Before heading off to Antarctica, our expedition group met up in Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. Not a bad place, with souvenir shops filled with penguin related merchandise, clothing stores with extra warm gear and hotels to cater for the large number of people that access Antarctica from its main gateway, Ushuaia.
After congregating for a debrief at the hotel many of us were staying at, we started getting to know each other, and thinking of the things to do until we boarded late the next day (I think!) I ended up going to a glacier – my first one ever! And practiced using my new camera, which has turned out to be suiting me very nicely! On the way down from Buenos Aires, to see Ushuaia and Argentinian Patagonia from the air was stunning…
The Argentinian Coast
Snowy peaks of Patagonia, approaching Ushuaia
The snow line
Ushuaia is tucked away in the top LH corner of this photo – what an incredible setting for a city.
Views of the sunset in Ushuaia from the hotel – it was all over in about 10 minutes.
One of the streets of Ushuaia
A shop window
Glacier Martial
This was pretty cool actually. I loved the plants and flowers of this sub-Antarctic area, and had a great time trying to capture the wide variety of colours and textures. It made me wonder at why plants have evolved the way they have, and I was surprised at how large and robust many of the plants were. Here are some of my faves…
This one had a really coarse texture, almost like a brillo pad. I think this shot would be a good one for those jigsaws that are supposed to do your head in! Beautiful detail though. Mum Nature sure knows about perfection and beauty.
Lots of colours and textures in this one. Like a Japanese garden in miniature.
Interesting texture difference between the flowers and its leaves.
Looks like a beautiful, delicate little primrose, but I bet it’s as tough as nails.
Like a mixture of a thistle and dandelion head – nice ‘n’ spiky this one!
Looking through the trees to the mountains on the other side of the Beagle Channel.
View from as far as I got up the glacier. Looking down the Beagle Channel with Ushuaia in the foreground. The Beagle Channel was where our journey to and from Antarctica began and ended.
One of the footbridges across the glacial river.
And here are a couple of me next to the glacier – I think the climbing warmed me up enough to not need a jumper, but boy was it cold when you weren’t moving!
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