“Good morning” came the wake up call at 7 a.m. , later than usual. Boris (the expedition leader) has a mid-Atlantic singsong accent. “We are about to enter Port Stanley and should ready for the gangway at 9 a.m. The weather is overcast, temperature 5 degrees Celsius and winds will pick up later. Gangway time…
My Travels: The Fabulous Falklands (or the Marvelous Malvinas)
Westpoint Island After an eternity at sea (less than two days for me) we sighted land in the early morning: The West Falklands. Excited as little boys going camping we packed and check our gear and boarded the Zodiacs in a little bay of Westpoint Island. Between us and land, in the 500 meters or…
My Travels: Thinking or Sinking
Every time I think of a boat (and here I was on a small one) I think of a joke told to me by my German Scrub Sister, Hans Hoecker. A British ship was sunk by German U-boat in the Second World War, and the radio operator sent out a distress signal: “Mayday,Mayday! We are…
My Travels: A Mountain Goat on a Boat
For those of you who do not know me in motion, I suffer severely from motion sickness. It is so serious that if I do not take medication I almost die. On my honeymoon in Kenya twenty one years ago I ran out of medication for the flight from Nairobi through the Rift valley at…
My Travels: An African en Route to the Antarctic – Ushuaia
I am not sure why I decided to go there. Like many good things in my life it was idea that germinated a long time ago and when the opportunity arose it came to fruition. One of my uncle’s was a radio operator on the South African Antarctic base when I was a child. Then…
My Travels: The 388th Gare del Solco – Part 3 of 3
The prize giving was held in the courtyard in front of the oratorio at 7 p.m. that evening. A small tired crowd gathered. The municipal council members stood on the steps leading to the “Proloco”, the municipal offices. The councilors made a speech about the importance of maintaining the tradition, and how important it was…
My Travels: The 388th Gare del Solco – Part 2 of 3
Before they leave the piazza in the afternoon the village and “squadra” gather in front of the Oratorio, the only remaining church for a village with three significant medieval churches, including Our Lady of the Snow. The 2009 earthquake had damaged all these beautiful churches. The “oratorio” is a modern hall converted to the village…
My Travels: The 388th Gare del Solco – Part 1 of 3
There is so much to say about this ploughing competition dating back to the times of medieval castles in Abruzzo, Central Italy. In 1625 the people of Rocca di Mezzo, a small village set on the plateau called the Altipiano delle Roche in the Parco Nazionale Sirente-Velino promised the Good Virgin to plough as straight…
My Travels: Light and Dark in the Namib Desert
Light and Dark in the Namib Desert What hit me this year with not a cloud in the sky for five days was the wall-to-wall feeling of light in the Namib Desert. For the last two years I had been blessed with rain and dream clouds, with spectacular orange and red sunsets and sunrises. Now…
Sugarman and Serendipity
On Friday I had lunch with a friend who collects cameras. He has just had a video released about his passion. “The Collector.” You should watch it. He closes by saying “if I die it doesn’t matter, I did something that I love.” So did Rodriguez, I thought. My friend asked what I was doing…
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