Land's End

This voyage offers the unique opportunity to experience Norway “from within”: After having had all these comprehensive insights from our Man of Fjærland, Olav, we are entirely in Expedition Leader Karins backyard today.

This is to be taken literally, as the landing site on the island of Atløy is in fact the yard next to her boat house. She even had an impeccable stairwell built for people to get off the boats, just before we arrived.

What a change of landscape we are experiencing! No longer are we surrounded by looming fjord walls, gushing waterfalls and the debris fans of the numerous avalanches that are a hallmark of the inner fjord land, an open sky is above us, unhindered and blue. The grey hills are round and gentle, peacefully sticking their heads out of lush pastures, populated by sheep of several generations. The mood is pastoral, serene, and it affects everybody who goes ashore immediately.

Not only we can visit the ancient fishing gear of Karin’s family in the boat house and take a sunny stroll to the old community church where guided tours are given and a little concert is played. For those who want to combine the feast for the eyes with a little amuse-gueule, our chef Eirik comes ashore with no less than 10 kilo of scallops, caught and bought only last night from a local fisherman.

Eirik is also an expert outdoor cook, and in no time he has a fireplace built with the local rocks. Five minutes later the scallops are sizzling in the pan, and we have the most precious, delicious seafood on an all-you-can-eat base!

And Karin’s smile reaches from ear to ear, because all her family is around, parents, brother, aunts. A full family gathering, all of them helping, explaining, showing, smiling.

What a start for the day, especially for the kayakers, who could explore this wonderland from sea level.

When glaciers reach the sea, they turn their erosional power from a narrow blade into a wide grater, serrating the coastline into many low, rounded individuals - islands.

Norway has an incredible number of them, and just after lunch we visit the absolute westernmost of those, Værlandet and Bulandet.

Værlandet has only 9 square kilometers but a striking geology. A deep green metamorphic rock crops out next to “Black Beauty”, a dark breccia that only occurs on this small island. Worldwide. And that’s not the end of it: On a very small area, the breccia is overlain by “Picasso”, a very, very colorful conglomerate. May these names not be overly scientific, they describe well what you see. 

Together they tell a fascinating story of supercontinents, ruptures and erosion, a wild chapter of Earth’s history. And as they are exceptionally pretty, they get fashioned into table tops and exported around the world.

Knowing this, our guests are very pleased as owner Hjerman presents them with a little piece of the rock.

Now we enter a strange world, the westernmost outpost of Norway - Bulandet. It is not an island, but an archipelago, consisting of 365 islands and islets (So you have one for every day of the year). Some of them are so low that they are under the water line at hight tide.

Our guide Ruth tells us interesting stories from the times when there was no bridge, no connection but the boat. Many of the islands accommodate a single house, because there is simply not more room for more.

Marrying into this place sometimes occasionally entailed a nasty surprise when the bride saw the smallness of it for the very first time.

But it is beautiful, no doubt, in a romantic, wild way. The thought that this is indeed the absolute end of the country adds to it, especially when you stand on the hill and face West.

Back in Værlandet we get more information/demonstration from Ruth, who is a walking encyclopedia of the island’s history, shown at its best in the small Peter Hansen Museum, next to the harbour.

Speaking of which: As we return from our fine excursion, we find Ralf there, playing his accordion together with a local musician. A wonderful atmosphere rounds up the day.

And now it’s time to weigh the anchor and go even further west.

Beyond Land’s End.

Stanley and surrounding areas

Dear readers,

We arrived in Stanley at 08:00 AM on 04/12/2014 after two perfect landings at West Point and Carcass Island. Once again, we were lucky with the weather. With an air temperature of 8.2 C° and a wind speed of 8.4 m/s, we were in for another comfortable day with picture perfect light.

 

 

The passengers were able to take a shuttle bus every 30 minutes from the pier to the center of Stanley, where many visited the landmarks and did some shopping.

 

 

 

 

Most of them chose to join an excursion to witness and learn about the breathtaking nature surrounding Stanley. These were the activities the passengers could do:

–                    Scenic Air Tour:

Six of the passengers joined a 35 minutes flying excursion over Stanley in a twin engine Britten-Norman Islander aircraft. We were able to get unique views of Stanley and its surrounding areas and learn a lot about the town. We got a real taste of the mountainous terrain, wild landscapes and natural coastal beauty. During the flight we got to see places like Gypsy Cove, Cape Pembroke, the lighthouse,  Lady Elizabeth shipwreck, Kidney Cove, Port Louise, Mount Tumbledown, Longdon, Two sisters and Harriet, Stone Runs, Fitzroy Farm and Bluff Cove Lagoon.

–                    Bluff Cove Lagoon:

This beautiful privately-owned farm with a pristine white wilderness beach is home to over 3000 Gentoo Penguins, and a small growing colony of King Penguins. We were only able to reach the site by four-wheel drive vehicles on a very exciting (in a bumpy way) safari! We did this with small groups of 4 people per car.  On the way we saw some Belted Galloway cows with calves that were peacefully grazing the fields of the property. We were greeted by the rangers who quickly informed us about the site and took us to see a very rare Leucistic (partial albino) Gentoo penguin.

We were lucky enough to meet Hattie (one of the owners) in their Sea Cabbage café. Hattie proudly showed us her Felt creations made with wool from their own sheep. After tea/coffee/hot chocolate and over 15 sorts of home-made cookies and cakes with Diddle Dee, we were ready for the wild ride back to the ship.

Photo by: Tom Warmolts

 

Photo by: Tessa Van Drie

 

 Photo by: Tessa Van Drie

 

Photo by: Tom Warmolts

–                    Falkland Nature Walk:

Our Expedition Team member Rudolf took our passengers on an exciting walk through the nature of the Falkland's with the help of two local guides. The tour was a great success and the passengers were very pleased. The nature in this part of the world is outstanding and a treat to the camera lens. Peter, one of the guides, is a former passenger of Fram and liked this place so much that he applied for a job and now works here! The other guide's name is Tom. He has a locally famous farther who makes picture calendars and is married to the daughter of Laurain from Carcass Island, where we were yesterday. Only to prove how everyone knows each-other in the Falkland Islands!

–                    Bird watching excursion:

On this hike over the upland areas south of Stanley we saw many species of birds, some of which were well into the breeding cycle and had chicks. This included the Speckled Teals, Rufous-chested Dotterel, and Upland Geese. Overall, we saw over 20 species of birds, and for many of us, these were lifers- the first time we had ever seen them.

Photo by: Tom Warmolts

At 4 PM Fram left Stanley and started the journey to South Georgia. When we sailed out of the port, we were able to see a few colonies of (amongst others) Magellanic Penguins.

Home away from home

The most popular landing in Antarctica, if you consider shear number of ships and visitors is the British Base in Port Lockroy. And it's no wonder why this is so. Built on the minuscule Goudier Island in Port Lockroy, the landing offers amazing scenery, wildlife, and an old British base. Base "A" as it is called, was brought back to life by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust in 1996, after being abandoned sometime before.

In the base building can be found a museum detailing the work that went on at the base, a well stocked shop, and what must be the most remote, official British Post Office! A delightful team of UKAHT staff live in a newly constructed Nissan hut, which they obviously consider their home away from home, as they will spend the entire 5 month summer on the island. Those who occupied the base and lived in what is now the museum section of the main building must have thought the same way. 

Your faithful blogger sat quietly in the lounge for a while and contemplated what it would have been like to sit by there coal stove, drinking a nice dram of whisky, gramophone playing some 1940s or 50s hit in the background, your friends slapping cards down on the nearby table in a competitive game of cribbage, and the smell of pipe tobacco smoke wafting in the air. Those were the days! And it was not hard to conjure up these thoughts because the museum is so well presented for us today.

Wildlife on Goudier Island mainly consists of breeding Gentoo Penguins, with the perfunctory Snowy Sheathbills running around getting into all sorts of trouble.

The penguins are a relatively new arrival and were not breeding on the island when the base was built in the early 1940s. Gentoos are increasing on the Antarctic Peninsula, while Adélie Penguins are decreasing- both a likely result of climate change. On-going monitoring of the penguin colony has shown that visitors and the general human activity around the base do not affect breeding success. Rather, the amount of winter snow fall does, with larger amounts (more frequent these days), causing delayed breeding and poorer success. The first egg in the colony had been laid yesterday.

Some of us were lucky enough to go on a guided snowshoe hike before visiting the base. The hike wended up snow hills to the ridge above the spot where others of us camped the previous night. From there, the views down on to Goudier Island really placed in perspective the whole location. Note that the inner part of Port Lockroy was still frozen so Goudier Island looks like it is joined to Wiencke Island. Others explored the area in our Polarcirkel boats and got to experience the place from sea-level.

Some practical aspects of running a shop in Antarctica were realised today as well. Fram had taken on stock for this season in Stanley (Falklands) and some of us spent a part of the morning unloading boxes of t-shirts, books, fleeces and all the other items you see on the shelves.

After leaving Port Lockroy we sailed south to the entrance of the famous Lemaire Channel to see if it was possible to navigate through to the other end. As we approached it was pretty clear that sea ice was blocking the entrance. Nevertheless our captain expertly slid the ship through the ice so that we could take a close look.

Fram Symphony

Our cruise has reached the finale of the Fram Symphony, composed by Nature and conducted by our captain. The score has been building to a crescendo for the past two days as we approached Antarctica. Yes, technically we were in Antarctica when we crossed the Antarctic Convergence, sailing southeast to South Georgia, but not until today did we cast our eyes on the beautiful land of Antarctica itself. As we sailed by King George Island in the South Shetland Islands, we could really see what the fuss was all about- mountain peaks covered in marshmallow ice, icebergs of all sorts in the water, with penguins swimming by and seabirds following the ship.

Our goal today was to reach Half Moon Island, a small island nestled between Livingston and Greenwich Islands, in the appropriately named Half Moon Bay.  We did so in the early afternoon and proceeded to have an extremely memorable landing there. Through the afternoon the skies around the island were ominous and grey but for us, a hole in the cloud allowed the sun to shine from beginning to end. The wind blew and it was cold but all this did was remind us where we were. Our own patch of sunlight played on the mountains of Livingston Island, which formed the best backdrop you could imagine to the breeding birds and seals on Half Moon.

The wildlife highlights were of course the Chinstrap Penguins, at this stage still sitting on snow and waiting for the time they have solid rock below their feet and they can commence breeding. We were also lucky enough to see Mr. or Mrs. Macaroni Penguin, which has been coming to Half Moon for several years, but to our knowledge has never found a mate. Lolling on the ice in several places were Weddell Seals.

We had two special activities during the landing- Polarcirkel boat cruising and snowshoeing. Both were very well subscribed. Snow-shoers landed to one side of the Camara Base, an Argentine science station. They then walked along the shoreline and up to the top of a small mountain, from which they had fantastic views of the whole area.

The cruisers were treated to an abundance of icebergs and seals of several different species. A herd of Crabeater Seals swam by the flotilla of small boats. In several places, Weddell Seals slept, seemingly oblivious to their wonderful surroundings. And the icing on the cake was a Leopard Seal at the end of the cruise!

Everyone, including those of us who have visited Half Moon Island many times, will never forget this day.

The finale to our symphony will continue for the next two days as we delve deeper into the icy Antarctic Peninsula and really see what we and the Fram are made of.

The Capital!

After a wonderful day out on the “camp” we arrived this morning to the comparatively bustling metropolis, and Falklands capital, Stanley. OK, this is an exaggeration but over half the people living in these islands, live in Stanley and reports are that the impending oil industry is creating quite an economic boom.

Stanley "suburbs"

As we approached Stanley, some Commerson’s Dolphins approached the Fram to welcome us!

Commerson's Dolphins

Once docked our activities began with excursions to the town (history focus), a local nature walk, a birding tour, to Bluff Cove, and even a scenic air tour. Almost all on board took advantage of one of these great opportunities. After all, how often do you get to the Falkland Islands?!

This is spring in the southern hemisphere and the many blossoms and singing birds really told the tale of this most wonderful time of year. On the nature walk and birdwatching tour we saw several species of birds. For some we were afforded great, close views.

Speckled Teal

Silvery Grebe

Long-tailed Meadowlark male with food for his chicks

Many wildflowers were in bloom and the Balsam Bog was very green! This plant is very curious. It looks like a soft moss, but is in fact very hard to the touch. It's a member of the carrot family.

Balsam Bog- Bolax gummifera

The town tour focussed on the rich history of this place and included the war memorial, cathedral and museum.

At Bluff Cove, we were welcomed by the rangers who gave us an introductory talk about the site, including details of the local Gentoo and King Penguin colony. After the colony visit we were treated to a very British morning tea!

Teatime at Bluff Cove

King Penguin on the beach

After the morning excursions, most took advantage of the free time to explore Stanley before we sailed at 1600h. We now have two sea-days before we reach South Georgia!