To The End Of The World...And Back!

Here are some photos and words from my trip on the Mare Australis ship to visit Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego and various other places, which was almost a month ago now.....weird! This whole trip really was "the sound of silence" - we were the only people anywhere near - to sail up totally empty fjörds and look on mountains which have never been climbed, an amazing experience.

Day One: this wasn't really a "day", more of an evening/night affair, but as far as the cruise-billing is concerned it was a day as it was dark not much in the way of photo opportunities.

Day Two: Ainsworth Bay - a fascinating place with Magallenic beech forests, glaciers, elephant seals, salt flats, beavers (unseen) and purple mushrooms!!!








Day Three: The Pilar Glacier - the most gorgeous day (as you can see) and probably the most impressive glacier I've ever seen!







Day Four: Cape Horn at 6.45am (nice) in a swelling sea, VERY strong winds and pelting hail, all of which only added to the "end of the world" atmosphere. Whilst nothing more than a bit of land, it's an important one, and I found it a moving experience, slighlty diminished by the hordes of orange-lifejacket-clad tourists from the boat! Slightly spoilt the tranquility. The statue is of the albatross, a bird found roaming both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.


The actual Cape itself: the last bit of land before Antarctica, nearly 1,000km away...




Day Four (continued): After some much-needed sleep we docked at Puerto Williams, the southernmost inhabited settlement in the world...ever.


Here's some shots of the actual town: most people keep horses in their gardens, which is "cute" if a little strange (surely enough land?), as well as their own little Calor gas tanks. The school was so amazing I didn't take a picture of it. Other than that reminded me strangely of villages in the plain of Holderness (the unnoficial end of the world)....




From here we landed at Ushuaia in Argentina, where I didn't really take any pictures and where I left the next day for the infamous 15 hour bus journey back to dear old Punta...