Much has happened since my last post. Apologies for the hiatus but we had a whirlwind couple of days on board and then for the last four days I have been entombed in my berth with a dry cough, chills and fever and since we are on a French boat, la grippe with a temperature of 101F. This morning I managed to keep down some toast and a latte, my first food in three days.

In the course of lying flat for the last couple of days I kept thinking that I should get up and put together a post but my head was so unclear and buzzy that I don’t think it would have made much sense. However I woke up this morning with a clear head and a slight tingling of appetite so I think things are on the turn.

The ship’s doctor, whose English matches my French, for emergency use only, has been terrific …

This post is the first of its kind for me, as you’ll see in a moment. 

I’m not sure if I mentioned it in my posts from Tanzania and South Africa last December but as we were settling into our airline’s seats for our return trip home, V said to me, “Well, we don’t have to do that again” presumably in reference to the number of trips that we have made to Africa over the last 10 or 11 years. I think Italy was calling to her and, in fairness, some relaxing time in Europe is long overdue.

And yet, and yet….

Some assorted pictures of the Antarctic region, predominantly South Georgia Island but some sea and landscapes. Hope you enjoy…

I write this from my hotel in BA after a couple of days rich with incident as our Victorian predecessors might have said. I’m writing this in haste as I’m leaving shortly for the airport and my flight home but I did want to post an update before I left…

We have spent the last three days on South Georgia henceforth referred to as SGI. I am writing this a few days later as internet access is very hit and miss. The island is about 165k long and 35k wide. For the most part the island is mountainous, snow covered all year round and the habitable portions are somewhat flat areas between the sea and the foot of the interior mountains…

We sailed from Danco Island in the morning and arrived at Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula in the early afternoon. Paradise Harbour/Bay is one of only two usable Harbours for passenger boats in Antarctica. The bay is surrounded by sharply-edged and heavily glaciated mountainous peaks and massive domes of snow covering the whole landscape…