WEATHER: Sunny and blue skies a balmy 7C the further north we head
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing mainland again
BUMMER OF THE DAY: It is the last day of the cruise
WORD OF THE DAY: Vacuous
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.
TS Elliot
Follow our journey at http://www.gadventures.com/marine/triplog-login/ where you can find our Daily Expedition Reports and other documents from our voyage. It also maps our itinerary and stops along the way, so you may find this of interest. You will need the following to get in:
Username: antarctica111107
Password: expedition
Today is out last day of our Antarctic journey. The Drake Passage last night was calmer than the previous night, so we have travelled both directions pretty much unscathed by this notorious passage of water. Neither Jules nor I got seasick and we believe that Jules may just be on the way to recovery as well, just in time to go back to work. The poor thing but to her credit she didn’t miss a landing or a zodiac cruise the whole trip, she was a real trooper.
We got a very different ‘wake up’ call this morning at 7.45am. Jeremy’s room mate Michael aka Liverpool, won in the auction to do the last wake up call for the ship. So he did a great job and I was very surprised he was up earlier enough to actually do it. He has been in a partying group of the cruise and I am sure this was a bit of an effort for him!
The ship is not rocking and rolling as much as yesterday, so breakfast wasn’t as white knuckled and food wasn’t rolling all over the plate. After jumping in the internet and running my internet package down to the last MB, I sat and talked with Jeff for a while before heading to the library and trying to get this book finished before tomorrow morning, so I can swap it for another one in the ships library. I haven’t been able to pack yet, as my laundry isn’t back yet, but I have spoken to Kenneth and he will bring it in soon. So everything now is just winding down for us. The crew are trying to get things finished and rolled over for the new group of clients that board the ship tomorrow afternoon as we disembark in the morning. It is a straight turn around for them, so technically they get 4 consecutive days on the Drake Passage and looking at weather forecasts they are in for a rough passage heading back south on Saturday night. Poor buggers. This time in 3 day’s time I will be in the Galapagos Islands with my great friend Amy, with only one layer of clothing, a cocktail in my hand and hopefully looking at a blue sky with the sun high and shining down. It is hard to believe I am at this part of my journey and with my birthday only 9 days away, it seems a little surreal this year that I won’t be back home celebrating with my family (the Elkins, Falsay’s and friends) but I will be in The Galapagos, with a friendly face and it will also be a day to reflect as this is also the day 3 years ago that I found out that my mum had passed away. Life continues on, but she is never forgotten.
We have made such good time over the last 48 hours that we are now travelling at a snail’s pace; well it looks like we aren’t moving at all, just to kill some time. It is cheaper for them to run the engines at sea, than to steam back to Ushuaia and pay port fees. You then also have the unwanted hassle of people wanting to get on and off the ship, and with Ushuaia being a secure port, the headaches of shuttle transfers etc. Yeah I would probably just float around in the Drake Passage as well now that I look at all the logistics. As long as we are back in time for my flight tomorrow, I don’t really care. We found out later that we are taking it slow, as like an airport and planes, we had made such great time, that we are 12 hours earlier than expected and we will anchor in the Beagle Channel tonight and start moving around midnight tonight to get to port in the early hours of the morning. The reason we can’t go now, is there is no space for us at the port, as we are not due in till tomorrow. So I guess that kind of makes sense.
There was a lecture at 9.30am this morning with Alex on Climate Change. I decided to give this s miss with another lecture at 11.15 with Scott on some original footage of a tall ship that sailed around Cape Horn in 1928.
So to finish this fantastic voyage, some last minute fast facts about the continent and its surrounds, that we have spent the last 12 days cruising around.
Antarctica is the fifth largest continent after Asia, Africa, North America and South America. The area of Antarctica including all her islands and ice shelves is 13,661,000 square km. It is bigger than Australia and Europe. If Antarctica was a country, it would be the second largest in the world after Russia.
There are 4 ways that you can reach Antarctica. The closest is from Ushuaia in Argentina which is 1000km to the Antarctic Peninsular. New Zealand is located 2,200km away, Australia is 2,250 away and South Africa is 3,600km away. We made the right choice of coming to Argentina! Imagine crossing 4 days each way before even landing on the continent. Ummm yeah, no thanks.
Talking to people today, most of them are ready to go home. I guess it doesn’t help when you finish a great trip with a 2 day crossing a busy channel of water with just lectures, your own company and people around you to keep you busy for that time. 12 nights on a cruise ship is also a long time for any cruise voyage, unless you’re 75 years old and on the 105 day round world voyage instead of being in a nursing home. Yes I agree it will be good to get out of the confines of the ship and get some land legs back again. Even if it is only for 3 days before going back out on a YACHT for 9 nights.
I got my laundry back in the early afternoon after I chased it twice. When it arrived it smelt SO GOOD. I LOVE the smell of freshly washed clothes. They really smelt GREAT really….. (sad I hear you say, but washing clothes in a machine is a luxury and trust me I paid good money) It is good to have freshly washed clothes ready to go again for the next trip. I got all the winter stuff also washed, not sure when I will need all that again, but good to have a backpack full of clean clothes. I needed to start sorting my stuff and getting airline packed again for tomorrow. These flights have been the most worrisome part of my whole flight itinerary. They have changed more than 8 times since booking and I am relying on all the flights to depart when they are supposed to. Travelling on South American airlines is always a worry, as they are known for being un-reliable. I have some small buffers if flights are delayed, like a few hours, but if there are cancellations I am really going to be up s@*t creek without a paddle. So far up that I will miss the start of 2 tours. It wasn’t ideal when I made all the bookings for this part of the world, but it was my ONLY option and just have to have good faith that all goes to plan. So if there was a time I needed my travel gods to work some magic it will be over the next 4 flights I have in the next 24 hours. That will take my flight tally to 35 international flights in the last 8 months and with one more flight from Quito to Lima on the 29th November, it will also mark the end to any current live flight bookings I have. I will then officially have no further flights and will need to start thinking on what my next move will be in 5 months’ time. It sounds like a long way off, but it will go by so quickly. I am at this point going to stick to my original plan I think and go to Easter Island in early May and then head to the United States after that. Whether I do my original plans once there of a 44 day tour of the National Parks or just fly around and see friends is what I need to decide, heck maybe I should just do both. After that is the million dollar question. I have some invites in the pipeline, so I won’t reveal things just yet, but could involve going to Italy or back to Africa. But that is all I can say at the moment. Exciting times and I hope that they work out. But keep your fingers crossed for the next 24 hours. I will also be back in mobile network land and I will start loading my Antarctic photos tomorrow as well. I have an 8 hour layover in Buenos Aires tomorrow afternoon, so stay tuned for replies to emails and messages from the last 2 weeks. It sounds sad, but I have missed my text messages from friends and loved ones. I can’t wait for reception tomorrow!
It was good to go through my stuff. I have enough things to send home, including my jacket and wet pants and I have presents for a few people I need to get into the post. I have also found all my jewelry again. I took it all off at the start of the cruise, trying to get gloves and jackets on with rings and bracelets was going to be crazy. I did keep on my Ethiopian bangles though, these are super special to me, but otherwise I went nude for the whole 12 days. NUDE! For those of you who know me I LOVE my jewelry. It feels good to have my bangles on again and I have reached for the African ones to remind me of all my friends who I still think about every day.
We had the Captains farewell at 7pm in the Discovery Lounge. Beside the 2nd night I had that glass of white wine which was followed by the heaving of dinner, and on the BBQ night MJ, Jules and I consumed another 1L between the 3 of us, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol all cruise. Julie had now 6L of wine still sitting in the cupboard, so we decided to take up 2L of wine to consume over dinner. When we got to the lounge I actually felt like a beer, so I added my first alcoholic drink to my bill on last night. Not being much of a beer drinker, it was strange that I felt like one, but it tasted good all the same. The glasses of champagne made its way around the room for the Captains toast and as Billy doesn’t drink he kindly offered me his glass. I can see that maybe tonight of all nights I will be getting drunk……… The last time I got drunk was my second night in Dorze drinking Araki or whatever that god awful stuff they call spirit. I still cringe when I think of that night. So anyway, the Captain was fashionably 15 minutes late, he gave his thanks to all the staff and then bought out all the behind the scenes crew. The engineers, the chef and all the other people that keep the ship running and who we don’t see. So that was kinda nice, and then all the cabin crew and waiters came out and they sang Leavin on a Jetplane by Cat Stevens with a few guitars, and they changed the words of the chorus to ‘leaving the MS Expedition’. They sounded awesome and what a great song! There was also a recap of the cruise that Matt had out together with all the MS Expedition staff’s photos over the 12 days, also back to music. It was a job well done and a great overview of the trip. To actually see what we had done was AMAZING. It really is a special part of the world that is for sure. I believe that the clip will also be on the Trip log. http://www.gadventures.com/marine/triplog-login/
So I found some drinking buddies in Alistair and Roger. So we opened up the white wine over dinner which Roger and I consumed and Alistair had his bottle of red. So by the time dinner finished 2 hours later, we were on our way to getting trollied. So off to the Polar Bear Bar for a few more drinks and to listen to Atilla the Hun-garian play some tunes. Once again the first time I have been into the bar, all on the last night, this is probably a good thing. So the night raged on and all I remember is buying people drinks (I am still to see my final bill), Captain Ned leaving and then me sneaking off so Alistair would see me leave at I am not even sure of the time. Jules said it was around 2am, so that is all I have to go on. I don’t remember getting back to my cabin, but I woke to find myself in my PJ’s and my mobile in my hand. God bless phone reception / network. I am now back in the land of the gadgets. It still amazes me that on ships, when you are drunk, not matter how big or small I always seem to find my cabin no problems. Well not that I remember anyway. I hope I got the right door the first time as the open door policy lets you open all doors… oh heck I hope that didn’t happen!
So it is that time again when I thank all my newly made friends. Travel is our common denominator, Antarctica was our common goal. Life is about the people you meet and the things that you create with them. Antarctica will hold a special place in my travel experiences as it really is an untouched icy paradise out there and as G Adventures put it, we are now Ambassadors for the region to spread the word and try and keep it that way for generations to come and for others to appreciate as we have on this once in a life time voyage.
So thanks to my new travel buddies (in no particular order of course)
Jules – Minneapolis
Jeremy – Wisconsin
MJ – Toronto
Jen – Calgary
Allison – UK
Billy – Newcastle, UK
Todd – Hong Kong / Kentucky
Roger – Sweden
Jeff – Ontario
Alistair – UK
Roger - Sweden
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