Fitzroy

So, one day shopping, one day working and frying my brain with spreadsheets and lists of stock and stamps, and one day walking and that was Ushuaia. We took the first half of our flight to Buenos Aires, and arranged to get off in El Calafate, before getting the bus to El Chalten. It´s a long way to anywhere here, takes a while to get your mind around how big this country is. a two hour flight and 5 hour bus journey and we have hardly moved on the map.
This is the jumping off point for some of the most spectacular Andean mountain scenery, Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. We´ve been incredibly lucky with the weather, two days hiking, one in glorious sunshine with fantastic views of the peaks. Although the practice day walking in Tierro del Fuego must have have done some good, I feel totally exhausted on our first day here. We walk for 6 hours up a good trail through forest to the Torre glacier, and I can´t talk, can only put one foot in front of the other with a huge effort. I think I hadn´t truly realised how tired I am, and I really need a rest, a day off from doing anything.
But another good steak and a night´s rest and we go off to see Fitzroy the next day. One of the most stunning days walking you could ever have. The trees are just beginning to turn, and the sun and blue sky remind me of a great day in the mountains in Japan when I visited James and Jules.
An evening in the microbrewery with some home-made muscle relaxant (aka beer) and tomorrow we must make plans for the next few days.

Empanadas

¡Hola amigos! Three days in Ushuaia, bought some jeans (too tight, but I must be going to lose weight now of course), and some Merrell´s for hiking, and headed off to the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego to learn how to walk again. Ten miles up and down hill, and along the coast of the Beagle Channel, and I´ve never had such sore quads! my goodness, I knew I must have got unfit living on a small rock for 4 months, but still... It´s a bit worrying. Not as shell shocked as I thought I would be, but perhaps it just hasn´t hit yet. The first sight of greenery was quite wonderful but I seem to have got used to it again pretty quickly. Beautiful beech forest, notofagus, huge variation in leaf size depending on quite how tough the particular location is. And new birds! great grebes, ibis, a different sort of caracara, a huge bird of prey that we didn´t know at all. But I still miss the baby penguins.
Oh, and the food! cafe con leche and empanadas on our first morning. King crab and calamare, home made ice creams, huge steaks, oh dear, what was that about losing some of the antarctic flab?

Drake Lake or Drake Shake?

Wonderful sights on the way home on Explorer II.

Basking leopard seals, and endless ice

Yes, it really was it! Not without a few extra hurdles to overcome through. At the last minute the ship decided not to land passengers at 7am but to pick us up quickly at 6.30 and head on north to make a landing at Cuverville Island instead. There really wouldn't have been time to do both. So we put all the shop away, carried on counting left-over stock, in bed at 10 ish, up at 4.30am! Pitch dark of course, it was like your worst nightmare of getting up in the winter dark to catch a train, and still having pack up the last bits of waste to take with us, pour out all liquids that might freeze, disconnect the batteries etc etc. Thank goodness Rick had rigged up an electric light in the bunkroom this season so we didn't have to do it all by torchlight. Explorer II had arrived the evening before and it was comforting to see her lights circling in the bay all night, and know that we really did have a lift home.
And here we are then - a luxurious cabin each, as many hot showers as we can bear, fabulous food pressed on us several times a day, along with cocktails, wine, Irish coffees, hot chocolate laced with rum - you name it, you can have it. I was apprehensive to say the least about crossing the Drake, and dosed myself with pills yesterday. It's a very flat drake apparently, which means swell of only 4 to 5 metres. Rick and I even managed an interesting game of ping pong in the gym yesterday afternoon! Hard to keep your eye on the ball when sometimes it appears to stop in midair and even go backwards. We are anticipating arrival in Ushuaia late tonight/early tomorrow morning. So need to make the most of our last day here. We held a small post office on board yesterday morning, and I still have to do the final accounts, and stamp counting. It's great that this ship is going on to Stanley so we can just leave the mail with them for delivery. Well, I think it is elevenses time now, hmm what little treat shall I have next? yet to try out the sauna.
Rachal and I did the landing on Cuverville on Sunday, while Rick succumbed to the lure of a warm bed with clean sheets (after five months in a sleeping bag!). We were allowed to climb part way up the steep rocky little island. What a pleasure it was! just to be able to walk somewhere in a straight line for half an hour! and uphill too! Was quite pleased to manage it at all. And once back in the zodiacs we were met by another boat laden with glasses and champagne! A celebratory drink to say good bye to Antarctica, in the brilliant sunshine surrounded by gleaming icebergs and porpoising penguins. What a way to finish our time here! I can't think of anything better.

Is that it then?

Final farewell to the Bremen

after another spectacular meal

My bunk during the packing process!

Can't believe we are packing up. Counting all the clothes, patches, bookmarks in the shop, putting away the artifacts in the museum, scrubbing the floors. Also can't believe it is so long since I have put a message here!
We had a hectic last two weeks of Feb, two ships a day, but now we just have one more and they are landing 200 passengers tomorrow morning, starting at 7am (6am our time, ouch!). Then we'll have a whirl of activity, shut the stamp suitcases and get on board, hopefully by 10 am - that's the plan anyway. And then I think the three of us will be tempted by a long hot shower and a comfy bed in a warm cabin! Just been out for a final lunch on Bark Europa, the beautiful Dutch sailing ship, the sun came out and we stood on deck taking photographs for the last time of our little island with the mountains behind. There are still plenty of little penguins around on Goudier, they are splishing about at the water's edge learning how to swim. I wish we had had more time and decent weather to be able to sit and watch them play. The leopard seal has been around alot too, easy food. It's an gruesome sight to see them thrashing the penguins around in the air, letting them go and catching the
m again, until they are a skinned bloody mess.
Right then, better go - this time tomorrow I'll either be in the bar or the sauna!