At Sea heading for the Canary Islands
This trip has been nothing short of epic. A classic, old-time crossing of great expanses of ocean, through ecosystems and evolutionary time. Mere dots on most maps, if even shown at all, these islands conjure up stories of grand old journeys long forgotten or never read. We touched on two of my favorite places on this planet, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, and I can say that with confidence. I have now visited Cape Verde, Ascension, St. Helena, Tristan and Nightingale six times, and South Georgia and the Falklands well over 30 times each, and I am constantly amazed every time, every day, every minute. As a seabird biologist, to see over 140 species of birds (and over 100 of the 330 species of seabirds in the world) alone is worth coming back again and again.
We have seen the great whales seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, tiny yet rambunctious fur seal pups frolicking in the surf, six species of penguins in colonies too big to imagine, elephant seals lumped together, molting on the beaches, albatrosses and petrels galore, trailing in our wake; these are just a few of the highlights we had down south. Further north, we have arrived safely on secluded, difficult to get to islands filled with isolated, yet curious and friendly people, eager to talk to us and tell stories about their incredible lives far, far away from city smog and re-runs of bad television sit-coms. Watching these fishermen going about their daily ritual of hauling in their nets on the island of Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands is a fine example of that spirit so often times lost to computer games and forbidding fences. This was truly an ocean-going adventure to “Legendary Islands”, perhaps the best and most interesting of its kind available today, and I can’t wait to do it again!
This trip has been nothing short of epic. A classic, old-time crossing of great expanses of ocean, through ecosystems and evolutionary time. Mere dots on most maps, if even shown at all, these islands conjure up stories of grand old journeys long forgotten or never read. We touched on two of my favorite places on this planet, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, and I can say that with confidence. I have now visited Cape Verde, Ascension, St. Helena, Tristan and Nightingale six times, and South Georgia and the Falklands well over 30 times each, and I am constantly amazed every time, every day, every minute. As a seabird biologist, to see over 140 species of birds (and over 100 of the 330 species of seabirds in the world) alone is worth coming back again and again.
We have seen the great whales seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, tiny yet rambunctious fur seal pups frolicking in the surf, six species of penguins in colonies too big to imagine, elephant seals lumped together, molting on the beaches, albatrosses and petrels galore, trailing in our wake; these are just a few of the highlights we had down south. Further north, we have arrived safely on secluded, difficult to get to islands filled with isolated, yet curious and friendly people, eager to talk to us and tell stories about their incredible lives far, far away from city smog and re-runs of bad television sit-coms. Watching these fishermen going about their daily ritual of hauling in their nets on the island of Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands is a fine example of that spirit so often times lost to computer games and forbidding fences. This was truly an ocean-going adventure to “Legendary Islands”, perhaps the best and most interesting of its kind available today, and I can’t wait to do it again!
