AA&F

Image 0: Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel, Argentina
Image 1: Cape Horn
Image 2: Grey headed albatross on the Diego Ramirez Islands, 60 miles south of Cape Horn
Image 3: Sunset over the port at Ushuaia
Image 4: The Lyubov Orlova in Ushuaia. She is a Russian research vessel.
Image 5: Deck 6 on the Orlova. That's the unusually smooth Drake Passage in the background.
Image 6: The observation deck. That's Dad on the left.
Image 7: Rough seas... No 80 foot waves though. Most disappointing.
Image 8: A Zodiac being lowered into the water. We were shuttled ashore in the Zodiacs.
Image 9: Boarding a Zodiac. Easy in calm weather - more exciting in rough weather!
Image 10: We had a BarBQ on deck a couple of times. This one was south of the Antarctic Circle...
Image 11: Adelaide Island
Image 12: Landing at the Chilean base on Adelaide Island. Formerly a BAS base
Image 13: The base
Image 14: The workshop
Image 15: The main living hut
Image 16: A signpost
Image 17: Jenny Island off Adelaide Island - named after Charcot's daughter
Image 18: Looking towards Rothera point on Adelaide Island
Image 19: Fur seals and penguins in a bay behind the base
Image 20: Information sign for Horseshoe Island
Image 21: Landing at Horseshoe Island
Image 22: The base hut on Horseshoe Island
Image 23: The bay on Horseshoe Island
Image 24: The workshop in the Horseshoe Island base
Image 25: Food store in the Horseshoe Island base
Image 26: Lots of Lard! :)
Image 27: The bath. The bicycle wheel in the tub was used to measure distance traveled when sledging.
Image 28: Pigs: the picture on the wall above the bath.
Image 29: The washing machine.
Image 30: The empire stretches to the ends of the Earth
Image 31: Copper veins in the rock outside the base
Image 32: The base buildings at Rothera. The clear stretch of gravel in the foreground is the runway.
Image 33: The runway and hanger at Rothera
Image 34: The laboratory complex at Rothera
Image 35: The new sleeping quarters. I liked the builder's advert. Who's going to see it?
Image 36: The tanks - from the outside.
Image 37: A tank full of marine creatures in the labs. There's Antarctic cod, starfish, anemones, sponges and that big thing in the middle is a sea spider.
Image 38: A BAS Dash 7 aircraft in the hanger
Image 39: A BAS Twin Otter
Image 40: A big digger with huge tyre chains.
Image 41: The setting sun in the bay off Rothera Point
Image 42: Sunset over Marguerite Bay from Rothera
Image 43: The hut on Peterman Island. The sign is an invite to the Verdansky base (Ukrainian) on the Argentine Islands - formerly the BAS Faraday base.
Image 44: Some Adelie penguins on Peterman Island
Image 45: A gentoo rookery on Damoy Point - near to Peterman Island.
Image 46: A couple of Gentoo penguins at Damoy Point, with the Orlova in the background.
Image 47: A gentoo rookery on Peterman Island
Image 48: A rather sad looking gentoo chick
Image 49: An ice filled bay at Peterman Island
Image 50: A (rather bad) picture of a leopard seal. It chased our Zodiac for about 20 minutes playing with the outboard motor.
Image 51: The Lamaire Channel. This is one of the most spectacular sites in the Antarctic - we passed though it three times and it always looked like this. :(
Image 52: On the hill above the Argentine Admiralte Brown base in Paradise bay
Image 53: A moral dilemma! To invade the gentoo chick's personal space and reclaim our life jackets, or not be allowed back onto the Zodiacs!
Image 54: The Argentine refuge hut on. All the Argentine hut seemed to have their flag plastered on the side. Emphasising their presence for political mileage no doubt!
Image 55: A sheathbill. Also called a paddy or mutt. It had nested in the crate and the chick was never too far from the safety of the nest. The mother had filled the crate with shells, nails and broken glass.
Image 56: A sheathbill chick.
Image 57: Port Lockroy information sign
Image 58: The base hut at Port Lockroy
Image 59: Post Office
Image 60: There's even queues to the Post Office in the Antarctic!
Image 61: The gentoo rookery at Port Lockroy. A smelly, muddy rank sort of place. But the natives were friendly.
Image 62: Two gentoo siblings
Image 63: Old mooring chains at Port Lockroy
Image 64: A view across Cuverville Island
Image 65: Another view across Cuverville Island
Image 66: The sun on the water at Cuverville
Image 67: Moss and lichens on Cuverville
Image 68: A Chinstrap penguin on Hannah Point
Image 69: A congregation of chinstraps on Hannah Point
Image 70: An Elephant seal wallow on Hannah Point. It was seriously smelly if you were caught downwind!
Image 71: A couple of Elephant seals. Often referred to Effluent seals after this.
Image 72: Greenery! The plants in the blue square is the grass Deschampsia, the plant in the red square is Colebanthus, and the stuff in the green square is an algae called ????????.
Image 73: Half Moon island is in the foreground, with an Argentine base visible to the right of the rocky hummock. Livingston Island dominates the background.
Image 74: Livingston island from half Moon Island
Image 75: An old whaling boat on the shore of Half Moon Island, with the Orlova in the background.
Image 76: A chinstrap rookery on Half Moon Island.
Image 77: Fur seals on Half Moon Island
Image 78: An adult Fur seal on Half Moon Island
Image 79: The Argentine base Esperanza at Hope Bay
Image 80: The welcome signs at Esperanza
Image 81: The High Street
Image 82: An old Snocat at Esperanza
Image 83: The old dry stone hut Nordenskold built
Image 84: Stuffed things in the Esperanza museum
Image 85: Information about the BAS base at Hope Bay - now used by the Uruguayans
Image 86: The burnt out remains of the old FIDS hut in Hope Bay. Inset: the graves of the two FIDS that died in the fire.
Image 87: The ex-BAS hut at Hope Bay. Inset: the kitchen.
Image 88: Me outside the ex-BAS hut in Hope Bay. Now used by the Uruguayans
Image 89: Looking down the glacier into Hope Bay
Image 90: A Weddell seal on the beach below the Esperanza base
Image 91: The same Weddell seal as before - just a wee bit closer :)
Image 92: An Adelie penguin at Brown Bluff
Image 93: A molting Adelie chick at Brown Bluff
Image 94: An ice dragon and an gentoo
Image 95: Information about the base at Whaler's Bay, Deception Island
Image 96: Neptune's Bellows: the entrance to the flooded caldera at Deception Island
Image 97: Bisco Hut at Whaler's Bay. Built by the whalers in the early 1900s, destroyed by a lahar in 1969 following a volcanic eruption. The lahar (a river of water, mud, ice and rocks) swept right through the middle of the base hut.
Image 98: The (exposed) kitchen at Whaler's Bay
Image 99: A can of beetroot in the larder
Image 100: The coal store
Image 101: The well under the stairs of Bisco House. This provided a year round supply of fresh water to the base.
Image 102: Whaler's Bay
Image 103: The remains of a single engined Otter at the base. Inset: the wings and tail fin of the otter are inside the adjacent hanger
Image 104: The tanks at Whaler's Bay. The larger ones stored whale oil, the smaller ones, fuel and water. Inset: heating elements in the base of the tanks - presumable to stop the oil freezing.
Image 105: The tanks cam all the way from Darlington.
Image 106: There are a few signs dotted around the base detailing the past whaling history of the site.
Image 107: A waterboat. It was towed behind a rowing boat to a source of fresh water - water, snow or ice - filled up then towed back to the ship.
Image 108: The island is still volcanically active. This steam is being given off as the sea water hits the geothermally heated sand on the beach.
Image 109: More steam, and Neptune's Window in the background.
Image 110: Antarctic Skuas at Whaler's Bay
Image 111: Disintegrating wooden barrels and fur seals
Image 112: Sunset over Deception Island
Image 113: A chinstrap rookery on Aitcho Island
Image 114: Loads of moss on Aitcho Island
Image 115: Penguin patterns: the circle in the middle was where the penguin stood, and as it tracked the sun it periodically squirted round the circle. :)
Image 116: Stone stripes highlighted by the moss and setting sun. This was the only evidence of solifluction I saw.
Image 117: An ice berg
Image 118: More Bergs
Image 119: Brash ice
Image 120: Loose pack ice
Image 121: Icy scenery
Image 122: Some nice layering of the snow pack. :)
Image 123: My first tabular berg I've ever seen!
Image 124: A perfect dirt cone on the glacier at Hope Bay
Image 125: A group photo
Image 126: All the FIDS on the cruise
Image 127: Dad - in familiar pose. That green stuff is the Deschampsia grass
Image 128: Dad and me
Image 129: Lenticular clouds over Ushuaia
Image 130: Some mad person swimming south of the Circle
Image 131: The main square in Buenos Aries
Image 132: Evita Peron's grave
Image 133: Government House in Buenos Aries. A nice shade of salmon pink, don't you think?
Image 134: A huge rubber tree in Buenos Aries