According to the staff, the sea we're bobbing about on is unusually calm for this part of the world. Could have fooled me. We're heading to South Georgia, two days away – assuming we don't sink under the extra weight from the six or seven meals a day we're being pummelled with. No chance of starving on this boat.
It was a long flight from London to Ushuaia via Buenos Aires, but largely uneventful. The town is at the same latitude south of the equator as London is north, only noticeably cooler (no Gulf Stream). The first thing you notice is the fantastic setting; buildings clinging to the hillside as the land rises up to meet the mountains, and the many channels and islands surrounding Tierra del Fuego. The second thing you notice is how flipping expensive everything is. Argentina was dirt cheap the last time I was here, but in a country notorious for extreme booms and busts, they seem to be at the overheating economy stage again.
We had a couple of days before getting on the boat for our Antarctic cruise, so we took a trip to the Tierra del Fuego National Park (entry £10, up from £4 last year) and had a walk through the very picturesque and crinkly, if muddy, coastal forest. On Tuesday we just took a walk around the town, stocking up on cheap wine for the boat. We finally boarded late afternoon.
It's quite a luxurious boat compared to our normal travelling accommodation. The cabin is small, and we have to share facilities with next door, but it's got a window, fridge and desk, and is generally quite comfortable. Except when sleeping, we haven't spent much time in here yet. The ship is run a bit like a holiday camp, with a full programme of entertainment and education running when we're not on land. We've had wildlife films, talks on geology, wars and birds, lifeboat drills and lots of food.
We reached the Falklands Islands on Thursday and had two landings on Carcass Island and Saunders Island, off the west coast. The method of getting ashore is via a small flat-bottomed boat called a Zodiac, apparently invented by Jacque Cousteau. Because the landings are usually 'wet' everyone has to don wellies and waterproofs before getting on board. They're quite powerful with the bow rising up well into the air as you zoom ashore. Both islands were desolate places with stubby vegetation and few trees. Carcass island had many thousands of penguins, all huddled together in rookeries, and plenty of ground burrows to break your legs in. After the penguins, we walked around the bay to the settlement (population 10) for a bit of Falklands hospitality – a cup of tea and a table crammed with hundreds of small cakes like your mother used to bake (before she discovered Mr Kipling). Apparently when they hear a cruise ship is coming to the island, all the locals on the surrounding islands (rule of thumb – one family per island) crank up the oven and start baking. They then jump in their Zodiacs with their trays of goodies to fill up this table in someone's front room for the tourists.
Saunders Island was similar to Carcass Island with plenty of penguins, but also Albatrosses. The weather is a bit weird. One minute it's sunny the next it's gales and torrential rain. It can, and frequently does, change within a few minutes. The clouded skies can get very dramatic which makes for some good pics.
Yesterday we arrived in Port Stanley on the eastern side of the islands. It's an interesting place and somewhere I was really looking forward to seeing given all the history. It has a population of about two thousand people and six pubs, which seems like a good ratio to me. Everyone drives Land Rover Discoveries and the houses are mainly wood with corrugated iron roofs. Apart from the official museum (which has more excellent exhibits crammed into three small rooms than you would imagine possible), there are a few unofficial exhibitions including the anti-whaling garden (harpoons, whale skeletons, gruesome pictures and messages such as "20,000 whales killed by this harpoon" written on car number plates) and the gnome garden (about a hundred garden gnomes in gnomey poses, staring towards the sea). We also took an excursion to Gypsy Cove, but there wasn't much there except for a few dolphins and yet more penguins.
On the way to South Georgia now. They've just announced there are some whales off the starboard bow, causing near hysteria in the passengers (especially the older ones who move so slowly the whales are usually gone by the time they get to the viewing deck). I'd better go and take a look…
Rich.
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