No wildlife today...

About time we had some photos that don't involve birds...

So here are pictures from Ushuaia, the port on Tierra del Fuego from which we embarked, and from the two small Falkland islands where we made our first landings - New Island and Carcass Island

 

The post office at 'the end of the world'

 

 

Yours truly in Ushuaia National Park (before going to the ship....)

 

 

On the quay before embarkation

 

 

Ushuaia from the ship before setting off

 

 

Boarding a Polar Cirkel from the ship

 

 

 

Onboard a Polar Cirkel for our first landing

 

 

Landing on Carcass Island

 

 

Invasion of Carcass Island

 

 

Ships old and new...

 

 

 

Watch out David Bailey...

 

 

Sea Cabbage

 

More Cobb's wren pictures

The Cobb's wren is confined to the Falklands Islands and to the outer tussock islands (like Carcass) which remain cat and rat free. Likes loose boulder beaches with deposits of kelp adjacent to Tussock Grass and that describes perfectly the beach where this bird was seen.

The book* says:

• upper parts light rusty brown
• wings cinnamon brown with small darker grey-brown bars and upper tail similar but with darker brown bars
• underparts slightly lighter
• bill slightly curved and fairly long
• feet and legs brown

*'A Field Guide to the Wildlife of The Falklands and South Georgia' by Ian J. Strange

Let's hope these pictures help confirm it:

 

 

 

Falklands Photos

Here are some photos taken on New Island and Carcass Island.  I don't want to spoil Carl's fun so I won't name the birds - that's his job.
I think there may well be a bird here that he has not seen before (in the flesh 'n feathers that is... could be a 'tick' that I have and he hasn't...??)

 

 

 

 

A puzzle

As the penguins would have been too easy to identify, I have added a picture of a bird that may be a bit more challenging - but I am expecting that Carl Chapman will find it straightforward - are you out there Carl?

Only clue - Julia nearly stood on it at Stromness Bay, South Georgia...

I'm back

Sorry if you have been logging in and not found anything new.  It has taken us a few days to recover and now we are returning to normality - lots of school football stuff for me and tax returns for Julia.

Thanks for all the positive comments about the blog that have been received by email and text - some people have found it too complicated to post their comments on the actual blog.  Now that I am at my PC it is a lot easier to upload so, today, here are our favourite pictures of the 6 main types of penguin that we saw.  I would have set up a 'name that penguin' competition if more of you had managed to work out how to leave a comment!

Adelie

 

 

Chinstrap

 

 

Gentoo

King

Magellanic

 

Rockhopper

 

The long journey home

Dear reader- sorry there has been a break for a couple of days.  We set off from Ushuaia on Wednesday 2nd on a morning we had the afternoon and evening in Buenos Aires.  It was chance to change into t-shirts and shorts!  We booked ourselves into a Tango Show in the evening and then tipped into bed.

Yesterday (Tuesday 3rd) we had the morning free so took a tour of the Theatre Colon - the magnificent opera house in BA.

Then at 13.30 the bus took us to the airport for our 18.05 flight.  The flight is just over 12 hours (ugh...) and we are now sitting in Paris Ch de Gaulle at 12 noon local time waiting for our flight to Newcastle at 15.25.  The ice now seems a long way away.

Here are some random photos for you...

No there aren't... wifi doesn't seem to want to play properly (worse than the ship!)

Round the Horn

January 1^st – 19.30 hours…

I am writing this earlier than normal because after tonight’s “Captain’s Dinner” we will be straight to bed ready to get up before 06.00 tomorrow morning.  We will wake up docked back in Ushuaia.  Then it will be a short bus ride to the airport for our 09.00 flight back up to Buenos Aires – where it will be about 30 degrees Celsius I expect; quite a shock to the system.

Last night the Expedition Leader announced, to great excitement,  that we would try to make one more landing today – but no-one was to publish the fact on Blogs or Facebook because we would be landing in Chile where we don’t really have the right to be.

However one of the expedition team, Manuel, had talked to the chief of the station on the island of Diego Ramirez  and, because they have some connection, we had been granted the very rare opportunity to land there.  Fram has not been there before – nor have most of the expedition team.

What is special about it?  Perhaps like me you thought that Cape Horn was the most southerly part of South America – and therefore the last land before Antarctica.  But this is not the case.  Just south of Cape Horn is Diego Ramirez – Chilean territory.  It is a small rocky outcrop that houses thousands of nesting seas birds.  Because of its exposed location landing is difficult – and our Polar Cirkel drivers have never been there before.

For once the weather was against us.  A gale developed overnight and when we arrived at the island the swell was too great to launch the Cirkel boats.  We dropped anchor and spent an hour admiring the albatrosses, cormorants, gulls and petrels wheeling above our heads.  We had good views of Grey Headed Albatrosses and Rock Cormorants…

We then moved on to ‘Round the Horn’ (no – not the 1960s comedy show – the real Cape Horn of seafaring legend).  By now the sea had settled and we passed this landmark in calm weather.  This was an addition to our original schedule and very welcome too. We are now heading for the Beagle Channel which will take us to Ushuaia.

As we rounded the Horn we were joined by a group of Peale's Dolphins that swam almost under the ship for, what looked like, the fun of it.  They were so close to the ship and moving so fast I’m afraid they defeated my search for a good picture.  But it was a joy just to watch them.

This afternoon we attended the Captain’s farewell cocktail party (sounds grander than it was…) and an ‘end of cruise’ auction.  Various signed memorabilia were auctioned to raise money for charities linked to Antarctic wildlife.  We got auction fever and have bought a large poster of our new hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton, which has been signed by the ship’s officers and the expedition team.  Seems like another trip to Prudhoe Framers…

So – this adventure is nearly at an end.  But we do have a day in Buenos Aires before we get our overnight flight on Thursday.  We fly into Paris and then should be back in Newcastle on Friday afternoon.  There are plenty of cafes in BA with good WiFi so this blog is not over yet – and, who knows, it may continue longer if my adoring public demand it!!