. We walked up to the chalet area to leave our lunches and get outfitted with crampons for our ice walk. Once we were ready to go, we walked on the glacier for a couple of hours. It is an amazing feeling walking on that much ice. The surface is granular as this glacier is in a temperate zone and the surface is always melting. Glaciers are inherently dangerous because they are on the move. The ice shifts and crevasses form, which no one wants to fall into. The features on the ice were beautiful and the blue colours gorgeous. At the end of the walk they served us all a shot of whiskey.

When we finished the trek, we returned our crampons and sat and had our provided box lunch with the glacier as our view. Then we took the ferry back across the river to the bus which drove us for a half hour to another viewpoint. Meanwhile the drizzle had stopped, the skies had cleared and the sun came out! This viewpoint had many trails and levels from which to admire the glacier. In the sun it was even more stunning.

After an hour there we drove back to El Calafate and our hotel. We had some time to make use of the pool, then we got organized and took the hotel shuttle to town. We walked to the Casimiro restaurant for our included dinner. This time the set menu had choices and we had steak and potatoes. Then shuttled back to the hotel for the night.