• Lazy travellers 懒人出游
  • Lazy travellers 懒人出游

Antarctica again 2024 再访南极

Visiting Antarctica again, this time embarked the Ultramarine of Quark Expeditions, for planned visit to Snow Hill Island empiror penguin colony by helicopter. 此次登夸克探险公司的海洋无极号邮轮再访南极,有望随直升机前往雪丘岛看帝企鹅聚集区。 Read more
  • Trip start
    October 29, 2024

    On my way to EZE 前往布宜

    October 29, 2024 in Canada ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    I received an email notification last night from Air Canada stating that due to Argentina Union of Transportation’s 24hr nationwide strike on Oct 30th, my flight to EZE tonight was CANCELLED! Instead I was booked to a flight to EZE the day after tomorrow (Oct 31st) via Bogota. This change will screw my following flight from EZE to USH, and two hotel bookings as well. And to make the matter worse, I cannot be in Ushuaia on Nov 1st to embark the Ultramarine. I went all out working with travel agency the whole night, and by 4 o’clock in the morning, rebooked an earlier flight to EZE via DFW hoping I would get through the craziness. I had also to reschedule a taxi pickup from evening to the morning. On the way to the airport it started raining. As the rain was getting heavier, the traffic was getting jammed up. Even though there was a string of red brake lights outside the window, I sat in the taxi, not worrying about anything at all as there is nothing I can do.
    Finally, I got to the departure terminal, passed through the security check and now I am patiently sitting here waiting...
    昨天晚上收到加航通知今天晚上去布宜诺斯艾利斯的航班被取消了!原因是30日阿根廷交通工会举行24小时全国罢工。我被改签到31日晚经停波哥大的航班,这个改动直接影响到后面飞乌斯怀亚的航班和两个晚上的酒店,最不可接受的是赶不上11月1日登船。
    经过全力和旅行社沟通,反复查找航班组合,最终在早上4点左右改签了今天(29日) 中午经停达拉斯的航班,还联系出租车司机改在上午送机。
    来机场途中开始下雨。雨很快渐大,而且开始堵车。看着外面一连串耀眼的刹车红灯我心止如水无虑无忧。
    现在在机场,已经过了安检,耐心等待中...
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  • Landed at DFW for transfer 在达拉斯转机

    October 29, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    A bit bumpy flight onboard this quite small Brazilian E175, but overall, it was pretty good.
    DFW is huge. For passengers with connecting flights, Skylink rail shuttles run between all 5 (A - E) terminals in both directions.
    巴西的小飞机E175,一路稍觉颠簸,但总的来说还好。
    达拉斯机场很大,双向对开的Skylink轨道交通车快速连接A-E五个航站楼,需要转机的旅客可以随时搭乘。
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  • Landed at EZE! 到达布宜诺斯艾利斯机场

    October 30, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After 1 hour delay departure, we landed at EZE airport only about 30min later than scheduled time, all the effoert on switching air lines and selecting flights worked perfectly. The airport seems quiet, not many airplanes, nor crowded passengers as before. The strike definitely brings some impacts to the air traffic. The information kiosk sraff told me that many flights were canceled, and the city bus union will be on strike tomorrow. Oh well.
    起飞延误一个小时,降落只晚大约半多小时。之前所有改签的努力终于成功了。罢工对机场和空运的影响显而易见,机场冷冷清清没有许多飞机,也没有熙熙攘攘的乘客。据游客信息台工作人员说,许多航班被取消了, 而且明天将是城市公交工会罢工。
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  • Massive is the definition 太多了!

    October 30, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    I had dinner at the hotel restaurant. The waitress does not speak any English. We communicated by google translate and hand gestures. She recommended BBQ rib, which sounded so inviting and by my understanding it is not very big, well I was so wrong, it must be 10 to 11 inches long by 1.5 inches wide at the least!
    The rib was extremely tender and juicy, just I have no way to finish.
    在酒店侧面的餐厅吃晚饭,服务员说一口流利的西班牙语。我们用手机上的翻译软件和手势进行沟通。服务员推荐了烤牛肋条,听着就馋人,据我的理解份量不会非常大,但是我是大错特错了, 端上来一看,差不多将近一尺长一寸半宽!
    烤肉极为软嫩多汁,可惜吃不下了。
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  • Rough landing at USH 在强烈侧风中降落乌斯怀亚

    October 31, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    The landing was rough due to the strong wind blowing sideway. Pilot had to fly up just before the first attempt and made a big circle coming back. On the second attempt the plane was landed successfully from the opposit direction.
    During the whole landing period, the plane was shaking like crazy, I was bouncing upand down, left and right.
    接近乌斯怀亚时风很大,降落时由于侧风强烈飞行员不得不将飞机又拉起来转了一个大圈从相反方向降落才成功。
    在降落过程中飞机抖得厉害,感觉像在碰碰车里。
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  • Overnight stay in Ushuaia 乌斯怀亚一晚

    Oct 31–Nov 1, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    Checked in to the hotel, tour the streets, all looked familiar. After the king crabs dinner, I ventured hot tub, dry sauna, and steam bath. Felt extremely relaxed, I slept very well.
    入住酒店之后就去逛街,故地重游的感觉还是不错的。帝王蟹晚餐之后回到酒店试遍了热按摩池,干桑拿,和蒸汽浴。出来之后无比轻松,晚上睡得极好。
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  • King crab, El Viejo Marino 老水手餐厅

    October 31, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Once again came back to this restaurant of my favourite, craving for finger sucking king crab. I guess all the king crabs in Ushuaia have the same good taste, however comparing to Dec 2022, just the price for small size (one person) jumped from AR$10,000 to AR$100,000.
    You become a claw expert when you can make toy out of it.
    时隔差不多两年再次来到这家老水手餐厅,吃到久久回味的帝王蟹。大概乌斯怀亚所有的帝王蟹味道都一样的好,只是小号(单人份)的价格从2022年12月的1万比索飙升到现在的10万比索。
    当你能够用蟹螯制作玩具时你就是蟹螯专家了。
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  • Spare time before embarkation 登船前闲暇时光

    November 1, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Schedule to meet at bus no. 2 with sign “Antarctica Charted” by 3:30 pm, I had some time after checking out of this lovely hotel Albatros. Walking along the shoreline I saw the city sign, and a Croacia community centre. Along the city centre streets I drop in shops looking for stickers and a thermal bottle. All commodities are expensive compared to 2022, however, not too crazy.
    按计划我要在下午三点半左右去码头旁的停车场上第二号大巴车,车上有标志”南极包船”。退房之后还有时间逛一下。走了沿岸看到城界的标志,还有一个克罗地亚社区中心。然后又去了中心区买贴纸和旅行保温杯。与2022年相比价格上涨了很多,但还不是非常离谱。
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  • An ER return 有紧急情况回港

    November 2, 2024, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 4 °C

    Last night while we were sailing out to the open sea, a person had ER call and ship turned back toward the port. This morning we ware going out again.
    昨晚因有人需要紧急救治,我们回转向港口。今天早上再次驶向外海。

  • IAATO 到访南极守则

    November 3, 2024, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 7 °C

    There are certain rules visitors to the Antarctica must follow, in order to protect the environment and wildlife, reducing the impact to the minimum. Wish all the tourists can behave as IAATO guidelines.
    为了保护南极的自然环境和野生动物,将对那里的环境和动物的影响降到最低,游客到南极游览有必须遵守的规则。真心希望每个到访的游客的行为举止都能够符合IAATO的游客守则,不去追逐企鹅,不在小企鹅近处大声叫喊,不将背包放到地上,不越过探险队设置的界限,不坐在地上或甚至卧在地上。做到这些其实真的完全不难啊。
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  • Atlantic Petrel 大西洋海燕

    November 3, 2024, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 6 °C

    On our way to South Georgia Islands, somewhere southeast of Falkland Islands, we spotted a small number of Atlantic Petrels. According to the bird expert of the expedition team, Atlantic petrels are nesting on the subtropical islands Tristan da Gunha and Gough in South Atlantic Ocean, about 4,000km northeast away from where we were passing. Amazing how far they fly.
    ref: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_petrel
    驶往南乔治亚群岛途中在福克兰群岛东南位置我们看到几只大西洋海燕。据探险队的鸟类专家介绍,大西洋海燕的繁殖地在南大西洋亚热带岛屿特里斯坦-达库尼亚岛和戈夫岛,距离我们看到它们的地方向东北方向约四千公里。不知道它们怎么能飞这么远。
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  • Jason Bay 杰森湾

    November 6, 2024 in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ⋅ 🌬 1 °C

    After several days of sailing we arrived here at Jason Bay, where the expedition team arranged zodiac cruise for us. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and wild, seemingly conflicting yet in harmony.
    Later the ship moved to Grytviken, the “capital” of South Georgia Islands. Due to the high wave and strong winds, South Georgia Islands officials cannot come to Ultramarine for landing inspections on bio-isolation, consequently we have to cancel the landing.
    海上航行几天后海洋无极号来到杰森湾,探险队安排我们乘冲锋舟巡航。这里的景色唯美且荒凉,矛盾而和谐。
    之后船移到南乔治亚岛首府所在地古里德维肯附近,等待检疫官员登船做生物隔离审计。但由于风浪过大超过当地的安全登船标准检疫官员不能出海,所以我们没有能够登陆。
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  • Fortuna Bay 福图那湾

    November 6, 2024 in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ⋅ 🌬 0 °C

    Later the ship moved to Fortuna Bay for landing. We came to close to the small king penguin colony of about 10,000 pairs and their chicks.
    巡航之后船移到福图那湾组织登陆。在这里我们有机会近距离观看一个小规模的王企鹅繁殖地,聚集了大约一万对企鹅和它们的下一代。

  • A23a the world’s largest iceberg 世界最大的冰山

    November 8, 2024, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 -3 °C

    Iceberg A23a was off from the Antarctica Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf 38 years ago in 1986, but soon stuck on seabed for many years until 2020 when it started moving. It measures about 3,900 sq km, more than 5 times of Singapore in size. Its world number one title was once surpassed by iceberg A76a with area 4,300 sq km measurement. After A76a later broke into smaller pieces, A23a regained its title.
    In Dec 2022 during another Antarctica trip I had the opportunity observing iceberg A76a.
    According to birds and whale experts of the expedition team, it is quite common that those large icebergs can bring rich nutrients such as algae at the ice bottom, attracting krill which is the favourite of snow petrels and whales. Thus whales and snow petrels often gather around large icebergs.
    A23a号冰山于38年前在1986年脱离菲尔希内尔-龙讷冰架而成,脱离后不久就因底部接触海底被困多年,直至2020年才开始移动。它的面积达3,900平方公里,为板状,是新加坡面积的五倍还多。它的世界最大漂浮体的名头曾被A76a冰山以4,300平方公里面积之巨短暂超越。A76a碎裂为多个小块之后,A23a再次成为世界第一。
    2022年12月底在另一次去南极行程途中我曾有机会观察过A76a。
    据探险队鸟类和鲸鱼专家介绍,这样的大型冰山通常会在它的底部携带大量微生物如藻类,为磷虾提供优质营养,而磷虾是雪海燕和鲸鱼喜爱的食物。这样在大冰山附近会有鲸鱼和雪海燕出没。
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  • No heli landing to Snow Hill 直升机不飞雪丘岛了

    November 9, 2024 in Antarctica ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

    During the briefing meeting Ryan the expedition team leader announced that Ultramarine will not sail to Snow Hill Island for helicopter landing, due to the bad weather and ice conditions surrounding the landing zone, and the bad weather will last for a few days.
    For sure we will not be able to observe empire penguins and their chicks during this trip. Extremely disappointed.
    晚间须知会上探险队长瑞安宣布了一个不好的消息,由于雪丘岛一带恶劣气候和冰况,海洋无极号无法驶入预定的直升机起降区域,并且在未来几天内坏天气还会持续。
    这个航程肯定看不到帝企鹅和帝企鹅幼鸟了,真令人失望。
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  • Antarctica sunset and moon 南极日落与明月

    November 10, 2024, South Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

    Very rare we had seen and experienced beautiful sunset, calm wind with minimum wave in Antarctica. The moon was bright, the air is so pure that the moon craters were clearly visible in this handheld taken photo.
    是夜风平浪静,这在南极海域十分难得。日落景色堪称迷人胜景,月亮也格外明丽。随手拍了一张月亮照片,细看之下却有意外惊喜,完全没有想到手持拍摄居然能够看到如此清晰的月面陨石坑。可知南极上空空气之纯净。
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