Keith's travelogue

Greetings all from Sunny Salvador in Beautiful Brazil.

I arrived here in Salvador, north of Rio de Janeiro, three days ago after leaving Antarctica, and after safely negotiating Drakes Passage on the way back from Antarctica in hurricane force winds and rough seas. Then it took a most of the day to fly from Ushuaia to Buenons Aires, and Buenos Aires to Rio. The next day I left for Salvador, two hours north by plkane from Rio.

But I´m sure you want to hear about Antarctica. The old cliche about a picture being a thousand words is certainly true for Antarctica, so while I have sent a few postcards home, I wasn´t really able to descirbe what I was seeing, so the pictures on the cards will have to do. And as it is so difficult to encapsulate 10 days travel in a small web blog, I have scribbled some notes under various headings below which I hope will give you a flavour of what it was like.

Antarctica:
It is a land of superlatives, e.g. the coldest, driest, and highest continent; the last discovered, the last explores, the one with the most fresh water, the most ice, etc etc. And it lives up to its reputation.

Departure:
I left Ushuaia in the late afternoon and we cruised slowly down the Beagle Channel, clearing land about 10pm, after dinner, and then headed south. The weather on the way down was a bit rough, but I didn´t get sick, although many people did, with some not leaving their cabins for two days.

Crew & Passengers:
We had 101 passengers, and a boat crew, and specialist crew. The people on board were an odd mix. The sailing crew were Nordic, the Deck crew Filipino, a Russian Doctor, an Irish safety officer, Italian Chief Steward and Purser, Russian Maitre De, a Swedish Chef, the people who doubled as cabin and dining room crews were Filpino, and the Specialists and Expedition (Zodiac) crews were Canadian, with one exception as the marine mammal specialist was English. The passengers were mainly British, Australian, and Canadian, with some Americans, Dutch, Irish, and a few miscellaneous such as Swiss.

Sailing:
On the way down we were kept pretty busy, as there were lectures from the specialist staff on board. So we were treated to some history, some talks on Antarctic birds, Antarctic marine mammals, and Antarctic geology. Perhaps these subjects aren´t for everyone, but I enjoyed them. We were also treated to the film the
"March of the Penguins", about the emperor penguins in Antarctica, a film of an old salt sailor rounding Cape Horn in a sailing ship in a hurricane, and a film on Shackelton´s famous Antarctic expedition survival story.

Arrival:
We arrived late in the evening of the third day and were fortunate enopugh to have a zodiac (inflatable boat) expedition around the coast of Elephant Island, landing where the party from the Shackleton Transpolar expedition on the ship Endurance endured their second winter in the Antarctic. It was a cold and bleak place, to put it mildly.

Outings:
We usually had two or three zodiac trips a day, and all except one involved a landing on the islands around the Antarctic Peninsular, with that one being landing on the Antarctic mainland itself. We stopped at:
+ Elephant Isalnd (Wild Point where Shacleton´s party
was rescued)
+ Danger Islands (penguin colonies)
+ Paulet Island (volcano and historic site - first
party wintering in Antarctica)
+ Browns Bluff (Antarctic mainland and penguin colony), + Deception Island (active volcanic caldera, where we
sailed inside to see an old whaling station, and
swum in the Great Southern Ocean water at 1 degree C
(yes!!) in a geothermnal area on the ocean edge);
+ Cruised the Lemaire Channel (a lovely BBQ and
stunning scenery and whales and orcas),
+ Ice berg alley (seals, penguins, ice bergs)
+ Livingstone Island (Port Lockroy, a British Ant.
research station and penguin colony;
+ A Bulgarian research station, and
+ Point Hannah (elephant seals, penguins, and fossils

Wildlife:
On the trips we saw lots of wildlife, in the water, lolling about on ice floes, or in the skies. There was plenty of birdlife - gentoo, macaroni, adelie and chinstrap penguins, skuas, gulls, snowy shearwaters, pertrels (giant, cape and storm) and of course, over Drakes Passge, the mighty albatrosses (royal and wandering). Seals - Crabeater and Weddell, Antarctic fur seals and elephant seals, and were lucky enough to glimpse lepoard seals. We were also treated to a mother land large calf humpack whale doing synchronised swimming which drew oohs and aahs from those watching, and they finished with a twin tail fluke display as they dived. We also encountered some orcas at close quarters in the Lemaire Channel.

Ice:
We went for a cruise in a place called ice berg alley near the Lemaire Channel, so got to see the wonderful eroded shapes that the water and the wind carve the bergs into. In the Weddell Sea, we encountered the massive tabular bergs that tower over the ship and stretch for miles. Cruising around the islands and channels meant there was plenty of stark scenery with bare rock and lots of ice, be it ice cap, ice bergs, or glaciers.

Weather:
We were very lucky with the weather, it was fine when it needed to be, and calm when it was necessary, so the trip around the islands and peninsular was very calm and safe. The way back was very rough, as acknowledged by the captain when he told us the winds ahd reached hurricane force;. Again I was fine and so able to help myself to extra desserts!

The Ship:
The ship was the MVS Explorer, quite famous in its way, being the first to be purpose built for trips south, and being smaller than many cruise ships or converted icebreakers, it could go to places they could not. It was about 80m long, with a 15m beam and 8m draft. The rooms were small but there was adequate space wioth lunges, lecture hall, decks, and separate dining room.

Food, Cold, and Other Thoughts:
There was an executive Swedish Chef, so the food was superb, and there was plenty of it. It was necessary as the cold, and being outside on the water in the wind, meant a two hour outing with a 3 km walk used a lot of eneregy compared with the same exertion in a warmer climate. I was a bit surpised there were no Southern Hemisphere experts, as the specialists were Artic experts transposed to the South.

Well, that´s about all for now. I´m now headed for quite a change of pace with beaches in the North East of Brazil, cruising up the Brazilian Amazon by slow boat, with a jungle expedition at Manaus, and a trip to Angel Falls in Venezuela (wolrd´s highest) on the way to Caracas. The weather is hot and steamy, and people in Rio and here in Salvador, are nursing their post-Carnival hangovers. Signs of the Carnival parties are all around, with many decorations still being in the streets.

Sos that´s all for now.

Regards,
Keith