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Kyle Marquardt in collaboration with Civilized Adventures would like to invite you to join

“Kenya & Tanzania Photography Safari”

Feb. 25 – Mar 13, 2011

Join us on an exclusive journey venturing from the Masai Mara in Kenya through the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania all during the dramatic wildebeest migration. The Ngorongoro crater is filled with some 30,000 wild mammals, the opportunities are endless!

Kyle will ignite your inspiration and passion to get the greatest photos you possibly can. Regular critiques and one-on-one time to get the most out of your photography ensuring every day your photos and technique will improve. Everyone is guaranteed a window seat out on safari, never miss a thing and avoid the crowds.

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The Drake passage was was generous to us this time. With a tail wind and following seas we ended up with a 15% speed increase for nearly two days, and even made a stop to watch the Humpback whales. This is what allowed us our bonus day in Antarctica.

Deception island, the place most guides don¹t like to go, because we always go there, however it hasn¹t lost it¹s touch on me. Part of the reason why is summed up in a lovely passage in the Lonely Planet guide for Antarctica:

³Because deception island is one of the most popular visitor sites, it¹s thought-provoking to learn that volcanologists consider it ³a restless caldera with considerable volcanic risk².

A sudden collapse of Deception¹s caldera could cause a major eruption, ³with potentially devastating effects on anyone on the island at the time² with escape from the land ³unlikely². The probability of the caldera collapsing, however is ³very low² and would probably be preceded by earthquakes for several days or weeks prior to an eruption. ³However, any eruptions can take place with relatively little immediate warning.² The plan also offers this helpful suggestion: ³if ships are present within Port Foster when an eruption occurs, they should depart the island immediately, ideally after uplifting all people ashore.² ideally indeed.²

We enter Neptune’s bellows, which I have to pronounce ³NEPTUUUUUNES BELLOWWWWWWWWWS² to get inside the caldera of this toilet bowl shaped island, which is a tight squeeze for the ship.

We wandered around the black volcanic sand, and got to watch the sky turn orange since this is a rare late night excursion. I took a walk up to Neptune’s window (just underneath neptune¹s nipple) and on the beach we discovered these really fascinating colonizing organism throbbing on the shore that to me looked like some kind of egg casings. Turns out they were salps, filter feeding organisms that I certainly have to do more research on. They looked clearer than any crystal I¹ve seen with a bright red nucleus, and twitched slowly.

The sun sat but the twilight stayed, this being the day after the summer solstice it never gets completely dark. The ship beckoned, glowing with warmth as christmas draws near.

I leap onto the ship with glee because that night was the time to decorate the clipper bar with christmas cheer. The Tree stood bare, begging to be decorated, mulled wine, gingerbread cookies and a warm fire (a dvd of a fire place) greeted us. I had prepared the DVD and and loads of christmas music months in advance in anticipation of this. I didn¹t last long, I have a full day of Antarctica ahead of me, sleep is welcome.

The time has come to upload a few shots from this trip. Nothing really that expresses this trip in particular but they are the “uniques”. I hope you enjoy!

Half Moon Island & Barrientos Island

Anchor: gahgun dadun dadun dadun.. clonk

Zodiac: Bvvvvvvvvvvvv

People: Wheeeeeeeee! tromp tromp

Gentoo Penguins: gaaaaa-hee! gaaaaa-hee! gaaaaa-hee! Gaaaaaaaaaaa…

Skua: Eeraaaa raaa raaa eeraaa!

People: click click click beep oooooh!

Chinstrap Penguin: Chachacheeecharararara

Weddell Seal: Weeeeeeeeoombooooomp..boomp…boomp click booomp

Wind: Whooooooooooshshahahahashoomshoom

Elephant Seal: Braaaaaaaap. ppbt..pbbt…burp…pfffffft argh argh argh ppbpbt!

Leopard Seal: ……

People: tromp tromp, splish eeee!

Zodiac: Bvvvvvvvv-splash-vvvvvv

Humpback Whale: Pffffwah….pffwah…shloomp

People: shooka shooka shooka woow!

Hot chocolate: shlurp shlurp Mmmmmmmm

We made it outside Elephant Island, the wind and weather too rough to do
much but sail past. We bobbed into Point Wild and peered at the beach
Shackleton and his men survived on from afar, it=B9s almost entirely receded.
We enjoyed dinner that day with the dramatic ice covered cliffs serving as =
a
great backdrop during dinner.

Being aboard the Clipper Adventurer (or any ship) is unusual, at times it
feels like an odd little country in it=B9s own, floating among the world,
functioning perfectly in it=B9s quirky little way.

Spending 5 days at sea I think the temperature is a little too hot, and at
any given time we are wearing shoes, so my feet are smelling a little blerg=
.
I can=B9t help but wonder if other people start to notice, after all I=B9m
probably used to it. Finally the Clipper Queen acknowledges my olfactory
incursion, and I realize something must be done.
I permeate through the =B3osmosis room=B2 to get to the laundry dungeon and ask
the elves there if they can wash the shoes and they tell me with wide eyed
expressions =B3no it will kaput the machines and the shoes!=B2, frack.
The only way to clean them is by going into the shower and using the ultra
strong shampoo, I did this before with all my outer gear after rolling in
King penguin poo in South Georgia.
I do that, but now I have to safely dry the shoes, my room has no heating
and if they stay moist too long they could get mouldy. So I steal a heater
from Alanis Morissette=B9s room to dry them for the night, crisis averted.

The exploration of this strange little floating world continues, why is it
on a ship does it=B9s inhabitants decide to party like crazy at the most
inconvenient times? It=B9s equivalent to most of the greatest parties and
celebrations occurring on a tuesday night when everyone has to get up and
work the next morning, then doing nothing on friday and saturday night.
There is no such thing as weekends on a ship, we go months at a time not
knowing what day of the week it is (which is truly a great thing by the
way), while some work the same amount every day, there is so much more to d=
o
on a Landing day.
=20
So last night, in anticipation of landing in Brown Bluff and Esperanza
Station I decide to go to bed on time. I end up falling into deep sleep wit=
h
my long underwear, polar buff, toque, ear plugs and eye shades on. I know I
was having some good dreams when after enough work I was woken up.
I hear giggling then =B3Kyle, Laurie needs us upstairs=B2 me being barely
conscious I dutifully respond to the request by our expedition leader and
start getting up and realize the two people, let=B9s call them Homer and Lupe=
,
are pretty well gassed.
Knowing that if I was to catch up to their crapulous state I=B9d still be
drunk at dinner the next day, I flopped back down and growled like a Gento=
o
penguin at a Skua, and they disappeared as I entered dreamland once again.

I dream of Elephant seals, and I=B9m asleep among them, one is snuggling up
against me, Mmmmm. Then the Elephant seal starts humping me and making
obnoxious high pitched noises, nooo it=B9s a nightmare! As I=B9m thrusted back
to consciousness I realize the humping is coming from Alanis, wallowing on
top of me in my bed, moaning and giggling about getting her heater back. As
endearing as it was I exclaim that the heater is on the other side of the
room and she can take it. I=B9m worried she won=B9t leave until I put out, more
squeaking and wiggling ensues and eventually that fades away too.

I wake up the next morning, not as refresh as I planned to be, but at least
no hangover.

I put on my shoes, and realize they are still odiferous, drastic measure
must be taken. Every time we arrive back on the ship, the gangway has a mat
placed in front of it soaked in our =B3penguin disinfectant=B2 then boots are
scrubbed at the boot washing station. We could easily spread bacteria and
viruses among penguin colonies that are normally isolated, this is
increasingly important as temperatures become more hospitable for infectiou=
s
agents that these penguins are not evolved for. So I pick up some penguin
shampoo, penguin brush and Virkon S disinfectant and virucide from the
penguin scrub station. Now my shoes are more sterile than the moon, I=B9ll
have to go for a walk on top of the breakfast buffet and stomp around in th=
e
vat of probiotic yoghurt to improve the micro ecology on my feet. But
success and comfort at last.

Today is the day we try and make our continent landing. It=B9s very important
to our passengers that they touch land that could eventually lead them all
the way to the south pole. It doesn=B9t matter where it is, one time last yea=
r
we had such bad weather that we had only moments to quickly land people on =
a
3 foot wide beach for 2 minutes to be returned back to the ship amidst the
strongest storm I=B9ve seen in the peninsula, just to say they=B9ve landed on
the continent. It was dangerous and in hindsight I wouldn=B9t sacrifice mysel=
f
for such a meaningless feat, it became apparent when we were considered
heros for letting people stand on rock amidst 5 feet of visibility and
nothing to see.=20
I=B9m not a huge fan of =B3list checking=B2, I=B9m more interested in the actual
content of an experience, and find the things that make humans feel like
they=B9ve accomplished something to be really stupid sometimes. But it=B9s
important to our passengers, so in that respect it=B9s important to me.
It looked like an interesting landing. After spinning around Brown Bluff an=
d
the Argentinian Esperanza station amidst 40 knot winds, we found a place to
land near Esperanza. We dropped people off for 15 minutes to revel in their
landing then made it back to the ship before the weather stranded us on
shore.
From my zodiac I watched Adelie penguins tottering across the beach, the
white rings around their eyes making them look as surprised as they were
when we made like Normandy and invaded their beach.

I thought it was a great landing considering the circumstances, and I was
very enthusiastic about the Adelie penguins and the beautiful icebergs
looming outside Hope Bay. I would talk about the cool things we saw but
nobody really cared, they were all in raptures over touching that rock, it=B9=
s
about the experience right? Well, thank goodness they=B9ve had a good time.

We=B9re heading to Half Moon and Barrientos island, they are usually quite
easy to land in, so I=B9m sure we=B9ll have a good day tomorrow.

With the exception of an afternoon in the Orcadas, we=B9ve been at sea for 5
days, it feels like 2.

I was surprised it=B9s been this long, it=B9s just a blur of meals, bird
sightings and ice flowing by.
Thank goodness this is such a comfortable ship, normally cabin fever would
be spreading faster than H1N1, but the numerous public areas, inspiring
lecture staff and calm company has kept it well at bay.
Last night we were half way from the Orcadas to Elephant Island, and this
morning that situation didn=B9t change. We ended up getting into 10/10ths ice
and had to head north to get out of the ice, It was clogged.
We were barely moving at 1 knot and the entire night the ship was echoing
with the sounds of ice scraping and bumping against the hull, the ship
jerking and twitching many times a minute.

For some reason I couldn=B9t get to sleep, so I decided to do a time-lapse of
the ship moving in the ice. I head up to top deck, set up my tripod that wa=
s
secured to the deck with a quick grip I got from home depot, and a shower
cap from the hotel around the camera to protect if from the elements. It wa=
s
cold and foggy, but it=B9s twilight at 1 am, while we are not far south enoug=
h
for complete daylight, we never have complete darkness this time of year.
The time-lapse is interesting as it really hit home how the sea ice was
throbbing and ever moving, but down at our normal scale it looks almost
stationary.
I meander around the bridge, stare at the radar cluttered with ice, peer at
the GPS and navigational charts sadly and head up to collect my camera afte=
r
leaving it alone for half an hour.

I decide to scout the ship for more suitable shots, when I come across the
bar where *ahem* individuals with less to do find other ways to occupy such
large expanses of sea time. I was lucky enough to arrive in time to witness
someone casually throw up on their leg as I casually make a note of what
pants they were wearing, prepared to make sure they don=B9t wear the same one=
s
the next day. It=B9s not like it was rough, the sea ice dampens the swell and
waves.=20
With all the bumping and scraping I find that suddenly half the ship is
awake, wandering around like zombie bananas with their yellow quark parkas,
leaning over the railings and staring down at ice and bumping around the
bridge, It feels like morning but it=B9s still the middle of the night. I
decide to pack it in fully expecting Elephant Island to still be a hundred
nautical miles away in the morning.
And it was, we barely moved but later in the morning we could see a break i=
n
the ice, I abandoned my oatmeal with cinnamon, yoghurt, cashews, and dates
with my egg white omelette and gathered on the outer decks with everyone in
anticipation of finally breaking free! We now expect to see Elephant Island
later tonight, and will steam as fast as we can to hopefully get a
=B3continental=B2 landing in Antarctica before we have to end this trip.

So refreshed! I have tried 6 times to get to the Orcadas (South Orkney Islands) and this this is only the second time I¹ve made it. It was a short visit, but at least this was the first time in almost a year since I¹ve seen anything that resembles Antarctica.

Our approach is extraordinary, strange reflections of light amongst the fog and snow portrays the illusion of land when a tabular iceberg over 3 kilometres long looms into view. Everyone on the bridge scrambled to various navigational equipment and charts in disbelief, thinking for a moment ³where are we?² as we weren¹t due to see land yet. We had to change course numerous times to dodge these monoliths that have likely sailed up from from the Weddell sea. Lunch time felt lively once again as the dining room windows were filled with the silent jagged figures of icebergs floating by, much more exciting than the open sea we¹ve had for the last day and a half. The Orcadas faded into view, barley visible in the slurry of rain and snow. But it felt like the Antarctic, everything was covered in snow and ice, and even small islands had glaciers pouring off them. It might have been considered a cold and gloomy day, but it was zesty and immediately made me feel better than I¹ve felt in months! Adelie penguins porpoised in the water and we hopped in our zodiacs and zipped to shore with glee! the South Orkneys (or Orcadas if you go by the Argentinian name) seem to have the same weather all the time, people who dislike the cold find this place to be depressing and hostile, but getting out here was exactly what I needed. Geology, Seismology and meteorological studies are big here, and definitely not boring as a tidal waves have been experienced here situated on the edge of the Scotia plate. This station was established by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition in 1904 and has been continually maintained by the Argentines ever since, making it the oldest station in the Antarctic. It was a short visit but it looked like most people were ready to head out.

Now I think we are being particularly ambitious. Our short stop in the Orcadas is because we are now on our way towards Elephant Island, meaning another full day at sea. I¹ve managed to see this place with my own eyes twice out of countless expeditions, but now there is even talk of landing. When will that luck run out? Landing where Shackleton¹s men spent four months, surviving on penguins and seals, even though the place has changed beyond recognition having happened nearly 100 years ago, would be very cool.

The night was full of celebrations as we marvelled in experiencing the antarctic and finally had a break from being at sea so much. There are two lounges on the ship, but the smaller one has more of a community atmosphere and was packed. I¹m always amazed by the drinking going on here, to watch people deal with hangovers multiple time a week, some every day, I don¹t see how it¹s worth it. I suppose I¹m lucky that alcohol has little effect on my brain¹s pleasure centre, otherwise I can¹t help but think my liver would be pickled by now. We went down to the crew bar in the depths of the ship, to give a go at karaoke. I sang great balls of fire, and greased lightning, and sadly being the only sober person there was the only staff member who had the courage to participate. That surprised me a little, you¹d think there would be some immediate benefits to drinking, why can¹t people come out of their shell and have fun? The rest of the crew was enthusiastically going for it, it¹s a big part of their culture in the Philippines. It was fun, but being the only participant among the staff team it wasn¹t the most interactive experience I¹ve had.

I was going to write some kind of conclusion but now I see yummy snacks in the lounge, Oooooo! Dumplings and yummy rolls, with plum sauce, one of the staff is going to make an announcement about how great the icebergs are to clear out the lounge, then we will descend upon the buffet, hehehehe…

Gold Harbour! This is the place that is present in my mind every time I say how great South Georgia is, it¹s the embodiment of all that is great about this place!

The wide harbour surrounds us on either side, like the island is greeting us with it¹s greatest gift: A curving beach filled with King penguins, sprinkled with elephant seals, some fully grown, many still weening, gracefully lined with tusset grass falling to a backdrop of rising mountains crested with hanging glaciers framing the entire scene. The geological and natural forces were particularly inspired in the formation of this place, everything comes together in the most epic finale on our last visit in South Georgia.

Even a blind man will find this extraordinary world is populated with a cacophony of sounds: Male elephant seals sparring and burping, King penguins throw their heads back calling in ecstasy, baby Kings tweet and freak out flapping their flippers madly spinning in circles accompanied with a background of rolling waves gently washing the shores with the occasional rumble of the hanging glaciers above us. Stimulating tactile sensations abound! Soft grey sand is warm under my feet, weeners snuggle up and explore our human figures with their snouts, and small gusts of wind patter me with penguin feathers. I close my eyes, and I can feel a great pulse of life in this place.

Most people would consider the olfactory experience here to be offensive, but now these smells are associated with the most profound experiences I¹ve ever had. Much like a horse rider will whiff a jacket and exclaim with joy ³it smells like barn!², I do the same with my penguin parka.

But it¹s not over yet!

The plan is to head over to cooper bay, the place we always put on the itinerary and never manage to get to. It¹s positioned in the worst place and always ends up getting too much swell. You¹ll look down at the gangway and see it¹s 10 feet above the water, and a millisecond later it¹s 10 feet under the water. This time it was calm, I¹ve been here 6 times before and never managed to get this far, I¹m feeling lucky! Cooper bay is both desirable and difficult to get to simply because it¹s hosted by Macaroni penguins. They are extremely abundant but they love to colonize in the most inconvenient places for tourist operations, climbing and nesting on rocks and mountain slopes. Having to make those traverses every day to feed in the ocean, combined with their unusual feathery crest they seem pretty retarded. I¹d love to fast forward in time to see if they even survive, if they don¹t I might just think that they deserved it. However that will likely not be true, apparently they are one of the most abundant penguin worldwide, contrary to their difficult life and shorter lifespan, they are likely here to stay.

We scooted around craggy shores while the Macaronis stared down at us from their rocky perches and at least managed to check them off the wildlife list, then back to the ship it was to our last stop in Drygalski fjord.

It was extremely windy but we at least saw a glacier calve in the rain while drinking hot toddies on the bow. This is our last look at South Georgia before we head for the South Orkney islands. I¹ve only been there once before, I hope we make it again, we¹ve been lucky so far.

his morning we had an awesome time in Godshul. I love how things change so
suddenly. When we were leaving the ship it was cold and windy, not so
unusual. Passengers freeze on the way to the landing site, but moments afte=
r
landing, the clouds part, the sun shines and suddenly it is hot. The air wa=
s
completely still and the tusset grass seems to contain all the heat, it fel=
t
like 20 degrees.=20

We had to make our way through the tusset grass, big mounds of tufty grass,
that create a landscape that was likely inspiration for Dr. Suess, each
mound lush enough you could easily hide thousands of people amongst an
entire field of them. The entire place was also riddled with fur seals, so
as staff we had to be vigilant and spread ourselves across the path so
travelers don=B9t get lost or surprised by a seal hidden in the paths between
the tusset. After the last few people walked past me, I thought I would jus=
t
sit, watch and film the Elephant seals in front of me. I heard them burp,
fart and wallow in a big steaming pile in front of me, occasionally glancin=
g
at me with their big black eyes. Hadleigh and I chatted about them and
random things, and eventually in the hot sun, I fell asleep. I can=B9t help
but feel a connection with the Elephant seals given we were both sharing th=
e
warmth and soft tusset grass.

Grytviken was particularly interesting this time around. We did the usual
thing, we gave a toast to =B3The Boss=B2 at Shackleton=B9s grave, and I headed
down to the whaling station to take a look around the site. I was somewhat
sad to see a lot more things missing. In an effort to make the area more
tourist friendly, most of the buildings there have been removed and barrier=
s
and railings have been erected around some of the interesting machinery. Th=
e
last two years I was there, none of those changes were there, it was messie=
r
and I could walk in and among some of the coolest places. I realize now I
have photos of the place that nobody else can get any more, the place is
quite different from what it used to be. I will have to look through my old
library and see what shots are particularly unique.

The whole town front is littered with little baby Elephant seals we call
=B3weeners=B2 as they are getting weened off mother=B9s milk, also quite
appropriate to say given their wiener like shape.
I ended up hanging with them at the landing site for hours, watching them
sneeze and slumber, some snuggling up in curiosity. It was incredibly
curious watching them from so close, these animals can hold their breath fo=
r
up to two hours, important because they are deep sea divers, living
submarines. So if you can hold your breath for two hours, why bother
breathing? I would watch their nostrils open and close, and then close for
at least 10 minutes at a time, it was so funny to watch all these little
baby seals hold their breath on the beach, eyes closed and fast asleep. You
could still tell they were alive, they would occasionally itch themselves,
but it appears that their heartbeat would cause them to constantly jiggle
now matter how still they are, really cute!

Another thing happened that really excited me, an enormous swarm of krill
came into the bay!
Krill is one of the most important things in the Antarctic. Without them,
there would be very little mammalian life down here, almost everything
depends on them for food. If you were to take all the Krill in Antarctica
and weigh it, the combined mass of the Krill would be far greater than any
other species on earth, even humans…for now.
But even in their greatness, this is the first time I=B9ve been able to see s=
o
many of them!
I simply had to photograph them, scooping a cocktail glass into the water I
got at least 20 of them, all squirting around the glass curiously. I set th=
e
glass on the table and used my bed blanket to make a blue background behind
the glass. It=B9s not easy shooting them with a macro lens when they have as
much freedom as my lime does in a gin and tonic. But I got some interesting
ones so I can at least show people what these look like, half the size of m=
y
pinky at their biggest. I was madly shooting this while also participating
in a barbecue at the back deck of the ship. It was a bit surreal to be
photographing such an important animal accompanied by calypso music while
going to town on a hamburger outside of a Whaling station in view of =B3the
boss=B9s=B2 grave, -Shackleton does another roll.
Soon it was time to leave port and it=B9s completely dark outside, but
watching the ship leave the port the water was no longer blue, but pink and
lumpy, being comprised of 90% krill and 10% water, we all hung over the
railings in awe as the port faded away from us, a shame it was too dark to
photograph.

I¹m standing in my cabin and am sniffing the air. I smell something sour and sweet with a hint of ammonia, the offending odor emanating from my outdoor gear evokes many memories of lying down in the dirtiest guano covered ground, a small price to pay for the best perspective. That¹s what I was doing yesterday, and hopefully it was worth it.

The plan was to head to Fortuna Bay to complete the last portion of Shackleton¹s epic trek across South Georgia into Stromness Station. Of course nothing ever goes to plan here, and the conditions were not ideal for 100 people to go on this hike, some whom may not be in the prime of their lives. I¹m thinking if it was all people who are young and healthy who genuinely knew what they were getting and what they were made of, we would be capable of doing this. But there was very little visibility and high winds, we just can¹t take that chance.

So the hike was cancelled, we still never got to see a massive penguin colony, and the King colony in Fortuna Bay awaits us, a sheltered and nearly sure fire landing every time.

Our landing here is beautiful. The beach is lined by a tussety grassy slope rising up the side of the mountain, making our only way across to the King Colony a thin strip of beach, dotted with Fur Seals like land mines. Tactfully traversing the field we made it to a sprawling expanse of glacier moraine dotted with the squawking figures of King penguins. Great gusts of wind would blast snow, penguin feathers and dust into our faces with an extra strong whiff of King Penguin.

I find as good vantage point as I can get and lay on the ground to shoot across from the penguins. I find myself being guided by my camera across the colony looking for special moments and interesting angles, I¹ve only got a short time so I have to make the most of it. Sometimes I set up my backup camera to continually shoot images in order to create a timelapse video, and leave it alone for 20 minutes with a shower cap I got at the hotel to protect the camera body from the elements. It was windy, overcast, and slightly snowy, but as I headed back the sun began to shine and for moments as the shore moved away from us, I glimpsed snowflakes lit by the golden rays, glowing against the shaded background. It¹s fleeting moments like these I always remember, and never capture, they are mine to keep forever. The storm disappeared, heralding at least two days of sunshine and warmth on our far away island…