| Iguazu falls, on the border between Brazil and Argentina, was my first stop. There was certainly no ice to be seen there - it's not far south of the tropics! The main fall, Garganta del Diablo or Devil's Throat, was awesome in its power, but there were plenty of other cascades - and most of them were very picturesque. I had close to three days to explore the falls from the various walking trails. |
| There were several excursions available. I took one which involved a truck ride through the jungle then a boat ride up the rapids to the mouth of the valley with Devil's Throat. The boat then went around to the base of San Martin fall and `baptised' us under its torrents. Twice. |
| Brown Bluff was the first landing - and I set foot on the Seventh Continent. Weddell seals (like the one at the top of the page) and lots of noisy, smelly - yet oddly cute - Adele (also top of page) and Gentoo penguins. The weather was sunny and the view gorgeous. By mid-afternoon the weather had turned overcast and cold but that didn't deter us from a landing on Paulet Island where over 200,000 Adele's nest. That's me on the beach of Paulet up at the top of the page. |
| We tried to get through Prince Gustav Channel into the Weddell Sea but were blocked by bergs so we stopped for a helicopter flightsee before turning north again. There was little wildlife and the sea was perfectly calm. Its mirror surface and clear skies added to the serenely pristine feel of the area. |
| The afternoon landing was on Devil Island and the highlight for me was the wonderful natural ice sculptures on the beach. |
Back to the Peninsula with a rough crossing of the Bransfield Strait. I learned the interesting fact that it's impossible to sleep while physically sliding several inches at a time across the sheets. More whales were spotted in the morning then there was a landing on Danco Island, in the Errera Channel. At this point there was fairly steady snow falling. Knee deep snow is interesting to trudge through in Wellington boots!
| The afternoon saw the snow stop and the clouds lift to give a soft, diffuse light. We sailed into Neko Harbour in Andvord Bay and landed on the Peninsula again. The energetic climbed the hill behind the beach and sledded down on their coats. I slogged through snow, which was occasionally mid-thigh deep, to sit by an emergency hut watching avalanches on the glacier across the harbour. Later that afternoon there was another helicopter flightsee over the indescribably beautiful harbour. |
Sunrise on Andvord and Wienecke Islands the next morning was worth a 4am alarm. I skipped breakfast to take photos of the Neumayer Channel, taking advantage of the clear skies.
| There were two landings on Goudier Island that morning - one on Jougla point and the other at Port Lockroy. Lots of gentoo penguins and birds such as shethbills and shags. I sent some postcards from the British hut at Port Lockroy - they took about 6 weeks to arrive in Australia. Then it was south to the Lemaire Channel. |
Also known as "Kodak gap" and on a clear day like this you can see why! Once inside the channel the walls were too close and too high to photograph. We only got about halfway through before our path was blocked by a large berg and we had to turn back. We went around the outside of the channel and made a run for the Circle instead. The Circle was reached about 2am the next day - and it was as bright as twilight, despite thick cloud. After reaching the Circle we turned around and came back, heading into the protected waters beside the Peninsula south of the Lemaire Channel. The sea was thick with first year ice so an additional two engines came on to do some serious icebreaking. This time the Lemaire Channel was clear and we transited from the south. There was fog and low, thick cloud which gave a misty, moody feel to the half-seen cliffs.
After emerging from the north end of the Lemaire Channel the ship headed out to sea and back to Tierra del Fuego. By setting a slightly westerly course we could come around Cape Horn first, but that meant an 8m swell and that meant rolling up to 45 degrees! Things had settled down to around 30 degree rolls for lunch but most people prudently kept to their cabins: moving around was a real challenge in the conditions. Entering the calm of the Beagle Channel - the passage leading to Ushuaia - was a relief:-)
| Upsala Bay |
| Spaganezzi Glacier |
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More boats - in this case an all day excursion from El Calafate to the Upsala, Onelli and Spaganezzi glaciers. The Upsala glacier calves were huge, which kept us from getting close to the face, but they were beautifully rich shades of blue.
| Perito Moreno glacier |
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The next full day excursion was overland to the Perito Moreno glacier, though in the afternoon I took a catamaran side trip to one of the glacier faces and saw two large-ish calvings from close up. The face of the glacier is about 70m high and from the side you can see it's riddled with deep crevases. The texture of the spiky peaks is like honeycomb.
The last stop of the trip, apart from a couple of days in Buenos Aires, was in Chile. It took a day to get there, by bus, over unsealed roads, but it was worth that discomfort. The hotel was about 200m above sea level, according to the guide, and the peaks towered to over 2400m. As I was blessed with clear weather they made a spectacular sight.
The End!