One from the archives?

Aye, dios mio!  Boy has this been a busy couple of months or what?!?!  We're just running all the time, but I've seen some spectacular things.  Between sea days (two on either end of the trip) and landing days (at least two landings per day weather permitting, sometimes three!)... it's all I can do to get enough sleep and keep my brains inside my head :)

Internet is pretty rough on the ship so I haven't been able to do much online, but here are some teasers of what we've been seeing so far.  My first trip down I was lucky enough to have my folks and brother on board which was fantastic!  We headed to the Falklands and South Georgia, before spending a few days around the peninsula area.  So much was seen those three weeks! 

Then I said farewell to them, and headed back (we turnaround in port on the same day, outgoing passengers off at 8am, then we run around the ship preparing for the next group, maybe get a few hours off the ship for a lunch, or shopping, or free internet) then we greet the incoming passengers around 3:30 with fresh smiles and smart uniforms!  No rest for the weary... even less for the ship's crew that take care of all of us!

Have had several 10 day trips to the peninsula and just finished a 15 day "Holidays in the Antarctic" which was fantabulous!  Everything to be seen we saw... breaching whales, calving glaciers, five penguin species, elephant seals, Arctowski research station for Christmas Eve, BBQs on open decks, kayaking 6 times (!!!), celebrating two holidays, absolutely spectacular weather with blue skies and calm seas... it was just about unreal.  And there were even a bunch of Texans on board!  How can it get better than that?  ;)

OK, so here are a few pics to keep you intrigued until next time.  Much love to all and know that I'm thinking about you wherever you (and I) are in the world.  Cheers, and Happy New Year!!!!

Falkland Islands... and plants!  Farewell to them (mostly) for months!

Albatross colony on Westpoint Island, Falklands

King Penguins on South Georgia... no emperors on these trips but the Kings are a great "substitute", just as curious and dang tall!

Fur seals and Kings on South Georgia.  Spectacular.

The family!  What a deal to get to share Antarctica with them.  Thanks for being such troopers and making the trip!!!

Zodiac cruising checking out an active glacier just off of Point/Cape Wild, Elephant Island.  And me in my official guide gear.

No time to fix this orientation, but a zodiac cruise off Point Wild in the brash ice... what a cool sound it makes shussing along the zodiac sides... sort of like the grit in the Rio Grande against a canoe... sort of!  :)

The gentlemen (some of them) of Arctowski, the Polish research station on King George Island.  The most welcoming, friendly, and handsome group of folks we've encountered on our travels.  Thanks guys for hosting us on Christmas Eve Day!

Hero shots, me being happy on ice...

Me being happy with more ice, and penguins!

And penguins (Gentoo),

Penguins,

And more penguins. 

It's a good time down here!!! 

Ushuaia for Internet!

Well a quick port call before taking on a new group of passengers... Time enough to birthday shop for a crew party, enjoy lunch (an amazing piece of meat and hardcore garlic chimichurri) with the expedition crew of a 'neighbor' ship in port the Fram, and back to the dock for the free fast wifi. Two trips down and some amazing scenery has passed behind us so far. Close encounters with king penguins and elephant seal pups as well as territorial fur seal males in South Georgia, and the stunning scenery of the Antarctic peninsula... That's why I'm here. There is a peace and tranquility that comes with smooth, white- draped landscapes knowing there are no towns, no mcdonalds just land earth true wild and untrammeled nature. Somewhat of an idealized picture of course because of course there are human influences and impacts present on different scales but still in the grand scheme we're not the major players we humans. Posting via my iToy which doesn't have the good pics on it so stay tuned for next time and more representative pictures. Till then enjoy scenes of Ushuaia our home away from home away from home. The port is about all I've got. Will work on my journalism skills, still working out how to be most technologically efficient in port.

Al principio, otra vez...

In Argentina! Trying out a mobile blog app with my iPod... Damn fancy. So excuse any initial glitches...

Have a few days before meeting up with th expedition staff, so will do some work prep and some wandering... Here are some sights from my walk yesterday:

T

Ta Ta for now :)

Well, my time at South Pole is done.  It was high time to get out to somewhere warm with more than a handful of colors (and textures, smells, feels, sounds, tastes, etc) to inspire the imagination.  I arrived back in New Zealand on 2 November and hightailed it to the west coast of the south island... to the "Beach Bach".  Aptly named it was my haven for four days of sleeping, eating, dozing in the sun, eating, getting into a bed pre-warmed by an electric blanked (New Zealand's version of bedtime heaven), watching the waves, napping... it was awesome. 

Kitchen area of the Beach Bach

View out the kitchen window

The most amazing sweet warm bed upstairs in the bach

The view out the bedroom and effectively from the bed... ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Then drove up the coast to see Karamea and walk the first bit of the Heaphy Track... an otherworldly landscape of palms, tree ferns, sand, and the lushness that is New Zealand coastal forest.  Again, awesome.

Just one of the amazing west coast beaches to be found...

Tree ferns!

Wee ferns!  (well, this one really wasn't so wee-- about 5' across... but the rhyme sounded good!)

Wee moss on forest floor.  Just be glad that I'm not posting all of the macro plant photos I took.... geeking out about the small stuff was a hugely satisfying part of my vacation!

More ferns!

oh gosh, still going...

Nikau Palms, the most southerly palm species to occur in the world... they're beautiful.

Last one, enjoy them while they last!

The start (or end) of the Heaphy Track... it was an otherworldly environment with all the lushness on so many different levels.

Look for the small stuff...

Then Robert arrived in NZ, and we promptly decamped to Australia just in time to catch the solar eclipse just north of Cairns.

The astronomer-photographer getting everything just right for the totality at our beach command center just north of Palm Cove

The totality as seen through my wimpy point and shoot.  It was cool how it was dark where we were but you can see where some of the sun is still shining to the left of the photo...

A very happy astronomer-photographer (and his groupie) after a successfully-viewed full solar eclipse totality.

Then we went hiking in the Daintree Rainforest, and skipped down the coast enjoying some quiet time at an amazing B&B overlooking the sea at Yorkey's Knob, did a little diving on the outer Barrier Reef, went sailing in the Whitsundays, and had a 4x4 'adventure' tour of Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island.

Part of the rainforest schtick is that many trees develop buttress roots-- helps them get more oxygen in the typically saturated soils.  May also help w/ support in the shallow soils but apparently it's more about oxygen. 

More cool roots.

A forest dragon.  They don't move much which allowed us to get great close up photos.  It's about 3' long with tail.

Zen spot in an otherwise hostile environment... in Queensland just about everything will hurt you...

The view from our balcony at A Villa Gail B&B, Yorkey's Knob.

One of the amazing beaches seen during our sailing trip through the Whitsunday Islands.

Green ants (taste like limes according to Robert) and the leaf nests they make... standing on guard ready to attack me if I got any closer...

Our ship, the Solway Lass, over 100 years old (and still solid!)

Crazy squiggly bark on a eucalyptus tree, Fraser Island

Happy on Fraser Island

Crazy feeding/filter balls from different sized crabs, Fraser Island

One staghorn fern, out of about 10 other similarly massive ones that were all perched on a huge tree.  It's about43' across at least...

 Then we finished out at Lake Tekapo back in New Zealand for some amazing dark sky star watching.  Google for "Fraser Gunn Astrophotography" to get a look at what we were seeing... he's a friend of Robert's that does a lot of observing and photographing of the night sky.

Lake Tekapo... by twilight.

Heading off to a couple of weeks at Mesopotamia Station, a sheep station (or ranch as we call it in the states) in the high foothills of NZ's southern alps.... then finally back to the states in early January.  Yahoo for all of it!

The sun is up and it's time to go!  Spring has sprung and it's crazy time, getting ready for the influx of new folks and packing up to end our stay.  Tonight is the final harvest of greenhouse produce, it's looking so good in there it'll be sad to see it all go.



A final view of the chamber before we eat it all!  Aren't he orange nasturtiams (left in photo) awesome!  The flowers taste so good...



Some final touches for the greenhouse, an awesome painting by Mel Ordway-Cook, one of our chefs.  It'll add much needed color outside of the greenhouse, directly across the hallway.

Hope to post some photos of The Last Harvest and related festivities.  The last Farmer's Market will be this Friday, maybe even after our first summer crew arrives... they won't get to see the greenhouse in action, but they'll get to enjoy the fruits of the labor.

One more cool thing, have done a couple of Skype sessions with schools back in the states-- talking about hydroponics, what we grow here, and of course about how cold it is outside.  We're growing pretty much the same things that the Alpine Middle School is growing in Alpine, Texas.  Can't wait to see their school garden in person!

Hope to post more info about the greenhouse in coming days but for now there's a link to the right that has some basic info about the chamber and the systems used to grow the plants.  Cheers!

OK, so this is weird but someone has decided to impersonate me.  You know you're famous when... What a laugh (sort of)!  To set the record straight...

The impersonator has posted themselves, username AntarcticaAma, on the site IAmA/reddit (I don't really know what these things are, a friend of mine just sent me the link because he works with me and knows that this isn't my doing)... and this person has put themselves out there saying they run the greenhouse at the South Pole and is answering questions about the station, life here, etc-- but this person is a FRAUD. 

Their answers are incorrect, incomplete, misleading, and they don't even know how to spell or even spell the contractor's name that is their supposed employer.  So those of you that have commented on reddit that the person's proof seems false... well, my blog is real-- though not a co.uk site-- and AntarcticaAma isn't the person that's actually here running the greenhouse.

If you read this and actually do have questions about life here, the greenhouse, etc, and want real answers, please ask and I'll do my best to respond... since just recently I learned how to find the 'reply' function to answer peoples' comments.

So, happy fraud-busting and may we all find a lesson somewhere in here about believing (or not) what you see, read, hear about, etc...

:) jos

And PS, if anyone knows how to post this info on IAmA or reddit so AntarcticaAma can be exposed for a fraud (and so I can dissociate myself from their answers/representations of life here) please let me know!  Thanks!