Travelogue Blog

Edfu, Egypt By Dan Friesen It’s 3:30 am and we are docked in the sleepy Nile village of Edfu. For some reason I was wakened about an hour ago and was unable able to reenter my slumbers. Now I’m up on the sundeck of our ship, where it is finally cool, admiring the crescent moon, listening to serenading crickets and awakening roosters, and reflecting on the past couple of days. Weather has been beastly hot – about 20 degrees over average for this time of year – and somehow that seems to have added to the surreal experience of exploring ancient Egypt. We started in Cairo last Friday evening, walked the Great Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara on Saturday, then visited the Egyptian Museum and the amazing trove of ...

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WAI Leader’s Adventure Log Thursday, February 19, 2010 21.30 hours Position: Somewhere in Antarctic Sound 63°20’ S 57°W By Dan Friesen Another out-of-this-world day in Antarctica began this morning at Gourdin Island. As leader of the only group on board, I am often invited to go ashore in the first boat with staff to check out the landing site and prepare to receive passengers. Today’s landing site came with a greeting party of three large fur seals, which Expedition Leader Megan and staff members Hannah and Ursula encouraged to leave the immediate area by banging rocks together. The seals reluctantly complied, but not without loud growling complaints. Gourdin Island is a magical place alive with penguin activity, snowy sheathbill birds (think “Antarctic chicken”) scavenging their way through the colony, and skua birds on ...

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WAI Leader’s Adventure Log

Thursday, February 18, 2010

21.00 hours

Position:         

62° 39’ S

60° 37' W

 

By Dan Friesen

 

We made our first ...

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By Dan Friesen

Departing Ushuaia, Argentina for the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica.

The tango show we enjoyed Saturday night in Buenos Aires was amazing. It started with a wonderful dinner featuring a slice of famous Argentinean steak so thick you could almost parachute from the top. Once the dancers took the stage, however, all thoughts of food vanished as we fell under the spell of the tapestry of tango. Six live musicians performed from a platform above the stage, visible only when floodlights shone through a translucent gossamer-like curtain. Dancers began as stationary, backlit silhouettes in sophisticated, stylish poses, then morphed into motion as smooth as silk, gliding across the floor silently, as though dancing on a magical, frictionless surface. The precision made Swiss watch-making look a bit sloppy! The choreography would inspire the Rockettes. ...

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REPORT: March of the Elephant Seals WAI Leader’s Adventure Log December 14, 2009 21.30 hours Latitude: 65° 14’ S Longitude: 066° 15.35’ W By Dan Friesen Many of us have seen the amazing story of the Emperor Penguins in the movie “March of the Penguins.”  Through this remarkable film we witnessed the incredible devotion to procreation these irrepressible birds display by hatching their eggs and nurturing their young in the most harsh conditions imaginable! See larger version of slideshow at bottom. In any case, what we witnessed today was, in my (insulated-with-21st-century-cold-weather-gear) Antarctic explorer’s opinion, pretty unimaginable in its own right. Our Zodiacs came ashore at Barrientos Island, part of the Aitcho Island group, under typically gloomy skies this morning after breakfast. As we arrived, Expedition Leader Hannah pointed out the island’s lone King Penguin, who apparently ...

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By Dan Friesen After last night’s amazing whale encounter, I was wondering if this morning’s shore excursion might be a bit of a letdown. When my first gaze out the window of my cabin was met with a gloomy, gray polar morning, I seriously doubted whether the 4:30 am wakeup call was going to be justified. Nevertheless, I enjoyed another hearty breakfast from the galley, wiggled my way through the Wet Room, and dutifully donned my Pillsbury doughboy cold-weather suit to join the rest of our group in line for the zodiacs. (See below for a larger version of the slideshow.) Expedition leader, Hannah, met us ashore and welcomed us to Pleneau Island, directing us to a couple of elephant seals on a nearby point in the middle of a rookery of gentoo penguins. ...

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