parischris

Thanks for your interesting comments on the comparison between the Arctic and Antarctica.

 

I can understand why you'd like to return to South Georgia, the Falklands and Patagonia, as they sound like really special places.

 

I believe the Aqua cruises on the Upper Amazon in Peru. Have you looked into whether you would prefer to cruise in the low water or the high water season? You would get some great photos of the wildlife there.

 

I would also love to visit Peru, with a combined land tour and a short cruise.

 

I hadn't heard of Lindblad's Trinidad to BA expedition.

Hi Marion,

Re the Trinidad to BA Expedition - it looks like Lindblad are not offering it anymore. It only seemed to run for two seasons to reposition the NG Explorer for the Antarctic season, and was eye-wateringly expensive for 30 days. It now seems to have be replaced with a shorter and cheaper expedition starting in Brazil and ending in BA, with the Patagonian fjords replacing one of the earlier Antarctic/Sth Georgia expeditions that used to be scheduled in October/November.

If you get the chance to go to Peru, go! It's a fantastic country with many interesting places to visit. It has a few infrastructure issues (discharging sewage into the bay in Lima, which they're working on), but otherwise a great place to go. I'd also recommend Ecuador for the same reasons :-)

Cheers

Well, we did it! Booked on Le Soleal, 19th Nov 2014.....now to sort out flights to BA etc! You made me laugh with your comments re the steaks-luckily, we always order ours "bleu" anyway!!!! Was the food good otherwise? Read some reports from 2010 ish that slated it....and the wine was described as plonk....oh, and what can you tell me about boot hire/parkas etc???

Well, if you like your steak bleu, cold and still mooing, this is the ship for you :-)! The food is otherwise fine - the salads get a little short on green leafy vegetables after a week, but that's to be expected in a remote destination. I'm not a wine drinker, however there was an onboard sommelier on Le Boreal, so the plonk can't be that bad.

The ship will provide a parka, but you will need to either take your gumboots with you or hire them. I usually take my own but last trip didn't want to carry them for 7 weeks, so hired them. Compagnie du Ponant use Ship to Shore, which is the same company I used. You book the boots on line, and they will be waiting for you in the cabin when you arrive. The crew will collect and return them at the end of the expedition, and you receive your deposit back a few weeks later when they've been accounted for.

Hi, what did you think of the ship? We are in the process of booking Antarctic on Le Soleal..interested to hear your thoughts....

Le Boreal, (along with her identical sisters L'Astral and Le Soleal) is a beautiful, modern luxury soft expedition ship. Her ice rating prevents her from cutting through ice, but she easily outruns an icebreaker or any ship of equivalent size.

She is very French however, and I found some of the design quirks interesting having travelled on other ships designed for polar regions. There is for example no 'mud room' to leave wet clothes, boots etc. Instead you take everything to the (white seated) lounge when you're called and get dressed in boots and jackets there. The zodiac deck is at the rear of the ship, at water level, so getting on and off the zodiacs is very easy. The staterooms all have balconies, which is useful, but I found the best wildlife watching positions were still in the open deck areas - wildlife doesn't care whether you have a port or starboard balcony.

The officers and chefs are French, with the usual Russian crew and Filipino cabin crew. The food is very French, the captain's dinner and farewell dinner are all formal French cuisine and very rich. The buffet is used for breakfast. lunch and dinner, except for the two events above, and the restaurant does a sit down served breakfast lunch and dinner. I only ate in the restaurant for the two events above, so don't have an opinion on it's 'normal' service.

I will say thought that a medium rare steak is invariably delivered 'bleu'! Cheeses and desserts are excellent as you would expect, as are the breads and pastry.

The ship is very comfortable, but tends to put style above comfort. In my stateroom for example, the desk had an ottoman rather than a chair, which I found too hard to sit and work at a laptop on. Likewise the shower and toilet are in separate cubicles, but the tradeoff is that you kick the bin everything you walk into the 'bathroom' to wash your hands. Beds are excellent, and I always carry a foam pillow so can't comment on the pillows - but they seemed to be better than usual fare on expedition ships.

Laundry service is usually same day (no dry cleaning). The Americans found it expensive, but I found it to be quite reasonable by Aussie and European standards.

Please let me know if you have any specific questions. THe only difference between Le Soleal and her sisters is her colour scheme and that she's brand new this year. Oh, and while I think of it, the entertainment is French and terrible. Think 4th rate Moulin Rouge.

Hi Marion,

The Arctic is quite different I found. When you've been to Antarctica and South Georgia, the absence of wildlife is quite striking. I found the absence of seals to be the biggest difference - in Antarctica there are a lot of seals to be seen, particularly in the water, South Georgia literally thousands....in two weeks in the Arctic I didn't see a single one. It wasn't until I was in the south of Iceland that they really started to appear. It must be a difference in the available food stocks between the two regions. The pelagic birds were also noticeably absent - whilst we saw bird colonies in Svalbard, there were very few seabirds in comparison to the Antarctic and S. Georgia.

The icebergs in the fjords are quite pretty, but the tabular icebergs are obviously missing. I think the attraction of the Arctic is the search for different wildlife - ice bears, arctic foxes and hares etc. I'm hoping the Northwest passage and Baffin island has a higher concentration of ice bears and also narwhals.

South America - I'd like to go on a small Amazon cruise on say the Aqua - I'd also like to do Lindblad's Trinidad to Buenos Aires expedition. But given the cost I'd probably do their South Georgia and the Falklands expedition again instead :-) I also want to go back to Patagonia.

Which Explorer are you referring to? If you mean the NG Explorer, no need to pack poles, they have a good supply that you can borrow from when you need them.

Punta Arenas is a small town, and very easy to walk around. I walked to the cemetery, which is a far walk, but perfectly doable. If you're interested in history and culture, the headstones in English for the Scottish and Irish immigrants are fascinating, particularly the grammar mistakes. There is also an interesting church near the main square with stained glass windows featuring the local tribe as understood in Darwin's time, which is also interesting from an historical and cultural perspective. I also remember a chocolate shop that doubles as a cafe on near the square.

Must have been wonderful to see the icebergs at Scoresby. I was lucky to see icebergs from Newfoundland. I'd love to visit Greenland.

 

Our cruise visited four ports in Iceland, including Akureyri. However, we only had time to visit the Botanical Gardens there, as we hired a car for a full day visiting Lake Myvatn, Godafoss Waterfall, Dettifoss - a fascinating region.

 

Have you got a next cruise planned?

I'm going to South Africa for 4.5 weeks next year, so mostly safari and the only cruising will be amongst the great white sharks hopefully :-)

I'd like to do the Northwest Passage, but that will need to be 2015 or 2016 I think. South America called and wants me back asap as well :-)

Where are you off to next?

Thank you for sharing your most interesting travel blog.

 

Did you have a favourite place on your cruise? Good idea to finish up with a land holiday in Iceland.

 

Like you, I always feel like you need a longer visit to really appreciate a place. I would have liked longer in Reykjavik, Iceland, on my cruise.

 

Always love your photos. St Pancras Railway Station and its sculptures have been added to my "must see" list for my next visit to London.

Hi Marion,

My favourite place on the cruise was Greenland, near Scoresby Sound. Amazing icebergs, and was nearby when one basically imploded.

Reykjavik is a great city, and I'd like to (and will) return. Akureyri in the north is also fantastic - much smaller, but with the best of both worlds - great cafes and bars, whale watching within walking distance, scenic fjord etc etc.

Enjoy St Pancras, it's treasures are hidden away on the first floor :-)

Cheers

Hello all,

I recently returned from Compagnie du Ponant's Le Boreal in the Arctic, which was an Abercrombie and Kent charter - their first time back in the Arctic for 11 years.

The itinerary started in Oslo, with a charter flight to Svalbard, then expedition cruising around Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland. The expedition finished in Reykjavik, and I spent another 9 days driving around Iceland.

If you'd like to know more, my travel blog is here. If you get lost, Oslo starts in the July 2013 or Arctic 2013 pages.

Cheers

Here is the link for the January 4 sailing of the Silver Explorer to South Georgia and Antarctica (the sailing during which the bridge was damaged and the Captain injured along with 3 other crew members) from one of the expedition leaders, Claudia Holgate:

 

http://holgate.co.za/blog/wordpress/

 

Claudia is an environmental management professional and one of the ship's resident ornithologists (as well as an EMT!).

I read Claudia's blog last night - it has since been heavily edited. All of the information about injuries etc has been removed. All that remains is 'some water got into the bridge'!

Hi, we are trying to decide the best way to go to the Antarctic Pennisular. We are tossing up between the Polar Pioneer and Sea Spirit. Basically we are trying to choose between less people or more comfort. If anyone knows of a happy medium, or has had experiences on one of these, we would love to hear from you.

I've been three times on three different vessels (about to head out in March for a fourth time). I would pick less people over comfort every time, but have found a happy medium on the NG Explorer - less than 150 people, great itineraries, stabilisers and a comfortable cabin with a great bathroom!

I have met fellow Aussies on a previous expedition who were traveling on the Polar Pioneer (might want to check on equipment rental as they had to hire boots and I think jackets in Ushuaia). Also check whether it is stabilised - a non-stabilised ship will rock and roll across the Drake like you wouldn't believe. Can't comment on the Sea Spirit as I don't think I've ever seen it in port or in passing (looks nice enough, but what's with the mirrored walls in the cabins??), but would say that it is much larger than the Polar Pioneer and has stabilisers.

Itinerary would be the big determining factor for me in choosing which ship as well.

I agree with Greatam. I have sailed on the Mare Australis, and I've seen the Skorpios ships, and there is no comparison. The Skorpios fleet is old and run down - and bear a startling resemblence to a ship wreck further down the fjords near Ushuaia.

The Cruceros Australis boats are not cheap, but are well run and the excursions (all included) were great. There were 21 nationalities on board my cruise, which was blessed with good weather, enough to land on Cape Horn. The Via Australis a week earlier was not so lucky, so bear in mind that the Chilean Fjords are not particularly calm stretches of water.

Cheers