Goin's Great Southern Journey

		Goin had a great holiday, leaving Australia with his hosts Jennifer and Ian Scott on 20 November 2005 and returning one month later on 20 December. He asked me to write this story for him, as he spent many hours talking to penguins and can't get the noise out of his head. larger photos linked from thumbnails He travelled on an Aerolineas Argentinas A340 Airbus to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here he toured the city and even showed the locals in La Boca how to tango (Pics 1 and 2). After two days touring the city, he flew to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. This is also known as Fin del Mundo, or End of the World (Pic 3). Goin boarded the MV Polar Star, a 5000 ton ice breaker for his expedition to the Great South Land. With 87 fellow travellers, his itinerary was: Ushuaia – through the Beagle Channel and out to the open sea for a day and a half crossing to the Falkland Islands. Many sea birds were seen before his first landing at New Island. After a short hike he met many Rockhopper penguins, Blue-eyed Cormorants and Black Browed Albatross, not to mention numerous land birds. He also saw the wreck of a Canadian Minesweeper here (Pic 4). In the afternoon he visited West Point Island for a close up of Wandering Albatrosses. Port Stanley was an interesting Little Britain, and Goin was impressed with the local newspaper (Pic 5). There followed two days at sea Enroute to South Georgia, during which transit he unexpectedly sighted a large iceberg at 52 o 38' South, far north of Antarctic waters.
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South Georgia is a magnificent place and Goin was quite impressed meeting 250,000 King Penguins, hundreds of fur seals (even thought they thought he should be lunch!) and dozens of Elephant Seals at Salisbury Plain (Pic 6). Although geographically sub-Antarctic, South Georgia is considered to be an Antarctic Island because it lies within the Antarctic Convergence, the area where the polar waters meet the warmer waters of the surrounding oceans.

After following the footsteps of Shackleton over the range from Fortuna Bay to the derelict whaling station at Stromness, Goin continued to look at the cultural heritage of the area at Grytviken, another old whaling station. He visited Shackleton's grave, the museum and other sites as well as the Whalers' Church (Pic 7).

After a few more days and many adventurous landings to meet more penguin species and many types of birds, Polar Star sailed south to Elephant Island, smack through the middle of a force 10-11 Storm. Goin held out well against mal de mare ; not so many of his larger companions. After two days he arrived at Elephant Island in pretty miserable weather to see the spot where Shackleton's men had spent 137 days waiting for rescue. Then the voyage went on to Half Moon Island and Deception Island. The latter is a volcanic caldera open to the sea. Here Goin climbed to the lip to get a view over the Antarctic (Pic 8). This was followed by a dip in a thermal bath and in the freezing open water – followed quickly by plunging back into the hot water. As Goin forgot his bathers, modesty prevented a photo.

On the 7 th of December Goin made his first landing in the Antarctic Peninsula. Even though there were many and new types of wildlife, the scenery with its icy magnificence had taken premier place on the voyage. In the afternoon Goin climbed a steep hill at Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Continent and cheekily planted an Aussie flag! (Pics 9 and 10). The next two days were spent cruising through and landing in a magical land of ice, snow, rugged landscapes, cheeky penguins and languid seals. Then it was into Drake's Passage for the run back to Ushuaia. Here, what could have been an anti-climactic return journey was fascinating, as the ship ran into two large belts of drift ice and had to crash and plough through the metre thick ice, sending seals scurrying, while trapped icebergs dotted the icefields.

Finally back on dry land on the morning of 11 December, Goin headed to Patagonia for some trekking to get rid of his sea legs. Flying to El Calafate, a somewhat ‘western pioneer' town in Argentine Patagonia, he caught a bus to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Goin spent four days hiking, sight seeing and meeting new flora and fauna, including Condors and Guanacos. This included an eight hour hike up to the Towers (Pic 11) and visits to quite a few glaciers (including Grey and Serrano Glaciers). Goin was astounded to see icebergs at Grey Glacier, so far inland, but even more astounded when he got back in a zodiac for a journey down the Serrano River and then onto a ferry to Puerto Natales – the sea legs came back!

After a good meal and a rest at El Calafate, Goin decided to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier 80 km from the town before heading back to Buenos Aires. He was impressed by the crackin' and groanin' as this mighty glacier ‘swept' down the valley and constantly shed ice into the lake at its base (Pic 12). Goin flew with his host family to Buenos Aries that evening and then boarded the flight for Sydney, arriving home a happy gnome on Tuesday the 20 th of December.