Forrest Brown

Today started off with an extra early start, a 5 AM light breakfast and landing at Fortuna Bay. The plan was to do a 3.5 mile hike up the mountain, through a pass and down the other side into Stromness Bay where an abandoned whaling station was located. The hike followed the last little bit of the route that Ernest Shackleton took on his epic rescue journey in 1916.

The hike up the mountain to the pass was a bit of work, but coming down the other side was made easy because there was still enough snow on that side of the mountain that we were able to do a bum slide down, which was fun, but made me wish I had brought my skis.

The group starting out on our hike, the Polar Pioneer in the background

The final destination of our hike was the abandoned Stromness whaling station.

Panorama of the abandoned Stromness whaling station

Gentoo Penguin in front of Stromness

Run Forrest, Run...wait, that's not right. Run, Little Gentoo, Run!

In the afternoon the ship changed locations to Grytviken (Swedish for “The Pot Cove”), another abandoned whaling station, but now the main settlement on South Georgia for the small group of British government officers, administration and researchers that live there. Grytviken didn’t have a lot of wildlife, only a few Elephant Seals, some Far Seals and a few scattered King Penguins. What made Grytviken interesting was being able to explore the hulking, rusting machinery from the abandoned whaling station.

Rusting Machinery

Not everything is abandoned at Grytviken

After two and half days at sea the Polar Pioneer has reached South Georgia. South Georgia is a remote collection of sub-antarctic islands made up of the main South Georgia Island surrounded by many smaller islands that are located about 1335 miles East of South America. The islands are uninhabited except for a small group of British government officers, administration and researchers.

What makes the South Georgia Islands interesting is the rugged landscapes, huge glaciers and large amounts of bird and marine wildlife.

Our first stop at South Georgia was Elsehul (Norwegian for Else Cove). After breakfast we boarded the Zodiacs for several hours of cruising around the cove take photos of the impressive landscapes and wildlife.

South Georgia Island

Best Buds

Fur Seal

This guy had been fighting with another Fur Seal

We returned to the Polar Pioneer for lunch and so that the ship could move to our second location for the day, Right Whale Bay. At this location we went ashore at Binder Beach and we able to spend several hours photographing a large colony of King Penguins along with Elephant Seals and Fur Seals.

Thousands of King Penguins at Binder Beach in Right Whale Bay

Juvenile King Penguin looking for his lunch.

Regal King Penguin

As we were ashore the weather started to turn for the worse with howling winds and snow, so as amazing as it was, it was good to return to the warmth of the ship at the end of the day.

The ship spent the night heading for Standley, the main town and capitol of the Falkland Islands. Once the ship arrived at Standley we were able to spend the morning wandering around town taking photos before heading back to the ship for lunch and to start our journey for our next location, South Georgia Island.

Panorama of Standley, Falkland Islands

Vertical Panorama of Christ Church Cathedral

Shipwreck

This morning we arrived at the Falkland Islands. The plan for the day was to go ashore on two of the smaller, mostly uninhabited islands that make up part of the 740 islands of the Falklands. Our first stop was Sea Lion Island. When the ship first arrived and dropped anchor we saw four Orca Whales off in the distance. Unfortunately for us, the surf was too high to safely land our Zodiacs on Sea Lion Island, so it was decided that we would move on to the second island were were going to visit.

Bleaker Island had a cove that provided shelter from the larger ocean waves and made taking the Zodiacs ashore fairly easy. Making it even easier was that there was a small sheep farm on the island and we were able to land the Zodiacs at the small pier for the farm.

Once on Bleaker Island we were able to wander around and explore. The first interesting thing I found was a large colonies of King Cormorains.

A Skua looking for tasty King Cormorant eggs

King Cormorant

Then I spend some time taking photos and videos of the funny little Rockhopper Penguins that make their nests on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. I got to see the food chain in action when a sea lion attacked and ate one of the Rockhoppers in the surf below the cliff I was on. Unfortunately my photos of the attack were not very good.

Rockhopper Penguins

After the Rockhoppers I was wandering around when I noticed that I was being watching from a small hole in the ground. On looking a little closer I realized it was the strange Magellanic Penguin that builds tunnels in the ground to nest in. I’ve always thought of penguins in the snow and ice, so it’s a bit strange seeing penguins digging holes in the grass like a rabbit.

Magellanic Penguin

I’m on a 19 day cruise put on by Aurora Expeditions to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninciala before returning to Argentina. When most people think of a 19 day cruise I think that they picture one of the giant luxury cruise ships. But the ship I’m on is a fairly small Russian research ship named the Polar Pioneer that has been converted to carry passengers instead of researchers. The ship holds 54 passengers and in addition to the group of photographers I’m with there’s a group of Russian scuba-divers and a group of sea-kayakers, plus a few people who are not part of any of any specific group. Aurora Expeditions is an Australian travel company that specializes in adventure cruises to remote parts of the world, so that means that the majority of the passengers are Australian, there’s a few other Americans and 1 Canadian.

No, the big ship on the left is not the ship I'm on. If you look closesly, you'll see the Polar Pioneer on the right.

I’m doing this cruise as part of a nature photography workshop but on by LuminOdyssey that I first heard about while on the Hokkaido Nature Photography workshop last winter. Hopefully on this cruise I’ll be working to improve my photography while getting to photograph amazing Subantarctic and Antarctic landscapes and wildlife.

I thought it would be interesting to do a blog posting each day of the cruise to write about what we did that day and to post a few of my photos. But since there’s no internet on the ship, I’m going to write everything on my laptop and do a mass posting once I return to civilization.

Some of the photographers went up in helicopters the day before. Here's a shot I took of the Polar Pioneer as we flew over.

Today we boarded the ship in the late afternoon and the ship set sail around 7:30 in the evening from Ushauia, Argentina. The time was mostly spent getting familiar with the ship and also doing a lifeboat drill, which I hope we’ll never have to do for real.

The lifeboat drill.

Tierra del Fuego National Park in Argentina.

This is the southern end of the Pan-American Highway. If I started walking for here, I would reach the other end of the highway at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in only 11,000 miles.

Tierra del Fuego National Park

I’m Ushuaia Argentina, the southern most city in the world. This is where I’ll board the Polar Pioneer for my 19 day cruise to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and finally Antarctica. I wanted to be extra cautious in case of flight delays, so I have almost two day in Ushuaia before the ship leaves.

The main street of Ushuaia

A group of us took a helicoptor tour around the Ushuaia area.

Shipwreck near Ushuaia with an icebreaker passing by in the background.

It turns out the people are really short in Ushuaia

Ushuaia

The last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy. First I was in Berlin, Germany for six days, returned to Los Angeles for just enough time to wash clothes and repack my suitcases, and then headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m only in Buenos Aires for two day before I’ll fly south to Ushuaia, Argentina to board a 54 passenger ship for an 19 day voyage to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, and the Antarctic Peninsula.

After the voyage I’ll return to Buenos Aires for a couple of more day and then head for the northern edge of Argentina to Iguazu Falls for three day before finally returning to Los Angeles.