Author: awaywiththebirds

Day 10: South Orkney islands We are now officially in the Antartica. Even the coffee says so The climate of the South Orkney Islands is said to be generally cold, wet and windy. It’s certainly cold ( about -1 deg C to -3 deg C) but the sun is shining and it’s not very windy.…

Day 9-10: Sea days – a mixed bag of information We left South Georgia Island last night. It was pretty rough sailing throughout the night …..about 65 knot winds (apparently 75 knot winds are hurricane strength) ….so James and I both felt a bit queasy (but today is better!) Before leaving South Georgia, we did…

Day 9: Gold Harbour, South Georgia island This is what we woke up to…..stunning mountains and glaciers in Gold Harbour. Today we took zodiacs to the beach to visit the wildlife …..mainly King penguins, some Gentoo penguins, fur seals and most mesmerising of all, the very large elephant seals. These bull elephant seals, all weighing…

Day 8: Grytviken, capital of South Georgia Island Grytviken is probably most famous for being the place where one of the great British polar explorers, Sir Ernest Shackleton is buried. So we started our visit at the cemetery. Shackleton was revered for his leadership.  After Amundsen and Scott had reached the South Pole, Shackleton planned…

Day 7: The amazing South Georgia island Firstly some stats on the boat in response to Les’s questions: There are: 182 passengers (can take no more than 200 in the Antarctic); 178 crew; 12 zodiacs; 10 e-bikes and mountain bikes; 8 two person kayaks and 9 stand up paddle boards, 2 helicopters and 2 tenders…

Day 5-6 : At sea Thanks for all your comments on the Falklands. I, of course, forgot to put in date for the Falklands islands war (1982) but a few of you pitched in with the right date. 1965 was the year when the UN approved discussions between Britain and Argentina re Falklands sovereignty. We…

Day 4: Port Stanley, Falkland Islands Stanley is the capital of the Falkland Islands, has a population of 2500 and is very British….some say it is more British than the UK, with the old red telephone boxes and circular red post boxes. The coppers are contracted to serve here from the British police force. The…

Day 3: The first outing Up early for our first outing to West Point Island, one of the private islands which make up the Falklands islands. It was amazingly warm and still, at 6.30am so I could have my cuppa on the veranda We got zodiacs to the island rugged off in the lovely jacket…

Days 2-3: The cruise begins…. The remainder of the travel to the Scenic Eclipse does not rate a mention because it was so uneventful! In Buenos Aires our only outing was to return to the fantastic meat restaurant we had visited in 2016, El Mirasol, and indulge in 1000 gms of baby beef ( enough…

Day 1: Travelling…. Day 1 of the excellent Antarctic adventure was not so excellent….. Arrived at airport on Tuesday morning Feb 14 to board a LATAM flight to Buenos Aires via Auckland. Took ages to check in and plane was delayed by about an hour, however it finally took off to Auckland.  As we reached…