Open wide

It got a bit regal in Auckland’s port today. Not just one, but two Princesses: Royal (left) and Diamond (right) (starboard?). Unusual to have two ships together from the same cruise line - I wonder if there was cameraderie or competition between the passengers? Anyway, together they poured over 6,000 people into the city, most of them seemingly queuing up to take the ferry across to Waiheke (wise decision) or wandering away along the waterfront into the Wynyard Quarter - also very pleasant on such a sunny day.

With some time to spare and spirits to bolster before a visit to the dentist, I went that way myself, to inspect the repaired pedestrian bridge that is finally in back operation. It’s pretty smart, and operates efficiently, opening up to let boats in and out of the inner harbour. I also approve of the new swimming area alongside, which was in good use, especially by kids doing manus (jumps) off the thoughtfully provided platform - pleasing that the water in the port is sufficiently clean for all that.

Though it’s always impressive, in a slightly head-shaking way, to see so many so very expensive boats of all sorts moored at Wynyard, I connected better, in the nearby Maritime Museum, with the Shackleton exhibition there. Big photos and paintings of South Georgia’s penguins, icebergs and mountains (which regular 😀 readers will recall I have seen in person), and of Shackleton and his crew, plus the incredibly primitive two-lifeboat shelter on Elephant Island (er, ditto) where they spent 4 horrendous months awaiting rescue (thanks, in huge part, to Kiwi Frank Worsley) - and also of the doomed Endurance icebound in Antarctica (*cough*). What a jaw-dropping story that is.

(Dentist visit went well, thanks for asking. No disasters of any sort today. Oh, apart from that giant iceberg that’s just been reported headed for South Georgia that’s going to maroon all the penguins and seals, and starve them to death.)

Shackleton, yes - but also Worsley

It's lovely to be distracted from all the horrible world news by the discovery in Antarctica, 3000m underneath the increasingly solid surface of the Weddell Sea, of the amazingly well-preserved wreck of the Endurance. It sank in 1915, on an ill-judged voyage towards a crossing of the continent by Ernest Shackleton - he was strongly advised not to go, because winter had started early that year, but he was stubborn and went anyway, with his crew of 27 men, 69 dogs and one cat.

The discovery was announced on the 100th anniversary of Shackleton's funeral, in South Georgia, where he had gone again to attempt another Antarctic expedition, his fourth. He died in Grytviken of a second heart attack, the first having happened in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil en route to South Georgia - which he had brushed aside. Antarctica does that to you, you know - gets under your skin, draws you back, won't let go.

I'd go there again like a shot, offered the chance. It's unique, stunningly beautiful, and pitilessly inhospitable. On my Silversea cruise there, despite it being so expensive (*cough* to regular punters, not freebie-grabbing travel writers like me), several of the passengers guests had already been there at least once.

We visited Shackleton's grave there, and toasted 'The Boss' with a glass of champagne; and later visited dauntingly barren and rocky Elephant Island, where his crew had clung for four and a half unimaginably brutal months while awaiting rescue. That they were indeed all saved is due in huge part to the comparatively-unsung hero Frank Worsley - of Akaroa, NZ - who managed to navigate their little lifeboat in almost impossible conditions over 1300 stormy kilometres to South Georgia, to summon a ship for rescue. 

It's also thanks to Worsley's excellent mapping skills that the discoverers of the Endurance knew to look in pretty much the right place for the wreck. And, another Kiwi connection, one of the photography team who took these amazing underwater images of the ship is James Blake, son of Sir Peter, famous sailor, who was killed by pirates while on an expedition up the Amazon. In Brazil.

PS While writing this entry, a Silversea email popped into my inbox about - you guessed it - expedition cruises to polar regions, focussing on a giant petrel feeding frenzy in South Georgia and Zodiac explorations in Antarctica. Connections, people.

Silver Explorer, Day 10 - Boredom, bridge and beef

With thanks to Silversea for this hosted cruise

It was a lumpy, bumpy night and I was glad to be lying in bed. We’re now heading westwards, into the prevailing wind which is blowing 70kmh-plus, and there’s a lot of noisy lurching and crashing going on as the bow plunges into the swells and the propeller at the back is lifted out of the water. Hooray (so far) for Scopoderm! There were even a couple of tabular icebergs on the horizon: huge, flat-topped chunks, broken off from the ice sheet, that you measure in kilometres.

Today there were talks to attend – another of German Wolfgang’s boring geology lectures; English Danny being slightly less boring about explorers (but a bit patronising in his manner so I didn’t bother about offending him by nodding off in the theatre); and Irish Luke being entertaining talking about his two years as a researcher on South Georgia. There was also a cocktail-judging competition going on.

Our Zodiac group had a tour of the bridge. ‘Tour’ is a bit misleading: we stood along one wall while the Captain explained about his precious paper charts, the echo-sounders, compasses and all the different screens arrayed along the control panels, safety, waste disposal and other technical stuff. He claimed himself to be the writer of emails while the real professionals sailed the ship. He also said he was CDO – that’s extreme OCD where everything must be in alphabetical order. Ol’ Piers is a bit of a card. Massive waves periodically broke over the bow, swamping the bridge windows; and we also spotted some spouts blows, though we couldn't see which whales they were.

And then there was the Venetian Society cocktail hour, for repeat Silversea guests (*cough* number 5 for us). The dress code was a bit mystifying: ‘Casually elegant’ – as opposed to the Captain’s Welcome evening, which called for us to be ‘Elegantly casual’. So I wore the same dress. There was the usual announcement of high-sailors: the top person has spent 169 nights on a Silversea vessel. Not a patch on the 700+ person on our last cruise, but still. That’s a lot of cruising (and money).

Finally we had dinner, with a special Shackleton anniversary menu (the Endurance expedition ended in 1917) that featured beef Wellington and chocolate soufflé. Ernest could only have dreamed of such deliciousness. (Though we felt slightly authenticated by our sitting on chairs chained to the restaurant floor.) Tonight's rambling conversation, with a couple from Florida, included Coronation Street, polar bears and snoring.

Silver Explorer, Day 9 - Boxing Day

With thanks to Silversea for this hosted cruise

The plan today was to go to St Andrews Bay, famous for its colonies of 200,000+ King penguins. Those who wanted good light and fewer other people around were to be ready to be Zodiac’d ashore at 4.30am (it’s light before 3am, remember). So of course I woke at 2am, and 3am, and dozed fitfully till 4am – and then, when I reported to Reception, all kitted out and having for once remembered my life-jacket, I was told it was all off. Katabatic winds ripping down the valley made it too dangerous to load us into the Zodiacs.

So I went back to bed, and the Explorer sailed meantime to Gold Harbour, a striking bay with multiple glaciers caught between high jagged peaks and, along the beach, another very respectably-sized colony of King and Gentoo penguins – something like 50,000. Fur seals and moulting elephant seals in abundance too. It was really relaxing to wander along the warm black sand, looking and observing, waiting for money-shot photo moments, with no hassle or hurry-ups at all.

We moseyed, we sat down, we paddled in the waves, we were approached by almost-bold young penguins, we took oodles of photographs, and it was just delightful. The elephant seals roared, the penguins peeped and honked, the sun shone, the sea sparkled. I certainly didn’t feel cheated about the change of plan.

There was yet another one, though, when we got to Cooper Bay where we were meant to be given a ride along the shore, because it turned out that the conditions were unsuitable for getting us safely into the Zodiacs. Not wanting us to miss out on our only opportunity to see macaroni penguins, the Captain gave us several circuits of the bay in the ship, and we were all able to see these little cuties - and chinstrap penguins too - porpoising (proper term) through the water, incredibly quickly.

Then, as a bonus, we sailed down into Drygalski Fiord, to see the literally ice-blue glacier at the end, and passing plenty of others along the way, gleaming white in the sunshine and contrasting with the black of the sharp rocky peaks. Waterfalls were blown sideways. Calved-off icebergs floated in the water. Penguins mysteriously chose to park themselves on an icy glacier instead of the beach. And while all this bleak, hostile scenery was passing by, we were ensconced in the comfort of our cabin suite, alternately venturing out onto our veranda and then scuttling back inside to warm up again. I'm so happy our cabin suite is on the starboard side - it's been the right (ha!) side all the way.

Today we tried going to the Panorama Lounge for afternoon tea, choosing from a tea menu and having little sandwiches and cakes served on a tiered stand, along with warm scones with jam and cream. All as it should be. After that, there was a really good film about Shackleton (who else?) to watch in the theatre, with popcorn. Using original photos and movie footage combined with reconstructions, it gave a chillingly realistic picture of what those men endured, and how remarkable it was that they succeeded. I wonder about PTSD, though.

As South Georgia slipped away behind us, its spectacular and unexpected glories disappearing into the haze, we set out across the Scotia Sea towards Elephant Island, a journey of 722 nautical miles and two days. At the evening's briefing, we were warned for the first time on the journey that we were heading into 3-4 metre swells which would produce a “heaving motion” according to the Captain. I’m hoping that any heaving will be restricted to the waves.

Silver Explorer, Day 8 - Christmas Day

With thanks to Silversea for this hosted cruise

I dunno. You grow up in New Zealand, having summertime Christmases with wintertime traditions, everything seeming upside down; and then for once have Christmas Day so far down south that there will be snow and icy winds – and what happens? You wake up to a sunny day with the temperature almost 12 degrees. It’s just not right.

It was, however, very pleasant – and even though it wasn’t a day of opening presents and eating too much, it was still one of my more memorable Christmas Days. We are in Grytviken, the nearest thing South Georgia has to a town, and it was open and ready to receive us. We anchored in the bay pretty much where Larsen did back in 1894 when he found it filled with “hundreds of whales”. Today, a few spouts blows had been seen, but the place is dominated by the machinery that processed 175,250 whales over 62 years (which, just to underline the carnage, is the number that passed through the land stations only – which was 10% of the total taken by factory ships).

It’s a pretty place, nevertheless: little white Norwegian church where you’re allowed to ring the bells; Post Office with its own stamps where you can send yourself a postcard (“It might arrive by Easter”); former manager’s house converted into an excellent museum; so many seals lying around that you really had to watch your step; picturesque shipwrecks around the shore; and mountains all around. 

We were taken around on two tours by enthusiastic locals, and heard, amongst a lot of really interesting stuff, that the three terriers we’d seen being walked through the village are Kiwi dogs trained by their Kiwi handlers to ferret out rats. There aren’t meant to be any there anymore, having been totally eradicated to the benefit of ground-nesting birds including the pipit, which we heard, the only songbird in the Antarctic region. (Reindeer have been eliminated, too.)

The main focus of the visit to Grytviken is the cemetery further around the shore: white-fenced with 20 or so gravestones within it, the biggest being Shackleton’s – his body facing south, towards Antarctica, breaking with the tradition of facing east. Alongside, on his right, are the ashes of Frank Wild, his right-hand man. We were supplied with glasses of wine or whisky, to drink a toast to ‘the Boss’.

Sailing away, we took a detour to visit the Nordenskold Glacier which reaches down to the sea where broken-off ‘bergy bits’ float around the edge.

Our afternoon stop was Godthul, where we went ashore for a hike, stepping over whale bone and around seal pups, some of them only a week old. We clambered up a hill through clumps of tussock, across shiny grass and peat bog, and then up slopes of broken slate, that tinkled quite melodiously. We had to detour around nesting giant petrels; and I marvelled, as ever, at the perversity of the Gentoo penguins who bypassed plenty of suitable sites to establish their rookery way up the hill.

Some went 100m further all the way to the top, but the rest of us then wandered back down, stopping off for a bit of bird-watching here and there and enjoying the golden light.

Christmas Day dinner, to satisfy the non-Europeans on board, offered roast turkey (though I couldn’t resist the lobster) and we ate with the staff captain, from Finland, and his daughter. We had an interesting conversation (did you know that it’s compulsory to learn Swedish at school in Finland?) but it made for a late night considering there’s a really early start tomorrow. Would you believe 4.30am?

Silver Explorer, Day 7 - A white(ish) Christmas Eve

With thanks to Silversea for hosting this cruise

There are many disadvantages to being innumerate, I have discovered. The latest is that, when your phone takes it upon itself to adopt the local, South Georgia, time – which is +1 hour – but the ship decides to keep its own time unchanged, that makes it embarrassingly difficult for some of us (see above) to work out when to set the alarm. With the consequence that I was up, showered, and half-dressed before having it brought to my attention that it wasn’t 6.30am but in fact 4.30. Sigh.

Yes, even though this is Silversea, it’s still an expedition cruise, so early starts (just not that early) and physical exertion are part of the deal. We anchored this morning in Fortuna Bay on the north coast of South Georgia in order to go ashore and get up close with the wildlife: specifically, fur seals, elephant seals and King penguins. One group was dropped off to hike to the site; the rest of us stayed on board and then Zodiac’d onto the stony beach.

We (I was in the second group – you guessed that, right?) still didn’t have it cushy because this morning it was snowing! Just little flakes that didn’t settle, but proper snow, really chilly, and with it occasional gusts of lean-against-it wind. I was very glad of my three layers of thermals and waterproofs (which had all seemed very OTT when packing back home in 22 degrees).

We did a wet landing off the Zodiac onto a beach packed with fur seals, some of which were, as predicted, not happy to see us – they humped forward and growled, showing their sharp teeth. So we scuttled past them and their wonderfully cute black furry pups (which also growled and howled and bared their teeth) and fetched up at a big colony of King penguins. They were pretty noisy too, peeping, squealing and squawking. Some were courting, others sitting motionless on eggs.

There was a large crèche of brown fluffy babies waiting for their various parents to come back with a feed for them. Their feathers were so fine and thick that they looked enormous – but last year’s brood who were busy fledging, with just patches of brown left, were much slimmer. They were the most curious about us, and came up close to inspect these strange red creatures who made all those clicking noises.

The elephant seals were moulting and not interested in us at all - they have to hang around onshore for ages while it happens so I suppose they have no spare energy for curiosity. They did do a great deal though of what sure sounded like farting but I was assured was sneezing because of mites in their nostrils.

Then the sun came out and made the surroundings as amazing as the wildlife: the sea tropically turquoise, the surrounding mountains with jagged edges streaked with snow, the sky blue above it all. Glamorous.

It all made for a spectacular backdrop to our lunch back on the Explorer as we sailed to the next bay, Husvik. There are lots of Norwegian names on South Georgia, thanks to the early whalers, and in this bay is one of their processing factories, as well as a cemetery with many gravestones sunken into the peat. 

Though the rusted remains of oil tanks and machinery look picturesque, they’re too full of asbestos for us to be allowed near them, so our attention was irresistibly focused again on the penguins, feisty fur seals and the snotty, somnolent elephant seals.

One fur seal took exception to me though, as I photographed a pup suckling from his mother, and suddenly rushed at me, teeth all too visible. Instinctively, I held up my arms and shouted at him, and he stopped just a couple of metres away and I was able to scuttle away behind a group of other people and hide. It was honestly pretty alarming. “They will chase you, and they will bite you,” we’d been told.

After the evening recap and briefing (where we learned the official term “sneaky copulators” for the less dominant elephant seal males, taking advantage of the beachmaster’s attention elsewhere) we had a special Christmas Eve dinner, the staff wearing Santa hats and singing us some carols. Many of the passengers are European, and this is their custom. I chose shrimp bisque, a mulled wine sorbet and roast goose for my main course; and since it was too hard to choose between Christmas pudding, cherries jubilee and chocolate macaroons for dessert, we had all three. After all, it had been a long day…

Silver Explorer, Day 5 - En route to South Georgia

With thanks to Silversea for this hosted cruise

It's another day at sea today - there's a fair number of them on this cruise - and there is nothing but sea and sky to look at. That doesn't however mean it's boring. There are lectures to attend (today one explaining the Falklands fisheries, which was a lot more interesting than it may sound; and another on the geology of those islands, which was exactly as exciting as it sounds) and this afternoon brings our kit inspection to ensure we don't carry ashore any seeds or other stuff to despoil the environment. Then there's a hands-on photography session which I hope will be useful - though as an Olympus person, I know I'll be taking a back seat to the ostentatious Canon and slightly less pushy Nikon people.

Then there's a birdwatching session on deck which will be all about, I'm guessing, albatrosses, fulmars and petrels. It will also be a bit parky, because even though we're still on about the same latitude as Ushuaia, there's no sun today and it's beginning to feel properly South Atlantic. Finally, tonight, we will be dining with the Captain and presumably swapping notes about Gloucestershire. So, as there will be no photos to speak of, here are some from the Falklands.