travel – Page 2 – Temple & Iceberg Trails: A Journey Through Asperger's

Falklands 101, “Expedition team – Talk Show” and making new friends – Sailing to Falklands Islands – Sea Day 2 of 2

17 November 2022

You are here… according to the realtime data streamed to various devices all over the ship – including the big screen TVs in the cabins.

Position 10:53 am en route to the Falklands

This morning there was no major whale pods, but apparently some penguins snuck onboard during the sea ice landing and guests were recruited to help locating them…

Kudos to the Expedition team on this “Game of the day” Super Super Cool!

Today’s Sea Day schedule – Some rock hard choices to be made:

I attended Dom’s lecture on “Geology of the Falklands”. He is very adamant that pictures/recordings during lectures are not allowed and I respect that.

What I do remember from this lecture is that Falklands was intially connected to the “West Coast” of South Africa – hence geology is very similar.

Also the rivers of stones (stone runs) that get pushed up from the ground due to the ground freezing and thawing. In scientific speak “the result of the erosion of particular rock varieties caused by myriad freezing-thawing cycles taking place in periglacial conditions during the last Ice Age”

Stone run at Mount Kent, East Falkland – Source: https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Stone_run

Never seen anything like that before – was not included in our High School Geography cirrucilum.

I can’t remember if I actually attended the Cloud Observation or if I had every intention and then life (and ADD) happened.

What I do know is that my imaginary clay penguin did not get an imaginary colourful coat of paint. However, the artists in residence were very busy in the crafts room.

Nancy and co – Clay Workshop Part 2 Paint your clay penguin.

Lancy’s lecture on “Birds of the Falklands Islands ” was (as always) super informative with a sprinkling of Lancy’s signature sense of humour.

Lancy – Birds of the Falklands by numbers…

You know you got it right when your “subject” almost perfectly matches the Tourism Billboard! – Billboard in question.

Find your Caracara -know your Cara Cara !

Macaroni ♥ Southern Rockhopper – Kevin does it “His Way”

Falkland’s odd couple – sharing parental duties – who cares what the neighbours (or scientists) think!

[And it’s lasting longer than some hollywood relationships – The pair was spotted at the same nesting site in the beginning of the 2023 Austral Summer! This would make it their 3rd anniversary ♥]

Time for a bathroom break and to grab a quick coffee before Fritz’s “Wild Falklands” covering everything Falkland not addressed to date – People, plants, animals and places.

Fritz sharing years of experience (and wisdom) in his calm and gentle way.

Regrettably, I did miss Dom’s “Rock Star Corner” workshop – double booking much? However, I did get a chance to see at least some of the exhibits that were still laid out after the session.

And then it was time to “Meet the Expedition Team”. “Talk Show” in the Explorer’s Lounge with Zoe interviewing Luciano, Heleen and Teal.

This was so funny and special. Thank you for participating in this you guys. Many things were said, confessions made, skeletons, dreams and hopes revealed.

Blushing “Puss in Boots” talks himself into a corner….

After dinner I took some pictures of the sunset in the blustering wind and ran into a brave Scotsman who tried to take advantage of a clear night sky to see the “Southern Cross”. And so I met new friend Derek. We started chatting and next thing we know it was almost midnight and we were still on Deck 11. We decided something warm(ish) was called for – before the Explorer Lounge closes for the night. I had a coffee/hot chocolate and mr Scotsman had a whiskey (hold the ice!).

Probably not the time to say that tomorrow I need to be up and ready bright and early to catch the first tender to Stanley. I (in my naivety) was still under the impression that this “Antarctica-thing” was going to be a “once in a lifetime” experience, so I booked a guaranteed King Penguin colony excursion to Volunteer Point. I was not going to leave a possible King Penguin sighting to chance.

A WHALE of a time sailing to Falklands Islands – Sea Day 1 of 2

16 November 2022

You are here… according to the realtime data streamed to various devices all over the ship – including the big screen TVs in the cabins.

Position 9:05 am en route to the Falklands

This morning breakfast was ‘interrupted’ by a myriad of puffs visible from the panoramic windows of the Aune restaurant.

General excitement and disbelief. Me not wanting to miss a thing, but also dying to be a fly on the wall up at the Whale Sensus station on the Bridge….

We were surrounded by a 200+ pod of Fin and Sei whales. This was highly irregular and the scientists went well …whale.

Puffs and more puffs and puffs in the distance…

Was lucky enough to get this pic of two backs – one with dorsal fin, the further dorsal just just visible.

Today’s jam-packed Sea Day schedule:

Schedule for 16 November 22 – as collected from Reception after 18:00 the previous evening.

First up was Luciano’s lecture on Shackleton’s Imperial Transatlantic Expedition. He had some interesting parallels between Shackleton’s crew and Rocky Balboa.

If I remember correctly today I actually joined Dom on Deck 10 next to the pool for Cloud Obervation and data upload to NASA’s Globe Obeserver app. You can find the link to download the app on Google Play Store or Apple here – if you want to participate and submit data for your location.

Register an account and the app will walk you through the process – you basically become NASA’s eye on the ground supplementing what the sattelite provides from above with what you literally see as the sattelite moves over – the app instructs you to take pictures (outside obviously) – up, down, left and right at a certain time that corresponds closely to when a sattelite is overhead.

I did not “Connect with my inner Penguin” to get creative and make a clay penguin.

Heleen hosted “Giants of the Depths” lecture introducing the guests to the various giant creatures that live in the REALLY REALLY deep parts of the ocean.

This also included the Giant Squid that live in these waters.

“The Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is the largest cephalopod in the world, surpassing even the mighty Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux). It also boosts the largest eye in the animal kingdom. This massive squid can reach up to 46 ft. (14 m) but some believe it can grow even bigger! The Colossal Squid is known to live in the deep waters around Antarctica, but little is known about the true extent of its range and habitat. Despite its massive size, it has one predator, the equally impressive Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus). it was first described in 1925 when parts of the animal were found in the stomach of a sperm whale. A live specimen was caught by a fishing vessel in 2007. Like most squid it has 8 arms and 2 tentacles, but it is the only species to have rotating hooks inside its suction cups, which it uses to grab on to prey.” – Source “Infographic Post by Peppermint Narhwal Creative“

Maru informed the group that there are two specimens in museums in Argentina – One being in the Natural History Museum in Buenos Aires. This immediately got added to my “Must see list”
I did eventually make the ‘pilgramage’ in March the following year…

“Calamar Gigante – Bernardino Rivadavia Museum of Natural Science, Buenos Aires”

Heleen closed out the lecture with a tribute to one of the foremost female marine biologists, oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer Dr Sylvia Earle.

After lunch the Weddell Seals were scheduled for a visit to the Bridge. This was very interesting and hi-tech. Great to see some of the screens I see when I look up from my balcony – in context.

No seasickness experienced so far, but man does that medication make my drowsy.

Closed out the day with the “Cocktail of the Day” in the Explorer Lounge.

A blue drink looking out over a blue Drake Passage, blue horison and blue skies…

Tomorrow would be another “Sea day”… so far, so good!

Brown Station and Paradise Bay

14 November 2022

I used to collect my paper copy of the “current” next day’s schedule from Reception on my way to the 18:30 “Information for Tomorrow” briefing. It’s usually available around 18:00. Even though the issue with the app has been resolved, I preferred to have a hardcopy to make notes on during the briefing and personal notes on the day.

These “retroactive” blog posts are a combination of info from these printouts, photographs taken with my camera and iphone and facebook posts during the voyage. Sometimes Luis’ video.

My notes on the planned activities:
Brown Station – Continental Landing (#2).
Argentine station not currently manned [Later I would learn that when there are scientists at the station guest landings are not allowed – Manu was there during my February 2023 trip – Hi Manu!]
Expect Gentoos, Blue Eyed Shags/Imperial Shags/Antarctic Cormorants, Snow Petrel and Skua. [They forgot the ever present Snowy Sheathbills, or maybe they’re a given?]

Woke up this morning to this stunning view.

Game of the day: Crossword.

Brown station landing schedule – Weddell Seals from 10am. So spent the morning after breakfast looking out over Paradise Bay from the bow of the ship – Deck 7. But…

Then “Zoom envy” stepped in… it’s a thing and for the first time in this journey I was frustrated with my little Sony’s 30x Zoom.There is a colony of Blue Eyed Shags that nest next on the cliffs just left of Brown Station. They fly to and through ferrying nesting material the entire duration of our stay. I just cannot get a decent picture of nests or flying birds.

Getting a picture of that blue ring around the eye becomes an obsession and will stay with me long after my flight has touched down in Cape Town.

Blue Eyed Shag nesting site – the snow free cliff to the right of the zodiac.

Stages of zoom.. and yeah.. not happening

Confession – prior to this trip my knowlegde of birds can pretty much be summed up as follows:

Then Antarctica and Lancy (and in a way Fritz too) happened and now I notice birds. Not so that I would describe myself as a birder, but I notice them and even start to recognise some. Later in the trip I would even try to photograph some on the Drake Passage.

The actual landing process take longer than anticipated. The expedition team had to excavate an steep impromtu staircase from the docking area up to the base and support ropes have been set up to assist acending the stairs – together with team members stationed along the stairs as additional support.

This also means that going up/down the stairs is pretty much a ‘single file/one way’ affair. Severe bottle neck restricting movement between the landing site and the ship. Much circling of zodiacs.

Various options regarding pathways and viewpoints. I take the easy way out – pretty much straight to the Gentoos.

From there joining the queue waiting to return to the ship. Trying in vain to photograph the parade of Blue Eyed Shags ferrying nesting material to the cliff.

I do get some pictures of a Brown Skua and a pair of Snowy Sheathbills. No Snow Petrals tough.

Thank heaven for heated bathroom floors…

I cannot remember how it came that virtually every piece of kit needed drying, maybe all that standing in the snow waiting.

And the “Information for Tomorrow” lecture held even more surprises - after Brown Station we were scheduled to visit another Brown.. Brown Bluff – Continental landing #3 and extra special for me, as it is a site with incredible geology created by subglacial vulcano eruptions.

Another opportunity to see Adelie (!) and more Gentoo penguins… and if you look up – there’s a possiblity of sighting the nesting Snow Petrels… WOW!