All about Antarctica.

‘Hello Gael, long time no see,
We’re dying to hear about your trip To Antarctica,’
‘Come and have dinner with us to-night, about eight,
We’re used to dining rather late, in Argentina.

Now here are our photos, we’ll start with this one,
Peter and Margot, at the door of our hotel in
Buenos Aires, yes, it was hot and noisy but we were
Glad to be there. This is a photo of the famous Pink Palace, and
There is the veranda she spoke to the crowds from. They seemed to adore her
And here is the photo of her tomb; it gets fresh flowers every day.

‘Talking of Eva have you heard? She has run away from Jim, and is onto her third,’ ‘Well I’m very surprised, all those cupboards full of jam, fancy bothering to make it Then have to leave it.’ ‘ Now do tell me more of what you’ve done and seen, especially Antarctica,’ ‘We haven’t quite got there, here’s Bariloche, a Swiss style town, on the edge of Lake Huapai, it’s Indian name. That’s where we lost one of our group, she just sat there and died, the lake was all silver and the sky blue and clear, we saw her spirit leave us in the shape of seagull, circling high above the white wake of our boat.’

‘How awful for you all, and how sad, but you can’t help being a little glad when someone leaves so neatly and quietly, surrounded by friends in such a beautiful place, if only my pa would leave us like that, he’s tired and he’s grumpy and he’s not himself now where are the icebergs? I’m dying to see them.’

‘This is Torres Del Paine, a large National Park, isn’t it a wonderful view with a lake down below and the peaks at the back?’ ‘ Who is that man with the gorgeous red jacket?’ ‘He’s off the next bus and stood in the view but you can just peer behind him to see what we saw, this is a photo of a terrible bridge we got onto a minibus and squeezed over it, the river was raging and there’s always a wind, but a lovely hotel and very nice food.

We’ll skip all the rest and get onto the boat, here we are in Ushuaia a town on the edge of the Beagle Channel, the original houses were built on sleds to move them around, it’s the. middle of summer and there’s a very cold wind, we’re all in our jackets and warm woolly hats, here’s Peter and me on the bridge of the boat they have an ‘open bridge’ policy which made it such fun, to, go up when we wanted and talk to the crew. We saw giant birds and the occasional whale broach. Icebergs and snow and sheer icy slopes, they told us three men went skiing leaving a note, they never came back.

Our Zodiacs were a great success, like little lifeboats with inflated sides, we were all rugged up so never felt cold, gumboots and parkas and mittens and hats. Yes, penguins and seals, no polar bears, a few hump back whales, some really close up, yes I did see that program, the bears were so sweet, the way their cubs lived in snow tunnels, I don’t know why they don’t live there, with so much to eat, maybe it’s too cold or not enough fish. No, we didn’t go to Scott base, it’s too far South, but we did see a hut on one of the islands, it looked cold and dark and rather smelly, I’m glad it’s still there to see how they lived, it would give you the creeps. Yes the penguins did smell quite strange, I can smell it now, a cross between super and fowl.

I felt rather awful if we walked on their tracks, they’d stumble and fall into the holes that we made. We loved to sit watching as they slid down a slope, then into the water for a speedy race round, up on the bank and walking straight past us, it was hot in the sun and they swam to get cool, they looked like torpedoes as they raced right past us.

Now here are the icebergs you’ve been dying to see, right past our porthole like large lumps of snow, only the top bit is above the water, like the ones the Titanic crashed into, that must have been scary, I still haven’t seen it, you’ve seen it twice? You’ll know all about icebergs, is it time to go?

Thank you for coming, there are a lot more to see, next time you come I’ll have them all labelled, much easier to see and follow the thread, I’m sorry about the bears I think you might have to go North, we did see Cape Horn, we could practically touch it, good night, Sally dear, we’ll catch up soon.

Yes the meals on the boat were really quite great, pate for breakfast, fried eggs and ham gherkins and cheese I miss them a lot. Drive carefully dear Sally and next time you come I’ll have them all labelled and put in my book.

We went up to Brazil too, I really loved that, the falls were quite marvellous and Toucans flew wild, just a blur of red yellow and blue, a super hotel with old-fashioned rooms a swimming pool there beside a good café. You want more on Antarctica? That’s easy to do we’ll see you next week and have a good look through.