Take two. We were outside our hotel again waiting for the tour bus. This time it arrived, carrying about 10 other tourists from France, Spain and the US. After our scooter tour yesterday, I had a lot of questions saved up so was keen to speak to our local guide. She didn’t know what she … [Read more…]
No one ever wants an early start to a new year, but when you are in such a wonderfully exciting place, so close to the ocean that you think the waves are lapping at your feet, it is easy to wake early. We had a tour booked for today so at 9am we were outside waiting … [Read more…]
We landed at the airport, or shall we rather say, a runway with a hut at the end. Most of the locals seem to forego any suitcases preferring to pack their belongings into cooler boxes of rigid plastic or simply just an old fruit box held together by duct tape. We were met by our … [Read more…]
Why is it that whenever you stay at an airport hotel it is almost always more of a rush getting the airport in the morning? Somehow you always think you have more time than you actually do because you are next door. Not that we were in any danger of being late. Anyone who knows Adrie … [Read more…]
It was difficult to say goodbye to the intense beauty that is Antarctica. The last five days have been like a dream. The place is so unique. Much like a safari, you are dealing with wild animals and unpredictable weather so there is no guarantee what you will see. But unlike a safari, where you can … [Read more…]
It was time to head back to King George Island, but we were still not sure what time our flight would leave tomorrow morning. Time enough though for one last stop though. The journey to Deception Island would be a few hours. Maybe it was the early morning or maybe just the activities from the … [Read more…]
We have one more morning of good weather before we have to push northwards to the South Shetlands and leave the peninsula. So it was decided to get up really early and do an excursion before breakfast and then sail across the Bransfield Strait to Deception Island before heading back to King George. But first … [Read more…]
This afternoon we travelled around the corner to Danco Island – a tiny dome of ice and rock with a large Gentoo colony. By this stage the clouds had cleared and the sky was blue. Adrie however, was still dressed in four layers at the top and three at the bottom. So as we started … [Read more…]
After a very slow overnight cruise because we didn’t have to travel far, there was a sudden panic this morning. The weather unexpectedly turned worse, so our plan to go to Cuverville and Useful Island had to be changed. We decided to follow the better weather northwards, which meant a few hours of rough seas … [Read more…]
This afternoon we headed for Port Lockroy for an onshore excursion. Port Lockroy has a British scientific base (Base A) and interestingly a British post office. The tiny island also has a very noisy Gentoo penguin rookery that you can smell a long time before you can actually see it. We arrived a few weeks … [Read more…]