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Julie Fisher

Julie Fisher

16 ülke gezdi Okumaya devam et🇦🇺Australia
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    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      Shackleton's graveSeals reclaiming this place1Gentoo penguins1They even made the salt blue

      Grytviken First landing and Godhul

      18 Şubat, Güney Georgia ve Güney Sandwich Adaları ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

      The weather is not kind to us but we are privileged to at least be able to land. We had snow on our balcony this morning and it continued to snow lightly throughout the morning and our time at the station. Of course such weather is to be expected and we have the right clothes so we will be dry and warm.

      We can see the remains of the whaling station, Grytvikin  untouched from when it was abandoned in 1966 and when commercial whaling ended, the machinery now red with rust. Seals, birds and other wildlife are reclaiming this place and move freely between the machinery and storage tanks. I like that it is largely untouched. There is something quite surreal and beautiful of what remains of the metal structures, definitely sculptural in places. This was considered the best bay for a whaling station. That seems strange because there is not a lot of flat land but clearly enough to establish this Outpost.

      The once inhabited area is not large, a church, a shop now the museum, some outbuildings and the small cemetery. One of the out buildings is a workshop and store room with rows of shelves holding supplies to repair everything I would think from the ships to the housing. Bolts of different sizes in specially marked ,open cabinets, long pieces of rusting metal and much more.

      The only residence in this small settlement are those who work to support the tourists. The young women who work in the shop spend 4 months of the year living on the island. They even go camping and stay in some of the huts that were originally those of the whalers. It is so hard to imagine staying in such a harsh environment so far from everywhere.

      We have a couple of hours to explore and go first to the cemetery. Shackleton’s grave stone is larger than the rest, there are maybe twenty or so people, mostly men buried here. It’s a very inhospitable place even in summer, no vegetation except some grass and small plants. Our time is spent wandering around and looking through the buildings.

      Godhul our second outing, was a Norwegian whaling station, we are here to see a large colony of Gentoo penguins. We are able to walk among them for the first time. Walking is challenging because the beach and the surrounding area is either very large rocks or grass. There's a small stream that runs down to the Sea and that is an area the penguins seem to like.

      The day had brightened up considerably and it was very pleasant albeit challenging walking along the beach and a little way up the hill. It is our first real exposure to how remote and inhospitable this place is even in summer. We are able to get quite close to the wildlife particularly the penguins. One option is to walk further up the hill for a better view. Even though I have my walking pole I can see that I’m not likely to make it very far. There are large mounds of tussock grasses and with short legs I would have to negotiate one after the other. At the start of the walk it was possible to walk between them but later that was not so easy. Bob went a little further but even he came back.

      The ride back in the zodiac takes us around the small bay at the end of which the ship is at anchor. In the middle of the bay is a very large iceberg and off to one side is a small waterfall. On the beach are more penguins and some elephant seals. The fur seals are funny as the young seals try to get a dominant position on one of the rocks in the water. One seal would manage to get to the top and then be pushed off by another seal. There were about four of them playing around the rock.

      The food as always is excellent. Might put on a gram or two. They have been exceptional with desserts for me. One day there were four, I selected two. We don't participate in the karaoke after dinner      Okumaya devam et

      Çeviriyi gör
    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      2Seals on the rocksPenguins1Weather closed in

      Drygalski South Georgia

      17 Şubat, Güney Georgia ve Güney Sandwich Adaları ⋅ 🌬 0 °C

      The first look we have on South Georgia is a small inlet the ship has entered in the very south of the island with steep mountains and glaciers on either side. It's a magnificent sight and the weather is reasonable. The ship sails slowly through so we can have a good look at this part of the island.

      There is a change to the itinerary because the weather is looking clear and suitable for the zodiacs to go out, our first for this trip. The landscape is incredible looking very inhospitable. The vegetation is minimal but we can see the rocky outcrops have a green tinge to them. Seals are visible on rocks, around the zodiac and on any land that is accessible to them. The mountains have snow on the top and there are glaciers in the water reminding us that we are very close to the Antarctic peninsula. On one small beach there are penguins but we don't land there, it does look like a miserable place for a penguin to be. We have opportunities later to land and mix with the penguins. The decision to change the zodiac ride to the morning was a good one as the weather had closed in by the afternoon.

      We dine with two of the naturalists and two other Australian guests. One naturalist is from Norway and the other from France. It is always good to have this opportunity and we always make sure we take it up when it's available.      Okumaya devam et

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    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      Dark spot is the whale1Pieces of A28a breaking off

      A28a and whales

      16 Şubat, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ❄️ 1 °C

      A28a I suspect will be the focus to day. It is still a day at sea, but at least one with an Antarctic highlight. Last night one person over dinner was keen to get up early, I wasn't quite sure why because I knew we would be sailing past the iceberg for a few hours. He said he wanted to see the corner! We are up at a reasonable time anyway and the ship hasn't traveled as far as expected so it's going to be another couple of hours before we reach A28a. We are extremely lucky with the weather and the giants iceberg glistens in the sun, the colors vary from pale green to very white.

      Mid-morning our schedule is changed, the captain announces that the iceberg is near and he knows everyone will be outside. He also tells us about whales in the area. Everyone by this stage is up on the deck keen for their first glance of the world's largest iceberg. It really is massive. We're given statistics but they mean so little when you have something that big it's just very hard to grasp how big to say nothing of what we can't see below water level. For the moment everyone is focused on the iceberg and not on the whales.

      As our attention drifts away from the iceberg, we start to focus more blows around the ship. We are still all looking at the iceberg when people start to notice the whales are coming closer to the ship, suddenly no one is interested in A28a anymore. Everyone is trying to get the best photo of a whale, preferably with an iceberg in the background. There are so many and they are so close. We can see them coming up to the surface around us. They are so close that we can hear the blow which is really loud. We can also hear other noises that these huge creatures make at one point, unfortunately I managed to get a picture of a tail flip but it's so small not the one up in the air right in front of us. It was quite an extraordinary morning. They are with us for more than an hour. I have never seen whales that close. The ocean is quite dark making seeing the back of a whale quite difficult. Even more difficult to see in a photo.

      We are told later how unusual this was, to see so many. The explanation is that as the iceberg moves it stirs up sediment from the bottom and the whales are feeding on what is in the sediment. We were watching fin and humpback whales. One of the guides who had been in this area many times said he had never experienced anything like it, we were very lucky and it was a beautiful sunny day. The sun glistened off the iceberg while we watched whales in the water.

      We continued along the length of the iceberg and it would have been 2 to 3 hours before we reached its end. By the time we got to the end, there was evidence of the iceberg breaking up with pieces floating in the ocean past the ship. This reminds me of Disco Bay Greenland. The map shows approximately where the iceberg was in relation to South Georgia.

      Our lecture in the afternoon was on Shackleton in good preparation for our landing on South Georgia. The naturalist presenting used photographs from the photographer who was part of the expedition. This made the presentation really interesting. The photographer took pictures of the men, the ship, the dogs and the landscape. Shackleton preferred to be in the wild with just men, no women. When he died on the base of a heart attack, his body as was the custom was sent back to England, however, his widow sent his body back to South Georgia to be buried. Not sure if this was because he had spent so much time away from the family she didn't care where he was buried or whether it was because she knew how much he loved this continent.

      In the evening we decide we will spend a little time in the main lounge and watch the Peruvian dancer and listen to the guitar player. We normally don't bother with the entertainment because we are too tired but tonight we do and it was worthwhile. The guitarist very talented and seems to be able to make the guitar sing. The dancer at one point dances with a pot on her head spinning around how good it would be to have such balance.      Okumaya devam et

      Çeviriyi gör
    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent

      Second sea day

      15 Şubat, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 7 °C

      We are still required to get up early because we have to firstly collect our boots and then take all the outerwear we are likely to be wearing on shore for bio-decontamination checking. There is an option to go kayaking which looks like a really good activity, the threat of being dumped in the water notwithstanding. At the end of the briefing we are tested to see if we have enough agility/flexibility to get in and out of a kayak. Unfortunately Bob knows he can't do it with his artificial knees. I must admit I'm not really disappointed. It wasn't high on my list of things I wanted to do, it did look interesting though unless the weather is bad.

      The lecture is given by a young French woman who had studied the albatross for her PhD and although the lecture didn't cover specifics, on the albatross which we expected in general, she did a very good job of explaining how the threats to the albatross were the same threats to humanity. Climate change, pollution, particularly in the ocean, degradation of habitat, particularly from invasive species and fishing. It was a really interesting lecture and very thought-provoking albeit that some passengers were unhappy wanting more on the albatross.

      The captain spoke at our afternoon briefing and he and the expedition leader had decided that because the weather was looking particularly bad we would make a detour to avoid the worst of it. That means tomorrow morning, we will begin to sail along the A28a iceberg. This is the largest iceberg in the world it's 400 meters thick and 310 metres tall and 70 x 40 kilometers, it broke away from the Antarctic shelf in 1986. It was stuck in the Weddle sea but is now moving again. The biggest concern for South Georgia is that it might block the penguins path from the island to their feeding grounds.      Okumaya devam et

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    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      View from the restaurant

      Ushuaia - our adventure begins

      14 Şubat, Arjantin ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

      There is not much fun in having to get up at 4:00 a.m. organize yourself, get breakfast, check the room and make sure you haven't left anything before you leave for the airport. We are rounded up onto buses with our remaining luggage. The sunrise is beautiful I should have taken a picture but I didn't think of it. Although our flight does not leave until around 8:00 we are at the airport early.

       I am surprised that given this is the international airport of Buenos Aires, it is in fact quite small. It's a good thing we're here early because the queue to have our luggage scanned is very long and takes almost an hour before we get to immigration. We already have our boarding passes but we still need to go through the process. More queuing. Finally, we reach the airport lounge, it's very tiny. There are are two places selling coffee, maybe I chose the wrong one because the coffee was terrible.

      The flight is uneventful, much to our surprise we are served a meal because we had already had breakfast and this is a charter flight. I couldn't eat anything anyway because it was all gluten except for a very sweet what might pass as a yogurt but very look more like some kind of pudding. The flight is four hours long.

      Ushuaia is not as small as I had thought. The housing was not dissimilar to the colorful wooden houses we saw in Greenland and the Arctic. It would be very cold and icy in winter with long winter nights, which I think is the reason to have bright colored houses, something to cheer people up maybe. We are driven out of the town to a large restaurant. Obviously catering to the tourist industry. Many of the cruise ships stop here on their way to Antarctica. We're given a bit of a potted history of the town, but I don't take a lot in. Lunch we are told is a traditional lamb dish which looks like it started life as lamb on a spit which has then been hacked into pieces put in warm trays and brought to the table served with a couple of salads. I thought the lamb was quite nice. The area is very mountainous and snow is visible. It's also very forested but the area looks very much like everywhere else. After lunch back to town and the ship.

      They had all our luggage which they've put in our cabins, one less thing we have to think about. We go through the usual procedure of having our photo taken, handing in our medical form, handing over our passports and being issued with our room card. I like to get as much unpacked as soon as I get into the cabin before we go through the regular safety drill. I managed to get most things put away. I was a little concerned that after the luxury of two cabins on the last trip, that trying to fit into one cabin would be a challenge. However, it seems to have gone reasonably well and so far we haven't forgotten anything critical .

      Really now looking forward to bed after dinner.      Okumaya devam et

      Çeviriyi gör
    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      2

      Day one at sea

      14 Şubat, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

      We have a 3-day sail before we reach our first land which is South Georgia. The two most challenging things I find when we are traveling like this is firstly getting up early, typically we are up between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. and tiredness at the end of the day even though I might have done very little during the day. Although we will be at sea all day we still have to be up early and have had breakfast because there is a 9:00 a.m. compulsory briefing and introduction of the naturalist team. There are 14 mostly French naturalists this time with a diverse range of skills and knowledge, birds and whales of course, an historian, geologist, ice and glaciers and someone with a research background in Albatross. This is followed by an important briefing relating to bio security which is tight in this area, both with respect to ensuring no seeds or other material which could be detrimental to this fragile environment make it to the island and because we need to be careful about avian flu.

      Our first briefing gives us more of a picture of what to expect. I particularly like the slide with the differences between different species of whales. The captain details what we are likely to experience with a rough journey for the first part of our trip to South Georgia. It's unusual that the captain makes this briefing, usually it is the expedition leader. Our expedition leader is French and not that easy to understand, I'm sure we'll get used to her as we go along. I am pleased to learn that we will be able to land on South Georgia. Last year the island was shut down because of avian flu and the only way visitors could see it was via zodiac. I'm not sure what changed.

      Of course we completely forgot that it was Valentine's Day but Ponant did not forget with a long stem rose delivered to each cabin.

      First night is always a gala dinner and introduction of the officers. I try to avoid the photo shoot with the captain and we were late leaving the cabin alas not late enough to avoid the obligatory handshake and pictures. Inside the theater there is a a singer and then the captain introduces each of the officers. What was unusual was each told us a little about themselves. Didn't make it to the show, bed was calling.      Okumaya devam et

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    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      1

      Moving from apartment to hotel

      12 Şubat, Arjantin ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      Even a walk to breakfast was interesting. First was a large painted installation in a small street. Such a fun thing to happen across, in the middle of what seemed nowhere in particular. Next was a dog walking solution we had seen before. This time however the walker had 10 dogs with him, large and small. It was funny watching them as some of the dogs really wanted to check out the tree so tried to stop and resist being made to continue. All behaving themselves though it seemed, maybe you can train dogs to walk like that. I could only wonder about the quantity of xxx he had to pick up and how to manage it with all the dogs.

      Breakfast was American themed including two TVs with two different American news channels broadcasting. It was good but the only coffee was filtered.

      We now have to finish packing and tidying. We can stay as long as we want but it would be good to get there when our room is ready. The hardest part was probably getting all the suitcases downstairs and locking up. The Uber driver was efficient, the app told us he was deaf, it, however did not tell him we had no Spanish. There were no issues and our very spacious room at the hotel was ready.

      The Hilton hotel is in a very nice part of the city as you would expect. We don't go out, we are scheduled to leave for the airport at 5.30am. As usual, Ponant likes all the ducklings together in the one place for the airport transfer so this is included as is dinner and breakfast. Dinner is buffet, not my favourite style of eating, it's ok. Early bed, cases out before we go to bed, alarm set. I'm really tired but it's hard to sleep well when you know you have to be up and out before dawn.      Okumaya devam et

      Çeviriyi gör
    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      All the plaques are for herContinuing to record our exploration of Mabecs. Bob looking better

      Buenos Aires cemetery and more walking

      11 Şubat, Arjantin ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      Overnight rain and the temperature has dropped to 20° by the morning. After breakfast we walk to a shopping center not very far from the apartment. There's still a little bit of drizzle around, but it's easy to avoid. The shopping center is not particularly interesting and it isn't very big either which I found surprising given the size of the city. Of course there will be many more. On the third floor of the building overlooks the main cemetery of Buenos Aires.

      I'm not sure why we have a fascination for cemeteries but people clearly like visiting them. As with the cemetery in Paris, this one is very large and old. It is Tuesday and quiet so there aren't too many tourists wandering through. Interest in this cemetery could of course be because Eva Peron is buried here, Jim Morrison the attraction in Paris. The cost of entry is quite high, around $60 for the two of us. The price for locals is $5 but that's ok it's a struggle for locals. A wet overcast day seems appropriate for a wander around the tombstones and mausoleums. Some of the mausoleums are so large it seems a whole village could be buried there. Many of them have stained glass windows and a crypt which of course you can't see but can see a staircase going down.

      I am struck by the elaborate decorations on the grave sites. Some have sculptures of soldiers perhaps representing the person who has died and most have religious figures or symbols, many cherubs and angels as you would expect. One has what appears to be a monk bowing down and another is of a young girl and her dog. We do find Eva Peron's grave very well sign posted of course, we had to see it. The large plaques on the wall near the door are all for her except one. She died very young just 31 years old. The guide we are given shows a number of sites of people who are clearly of interest in it but hers was the only name we knew.

      The walk back to the apartment today was cool, more buildings and architecture to look at. Tomorrow we move to the Hilton for pre trip details and dinner, packing and tidying are therefore our next tasks.

      Bob noticed a restaurant serving regional dishes, it was close by so we ate there. Most small, less touristy places, this one was very local, usually have beer but not wine by the glass. Annoying because I like just a couple of wines with dinner. Never mind a bottle it is but no beer here. The waiter has limited English and so Bob ends up ordering a dish which is very local beans and vegetables. It looks really good. Again, there is a selection of gluten-free dishes including ravioli which I order with a bolognese sauce. I know not exactly an Argentinian dish. The bowl was huge enough to serve. At least two people. The meal was good and there were prices on the menu, wine was good as well, a Malbec of course.

      The Sunday before we left to my chagrin, Bob's Sunday bike ride saw him engage with the bitumen. The worst of the injury was the cut on his nose from his glasses. He looked like he come off second best from a fight. The stitches have dissolved and he looks much better. Thought I should explain the scabs on his face.      Okumaya devam et

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    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      National congress building
      More street artFrench inspiredEarly American, made quite an impression at the timeModern city scapeNot sure why they have a statue bullsRestaurant art

      Much to explore

      9 Şubat, Arjantin ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

      The best way we have found to see a city, rather than walking great distances, is a get on get off bus. By accident we find someone selling tickets, not where the bus stops it turns out, we do have to walk quite a distance. Our trip takes longer than it should because our bus broke down early on. We stay on for two hours which is about two thirds of the way. The commentary is better than most covering not just the land marks but also a detailed history of different areas. That said, not much mention is made of the original inhabitants and how the European settlers dealt with them. Equally the time of Eva Peron is mentioned only in passing.

       What is striking is the number of parks, gardens, small pockets of green spaces and children's playgrounds. Today is Sunday and everywhere there are markets. Some in the gardens others in the street. The products from what I can see are very much what you would expect to buy from any market at home. It isn't surprising so many people out and about it's a lovely Summer's day.

      I'm also struck by the quality of the street art. Everywhere buildings and walls are covered with paintings. In some places paintings depict something of the history of an area and in other places maybe just decorative. There are, like most well-established old capital cities, large monuments everywhere. Not sure about the statue with two bulls on the top, the palms on either side are a nice touch. We saw a wide array of architecture from European style, early 1930s to very modern.

      The tour is really interesting with so much to see. It highlighted the cultural elements of the city including opera, music and theater, as well as the history of the tango. You realize just how much you don't know about a place.

      Dinner is very much more low key than last night, a hamburger place. I just can't face a fancy restaurant for dinner, I'm tired and feeling the effects of jet lag. It was very much a hamburger place which surprisingly had paintings on the wall, not what I expected. We have hamburgers of course, far too many hand-cut chips which are very nice but there are a lot of them. The wine on offer once either a small can from the fridge or a bottle, unsurprisingly. We went for the bottle even though it was more than I wanted. It was an excellent Malbec so a good choice.      Okumaya devam et

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    • Julie FisherGezginTo the Icy Continent
      View from the balcony of the apartment
      Flower sculpture with people having a picnic near by.The building is not part of the airportBread with a delicious crushed olive dipBurrataPumpkin

      Finishing our bus trip

      9 Şubat, Arjantin ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      Buenos Aires is the same latitude and Sydney and with that comes a similar hot, humid and wet climate. The weather is predicted to be particularly hot but we are up and ready to conclude the ride from yesterday given we didn't start until after 1pm. It's already over 30° and we have to walk a little way to get to the right bus stop. The top of the bus has an air conditioned cabin so not too uncomfortable as the temperature rises.

      This half of the trip is further out from the main center and takes us along the river. We begin near a garden that has a large silver metal installation in the shape of the national flower. It's quite a beautiful sculpture and people are enjoying the space and the cool having picnics under the trees. The most amusing part was a small airfield where we were told that on the weekend people come with a picnic to watch planes take off and land. This part of the route is less historic with more modern buildings. Even in an air conditioned cabin it was hot.

      La Boca was a really interesting and important part of the bus ride. Early European settlers came here because, like Melbourne, it was a cheap place to live. There's a major soccer stadium here, a game massively important to the Argentinians Today it is really colourful and alive and very popular with tourists.

      It is fairly obvious that where the bus goes and where we are staying are the best parts of the city. The main city area has a population of 3 million people. However, the urban area is close to 17 million. It is probably safe to assume that in the outer fringes life is a lot harder than what we see in the city and the poverty is greater. The large concrete apartment buildings in poor condition we saw coming in would suggest a poorer area. We were warned about being careful with our things obviously because, although we can't see it, the crime rate is high.

      By the time we leave it's really hot 36-37o not great for walking. We head back to the apartment to wait out the heat. That night there is a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain. Now it's just humid.

      Back to the first restaurant for dinner, we've had our low key experience in terms of food, that said their wine was really good. The entree was a dish of tomatoes with a large burrata sliced so it was nice and gooey on top. An interesting way to serve it. My dish was gluten-free penne, I'm always happy to see gluten-free pasta on a menu. This one however, was disappointing pieces of fairly dry salmon and hardly any sauce. Bob chose pumpkin for his side dish, large pieces roasted and served with shaved parmesan , too much for one person it was really good. Wine was expensive.

      There appears to be two menus, often the English menu does not have prices. I suspect they make something up when you pay. This was certainly the case at breakfast which always seemed expensive for what we had.      Okumaya devam et

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