I'm standing here on the seventh
continent Antarctica actually at the end
of what has been an incredible trip that
has just been cut short more on that
later I cruised with silver Endeavor
it's my third trip to Antarctica and
there was 183 of us on board the turn I
chose included the Forkland Island South
Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula so I
why don't you join me with the triple
started in the Forkland so I'm standing
here or walking here in a very wind
swept new island in the Forkland the
first stop we headed off here at uh 7:20
a.m. it was about a kilometer or so walk
back up there where there is a I guess
it's a rery packed full of uh rockhopper
penguins Albatross uh really quite
magnificent good kind of induction as we
build up to more and more Wildlife I was
lucky to be one of the first uh to get
um out and up so I actually get some
pretty good views of the Penguins
well it's rather windy up here and you
may have notice that I am a little bit
sweaty um I've been hiking I think
coming up for about 2 miles now we're in
a place called West Point other part of
the Forkland and I'm really hoping this
walk is worth it so we uh came to this
very beautiful Bay um and then sett off
on the walk it's about 2 miles to the
penguin Colony here we go I think we're
getting nearby again it's rockhopper
penguins and there's about 14,000
breeding pairs of Albatross here
apparently uh it's always interesting
cuz you have all these Albatross and the
rockhopper penguins all just mixed up
together but they basically all around
these Cliffs here so now uh there's a
rather nice little surprise because at
The Farmhouse people who sort of manage
the sort of NATO Reserve they've laid on
an afternoon tea for us and you know
that I love my afternoon tea so I'm
heading off got 2 miles to The Farmhouse
to hopefully enjoy some nice afternoon
tea we've Saed
143 nautical miles to come to this place
one of the clues is that title of the
red there Thatcher Drive along with this
uh bus that you'll see here of uh of Mrs
thater here so uh so obviously Mr Sater
is somewhat of a hero here in uh the
Forkland and in Port Stanley there's
lots of signs of her around so we did a
very unusual thing for an expedition is
because this is more of a tourist place
instead of doing Expedition type stuff
where actually there was options of a
number of Tours like a battlefields tour
couple of
hikes car going past very disrupting
what I'm saying so there was a couple of
kind of Tours like that um I decided
since I've been here before to skip that
and actually come and have a stroll
around like this the memorial here to
the war in 1982 with uh 10 uh plaques
with the people that actually died from
the British side uh as such it's a
rather beautiful uh
Memorial this is South Georgia it is
extremely windy it's about 60 to 70 mph
winds so we have been chased by a storm
down here we actually got to South
Georgia faster than planned almost a day
faster in fact and the plan was we were
going to try and do some Landings
particularly in s plane which is the
famous but it was just too windy and
dangerous to go out so we tried another
spot again too windy so we're Sheltering
in this Bay here it's gorgeous Bay with
these uh incredible uh glaciers and
stuff around it's really cold out here
um and hopefully tomorrow morning the
wind will die down it's now around 14
hours since I last recorded that and
just shows you how dramatically things
change here uh once you head down into
Antarctica so it's now the morning as
you can see it's blue skies no wind it's
quite warm in relative terms now I think
it's about 6° C or so so the good news
is we're going to be heading out on two
amazing uh Landings uh so let's go and
join me uh on the first one you probably
hear behind me lots of excited chitter
chatter amongst the sounds of the waves
and the Animals scoring away so we're
now here on uh we done Landing in
possession Bay uh there are quite a big
colony of King Penguins there's some uh
F seals some elephant seals and uh it's
just great kind of getting up close of
course we're supposed to keep a distance
from the the various animals it's the
the Penguins especially are particularly
inquisitive so they do tend to kind of
come kind of close but it's uh this is a
magnificent place because you've got
these beautiful glaciers youve got a bit
of a hill up there that we climbed up to
uh for a bit of a Viewpoint uh not so
cold it's about six degrees uh winds
building up so hopefully it doesn't
build up too much so we can actually
make the next stop when people think of
South Georgia they think of where I am
now really sort to be plain it's
probably the most famous of all the
places now it's extremely windy so I'm
hoping you can hear this as I'm cupping
the microphone in my hand I hope this
kind of works but it is an incredible
plane as you can see it's very open
which is also why the wind comes kind of
gusting through here it has around
60,000 breeding pairs of King Penguins
apparently the second biggest Colony on
South Georgia a lot of elephant seals on
the beach um and you can see the massive
change from just this morning where we
had blue skies where it's changed really
fast again the penguins are incredibly
inquisitive they keep kind of coming up
to people to see what's going on so I'm
really glad we made it here because this
is kind of like an iconic place to come
and visit uh but magnificent just seeing
these uh rows and rows and clumps and
clumps of these King Penguins all over
the place is just uh
brilliant well in the everchanging
weather situation in deltaa today it's
very cloudy it's very rainy but no wind
so behind me is a clue to where we are
today this is actually a call into
probably the most important kind of
historical commercial part of South
Georgia it's grit viin Carl Anton Larson
who was a Norwegian uh sealer and Whaler
in 1904 created a wailing station here
in griten and it was to get oil oil was
used that time for Street lamps for
Cosmetics this actual site only closed
in
1966 of the mid 60s uh because the
demand for well o plummeted or so
there's more kind of sense of ecology
and conservation so according to the
small Museum that's here around about
400 men would work here in the season
down to 90 in Winter and
175,000 whales were killed in the waters
around South Georgia when the Wailing
industry was uh operating here
175,000 it's mindboggling also here in
GFI is where the south Georgia
government uh has a scientific base has
some of the admin here and there's a
museum and a shop gfig is also renowned
because this is the resting place of
Ernest Shackleton his great is actually
here he actually died uh right here in
gr Vick when he was heading off on
another Expedition and his wife wanted
his body birus and there was a ceremony
toasting the boss cuz that's what
everyone used to call him so it was
quite remarkable seeing his actual grave
so near and yet so far so behind me is
gold Harbor it's very windy which is why
I'm cupping the microphone here but it's
just too uh choppy too windy to land
which is a Pity because it's our last
chance of Landing here in South Georgia
so we are going to hang around see if
the wind dies down which is unlikely and
then do some Scenic cruising through
some FS so we arrived at uh dry galski F
and it was uh completely foggy overcast
and uh not at all great so we hung out
for quite a few hours and then suddenly
at about 4:00 in the afternoon it all
lifted and it uh it just cleared up it's
pry cold out here I'm on Deck 6
hopefully you can hear me it's very
windy it's very cold but it's gorgeous
glaciers so to well with hang around the
day hoping that this would kind of uh
kind of pass quite
magnificent so it's 2 days 682 mil and
choppy Seas since I last spoke to in now
here probably one of the most
significant historical parts of uh
Antarctica which is Elephant Island so
just behind me is is a place called
Point wild this is where Shackleton left
his men 20 yard of his his men for 4 and
a half months while he sailed the way to
South Georgia where we've come from to
try and find help so they had to sit
there for 4 and a half months over
winter we're going to head into this
very beautiful uh Glacier covered area
where they had to um basically survive
for four and a half months they ate
Penguins all the time and that's really
important because penguins are a big
Source also of vitamin C I discovered so
they didn't get things like scurvy also
here is a sculpture bust to the captain
that actually brought the ship down here
to rescue the men later on this
afternoon we're going to be heading to
another spot on Elephant Island
hopefully it'll be calm enough where we
can do some zodiac cruising I probably
look rather cold cuz basically I am so
I'm just back from what you can see
behind us is Cape Lookout so Cape
Lookout is u in the South part of uh
Elephant Island there are chinstrap
Penguins they again to Penguins we saw a
couple of seals there uh a couple of
birds and we did a zodiac ride around
here it was really chilly it's about a -
2 Celsius but obviously when you're out
there with the wind it's it's more
chilly even with loads of layers it's
more your face it gets cold when you see
brochures for Antarctica it's often this
kind of scene that they show you which
is blue
skies loads of ice loads of snow and of
course loads of wildlife so we are here
in this picture perfect place which is
called Robert point we're a little bit
further south in the South chatton
Island it was an early started I hit out
at 7:00 a.m. uh so actually the third
group got and we started with actually a
zodiac cruise around the bay here very
beautiful but what was important about
that is I had five sightings of humac
whales uh probably about three different
whales and that was really magnificent
then we've come on land for about an
hour or so here what's interesting about
the spot is you obviously have elephants
heels on the Shor line as you often do
and then you have fairly large colonies
of gentu and then strap penguins and
what's interesting Is the Gen 2 are sort
of more near the shoreline and the
chinstraps are right up on top of the
hills and it's interesting see just go
so far they're so far away from the
water's edge so this is a very beautiful
spot here we've got about an hour or so
here then we're heading off further
south down the sou shetlands to another
site which is very infrequently called
on because normally the weather prevents
you to uh so hopefully you make that and
I will see you um there hopefully we
traveled about 4 two nautical miles took
about 4 hours or so to get here because
in this area you can only go two knots
because of the risk of whales and
damaging and disrupting whales and we
have landed in Deception Island however
not where people normally go into
Deception Island when I've been here
before in Deception Island we've
actually gone to like a Caldera where a
volcano was and that's where used to be
wailing ships uh in the day there but we
were able to because of the weather land
in a place called
uh Bailey head and the ex team were
incredibly excited to get here because
this is where the biggest colony of chin
strap penguins are there's at least
100,000 uh chinstrap Penguins here at
least 45,000 breeding peirs and the
noise is unbelievable so once you head
over that way which behind there the
hills are just full of penguins now
what's incredible is the the beach is
back there and they then travel all the
way from the beach up these huge hills
it's just insane how far they go and the
noise they make is cold so when they
come back from feeding they're able to
find their partner or their chicks once
the chicks eventually born so each one
has an
individual sound a lot of people have
asked me is it smelly it's actually not
smelly now it could be because we're in
the beginning of the Season uh there's
lots of snow the Penguins haven't been
here that long uh but they are just
incredible uh creatures it is a chil
minus 2 de C but we are in the Antarctic
Peninsula probably with what most people
associate Antarctica with which is these
soaring massive big mountains they're
covered in snow they're covered in
glaciers they're covered in ice blue
skies sea ice breaking up in the sea
around us it is absolutely magnificent
this is one of the most famous places to
come and visit in an Arctica for its
Scenic Beauty it's called filamina Bay
now when we arrived here this morning
after having picked through the sea Ice
uh we went out on excursions when we
went out you didn't even see these
mountains cuz they were covered in
clouds the clouds have now lifted on the
ZX we sailed between the sea ice which
is breaking up which are the very flat
pieces of ice and the various icebergs
that have broken off from things like
the glaciers so the SE is very
interesting it's very flat so this whole
Bay in winter is completely solid and it
now breaks up um but these very flat
pieces of ice they're probably about a
meter or so thick but they can be as
thick as 2 m and apparently you can land
a plane on here when they are 2 m thick
I'm not sure I want to kind of land on
those but apparently that is what you
can do when we were out today on the
Zodiac we had one of those kind of
classic Expedition little surprises uh
where there was a zodiac hiding amongst
the the various icebergs where they had
uh a glue Vine they had a hot chocolate
which you could have either with or
without bailees that's always quite fun
when you're doing these little
Expeditions out on zodiac when they have
those little treats so this is Vina Bay
we're heading off to another iconic site
this afternoon nearby in this area uh
and hopefully we're going to make it
because this sea ice is still quite
thick for this time of year so it all
hinders whether we can dodge the ice um
so hopefully I will see you over in
Daner Island well we did make it to uh
Daner Island although it to take longer
than planned because of all the ice that
we had to fight through it's incredibly
beautiful spot here uh just a remind
also that you do need to be pretty agile
and active because there was quite a
steep Landing had to climber up sort of
bit of an ice shelf and it's been a
really long trik now I already come up
so far to the first level there's
another level way up there and dots that
all around here are gent to Penguins as
of yet I still have actually stepped on
the continent of Antarctica on this trip
because Dana island is where we are now
and actually behind me over there over
my shoulder there is the mainland so we
haven't actually stepped on the mainland
yet so apparently hopefully we're going
to do that tomorrow because obviously be
Petty to come all the way down here and
I'd actually have stepped on the
continent so fingers crossed for
tomorrow rather good surprise when we
were heading back from Dano Island we
had an hour zodiac cruising and we spent
that whole hour basically he is watching
humpback whales it looks like there's
two different whales based on their
tails but they're really close to the
Zodiac and they're basically feeding uh
up and down up and down it was fantastic
got to see them I go up and down maybe
10 times at least that was rather a good
surprise I mean considering it's not
really Peak whale season we've been
incredibly fortunate with whales that's
very
exciting one of the mistakes you can
make when you come to anarctica is spend
all your time taking pictures and
forgetting that sometimes you just need
to stand and look and cir it all in NEC
har is a really good example of that
there is This Magnificent glacia behind
me here then there's a sprawling colony
of gentu penguins now NECA Harbor was
like many places in this area was
originally discovered found by gash the
Belgian Explorer he named it Nico after
a waling ship that used to operate in
this area so it's very atmospheric today
it's snowing we're M out there U I'm
actually first on the first group out
here at 7:30 so it's really great
because we're already seeing pristine
stuff not people around they're all
behind me but it's just s important to
just sit quietly and look listen to the
sound and the silence that's one of the
things that's amazing about anartica is
just the Silence of the
place don't if you can hear the
silence again Nico Island sort of proves
the point about the importance of being
relatively fit and active it's quite a
big hill that we're climbing up here and
I'm
only halfway up to the first level
there's another level way up there um
some people I know have already turned
back um because they're just worried
about the steepness of it and the kind
of the ice Etc um so I probably s a bit
out of breath um but if you can climb up
to get these views it is quite uh quite
incredible
a few people have asked me knowing that
this is my third time in Antarctica if I
become a bit blaz to it and absolutely
not every experience in Antarctica is
different to the time before uh every
single cruise coming to Antarctica is
different because it's driven by Nature
it's driven by Ice it's driven by what's
happening so I've been for example to
niika Harbor uh every trip and this
experience is completely different to
the others although the scene is
basically the same like it's snowing
it's there's more ice and it just every
time it's just different uh so the
answer is no I mean even the Expedition
team make the point that they know that
the next Cruise will be completely
different to this Cruise they'll call in
different places do different things
it's always very
different this is calville which
apparently is the Antarctic pin's
largest G to Colony I do feel every we
go it's the biggest this or whatever I
guess that's why they choose these
places cuz obviously they are
significant now this is a very stunning
place it's sort of like a a sort of um
Iceberg graveyard where I guess icebergs
are stuck because of the currents it's
also a very Bittersweet afternoon
because we had told us before we headed
out that we're cutting short our trip
and the waves and the wind projected for
Drake Passage are quite severe for the
Thursday Friday we J to cross so
actually tonight once everyone heads
back we are going to be heading off uh
to cross the Drake Passage to try and
avoid the worst of storms as you
probably learned from everything that
I've been talking about is you need to
if you come to Antartica be ready for
everything to change in fact when I've
been said article before I think every
single time we've left slightly early to
try and avoid Drake Passage issues which
I guess a lot of people be pleased about
missing we have actually visited the
most incredible places have the most
incredible experience so don't feel that
I'm missing out but you just need to be
ready for that um experience so after
three nights and 2 days Crossing Drake
Passage we're here in Port Williams
where this trip ends so the shps there
behind where we have a day in Port
Williams where they've laid on various
hikes and bird watching and town tours
and so on the direct did prove to be a
little bit on the bumpy side
particularly on the second day so uh
it's probably just as well we got here a
little bit early and then tomorrow we
talk in the chter flights up to Santiago
and the end of the trip I've had an
incredible time it's been absolutely
amazing as you've seen what we've seen
now if you join me over in some of the
videos I'll talk a little bit more about
Expedition cruising some of the things I
learned and also how silver sea Stacks
up versus other Expedition lines see you
over there