Glacier Alley – what Doug did on his birthday

‘Glacier Alley’ is the nick name for an area of the Cockburn and Beagle Channels which run the Chilean Fjords towards Ushuaia, where we docked for the afternoon. But in the morning of Doug’s 65th birthday, we cruised through this. The reason for the nickname is pretty obvious. It was overcast, which in some ways was the perfect light for this kind of thing. Some of the glaciers have names. Who cares 🙂 Ice, rock, ocean, it’s all good. (But if you want a slightly more detailed travelogue, this post offers more.) Continue reading “Glacier Alley – what Doug did on his birthday”

Antarctica – Day 4, January 2

Advised Schedule:

  • 6-10am Hope Bay/Antarctic Sound

When I looked out the window about 6.30 am, the visibility was nil, the wind was blowing a gale, and it was raining. So I went back to bed. By the time I got up again, the captain had abandoned the attempt to enter Hope Bay on account of the dangerous conditions (the wind was blowing the ship sideways), and was headed to Elephant Island, where he hoped we could see the Shackleton memorial. Unfortunately the weather was shit there too.

But, all was not lost because this was the day of the whales! And what we lost in scenery, we more than made up for in cetaceans, so in fact, it was yet another wonderful, if bloody cold, day in Antarctica. Continue reading “Antarctica – Day 4, January 2”

Antarctica – Day 3, January 1

Advised schedule:

  • 7 – 8am Deception Island/Bransfield Strait
  • 10.45am McFarlen Strait
  • 2pm Maxwell Bay
  • 4.45pm Admiralty Bay

Deception Island is the caldera of an active volcano, and though it’s a safe harbour and home to a huge colony of chinstrap penguins, it’s also grim and creepy (especially on a gloomy day). We had indifferent weather the whole day (justifying again, if necessary, the captain’s decision to come down early). Still, dramatic scenery, and a reminder that Antarctica is a continent of many different landscapes and influences. Continue reading “Antarctica – Day 3, January 1”

Antarctica – Day 2, 31 December

Advised schedule for Day 2

  • 7am Palmer Station
  • 10am Le Maire Channel

We were supposed to return to Palmer station to drop off the manager whom we’d picked up in the morning, but because there had been a risk of Palmer being iced in, an alternative plan had been set in place, bringing the manager’s replacement with us from Santiago. So that morning the two had swapped over, and the existing manager, due for leave, simply continued with us the rest of the trip. That allowed us to spend more time in the Gerlache Strait, visiting Paradise Harbour (only just ice free enough for the Zaandam to enter) to see penguins, and visit Cuverville and Enterprise islands. Continue reading “Antarctica – Day 2, 31 December”

Antarctica – Overview

As I said in my first post, we took a lot of photos in Antarctica. I can’t believe anyone could go there and not do that. What astonished me though were the number of people who apparently only had their iPhones or iPads for cameras, or at best, a pocket digital. I bought a DSLR especially for the trip, and a combined standard and zoom lens, which together cost around $2000 – and I don’t regret a cent of it. When you are on the trip of a lifetime, at fantastic cost anyway, why skimp on the equipment? We did take a compact digital for quick and dirty shots in towns and so on, but the quality can’t be compared at all with those taken with the bigger camera. The things people choose to economise on, astonish me.

Anyway, the next three posts will be photo heavy, which is why I’m breaking this part of the journey up. Continue reading “Antarctica – Overview”

Urban spaces

A cruise isn’t a great way to see a country’s urban spaces, but that’s okay because I’m not usually all that interested in them, especially not on this trip. And to frank, none of the towns (with one exception) were particularly nice or fascinating (or clean). It didn’t help that I injured myself twice, once in Santiago and once in Buenos Aires (BsAs as the locals refer to it) so saw very little of either, but Doug saw more of them and had the same opinion. Let’s just say that civic pride – as opposed to national pride – doesn’t appear to be a major virtue in Chile or Argentina. Continue reading “Urban spaces”

Whales

We saw four species of whales – humpback, fin, minke and southern right – and one other kind of cetacean, dolphins, one of which we think was the dusky dolphin). I can only positively identify two species in these pictures – fin because of where we saw them and what the experts thought they were, and southern right because we got a good look at them.

As some of you know, whale photography is frustrating. Whale spotting is relatively easy – you look for clouds of vapour. But the little suckers usually move so fast, you’re lucky if you can photograph the ripples where they’ve been. So we did pretty well, I think.

These were our first Antarctic whale sightings: Continue reading “Whales”