Leglessbird Travel Guide

Some quick thoughts...

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were all excited in planning (August 2007) for our long trip to Antarctica, South America and Paris during January and February 2008. We have since returned to Hong Kong but the excitement stays. We felt a sense of achievement to have visited all 7 continents together and at the same time we felt deeply blessed. The Antarctica cruise was about wildlife, nature and history (explorers who came before us). To call it eye-opening maybe an understatement.

Antarctica is the last of the world's seven continents where Irene and I set foot together. We didn't think of it before the trip until a Cambridge student asked me if we would have been to all 7 continents after this expedition. In order to reach Antarctica, we had to go to Ushuaia (Argentina) where our cruise began. This brought us to the 6th continent on our list - South America, which is also a fascinating continent that we will return to at some point for sure.

The Antarctica trip was simply magnificent, plenty of wildlife (penguins, seals, Whales, birds, dolphins) and very impressive natural sceneries like icebergs, big sea waves and various untouched beaches. Not only was it eye opening, it made much impact on our view of life. There were 107 passengers on board of the vessel "Lyubov Orlova" (named after a Russian actress), most of our fellow travellers were retired, everyone have already travelled extensively, as one can appreciate, Antarctica is hardly a destination for beginners. Many people told us that "it is a good idea to start travelling and see the world when you are young, don't wait till your retirement".

Full story »

• 20080114 Monday Day -1 Buenos Aires
• 20080115 Tuesday Day 0 Buenos Aires to Ushuaia
• 20080116 Wednesday Ushuaia Day 1 of the Antarctica trip
• 20080117 Thursday Day 2 At sea heading towards the Falkland Islands.
• 20080118 Friday Day 3 Carcass Island (Falkland Islands)
• 20080119 Saturday Day 4 Stanley, East Falkland Island

Full story »

Click photo to view album

20080116-20080203
This album contains selected photos of the Antarctica trip taken by us and our fellow travellers.

We hope this album will make you go "WOW!".

Click photo to view album

20080131 Thursday Day 16 Danco Island, Melchoir Islands

In the morning while we were having breakfast, people saw a few whales and everyone got out to watch them, I have taken some pictures but you can only see a small object in the photos. Fortunately, there were more whaling viewing in the afternoon and I was able to take some decent pictures and can clearly see that they were humback whales.

The morning landing was at Danco Island, we had been blessed with another great sunny day. I went up the hill with the group which was a good exercise, I was sweating despite the fact that we were supposed to be in the cold Antarctic region. There were also plenty of mini-icebergs on the shore in various melting states. They looked very artistics and with a stretch of imagination, we could see resemblence with many real objects. Sadly that was our last zodiac landing of this trip and we would be heading back to the open ocean and making our way to Ushuaia.

We got our one and only e-mail message today from our travel agent Mak, informing us that one of the flight schedules had been changed.

Click photo to view album

20080131 Thursday Day 16 Danco Island, Melchoir Islands

In the morning while we were having breakfast, people saw a few whales and everyone got out to watch them, I have taken some pictures but you can only see a small object in the photos. Fortunately, there were more whaling viewing in the afternoon and I was able to take some decent pictures and can clearly see that they were humback whales.

The morning landing was at Danco Island, we had been blessed with another great sunny day. I went up the hill with the group which was a good exercise, I was sweating despite the fact that we were supposed to be in the cold Antarctic region. There were also plenty of mini-icebergs on the shore in various melting states. They looked very artistics and with a stretch of imagination, we could see resemblence with many real objects. Sadly that was our last zodiac landing of this trip and we would be heading back to the open ocean and making our way to Ushuaia.

We got our one and only e-mail message today from our travel agent Mak, informing us that one of the flight schedules had been changed.

Click photo to view album
The miscellaneous photos of the Antarctica trip including some photos of WHALES!

Click photo to view album
20080130 Wednesday Day 15 Neko Bay, Port Lockroy, Lemaire Channel, Petermann Island

Today we saw much more snow and icebergs which for the first time made us felt that we were really in the Antarctic. First landing on the Antartica Penninsula was at Neko Bay where we saw many gentoo penninguins and I did the walk up towards the top of the hill which gave us a better way of the surrounding area. Next stop was Port Lockroy where the British research Base A was nearly 65 degree South, saw more gentoo penguins and a huge skeleton of a whale. There was also an opportunity to send some post cards at Port Lockroy but it would take months to reach its destination! Saw gentoo feeding in action and how a bird was trying to steal its food while it fed. While we were passing the Lemaire Channel, we saw two whales passing by.

Our after dinner landing was Petermann Island where we saw a colony of Adelie penguins, this was the only type of penguin that we were expected to see but had escaped us so far, because they lived further south than most other penguins. They seemed to behave in similar fashions to other penguins except they liked sliding across the snow on their belly much more than other penguins. We caught some interesting footage on camera, and they looked very cute when doing that.

We had spotted at least 4 other ships in the area and one of them looked huge, we wondered if they actually do landings at all, for it would take them hours if not days to load and unload people on usually small landing sites. Besides, I could not imagine how they could get everyone to comply with the boot washing practice and 5-meter approach limit to wildlife.

Click photo to view album
20080130 Wednesday Day 15 Neko Bay, Port Lockroy, Lemaire Channel, Petermann Island

Today we saw much more snow and icebergs which for the first time made us felt that we were really in the Antarctic. First landing on the Antartica Penninsula was at Neko Bay where we saw many gentoo penninguins and I did the walk up towards the top of the hill which gave us a better way of the surrounding area.

Click photo to view album
20080130 Wednesday Day 15 Neko Bay, Port Lockroy, Lemaire Channel, Petermann Island

Today we saw much more snow and icebergs which for the first time made us felt that we were really in the Antarctic. First landing on the Antartica Penninsula was at Neko Bay where we saw many gentoo penninguins and I did the walk up towards the top of the hill which gave us a better way of the surrounding area. Next stop was Port Lockroy where the British research Base A was nearly 65 degree South, saw more gentoo penguins and a huge skeleton of a whale. There was also an opportunity to send some post cards at Port Lockroy but it would take months to reach its destination! Saw gentoo feeding in action and how a bird was trying to steal its food while it fed. While we were passing the Lemaire Channel, we saw two whales passing by.

Our after dinner landing was Petermann Island where we saw a colony of Adelie penguins, this was the only type of penguin that we were expected to see but had escaped us so far, because they lived further south than most other penguins. They seemed to behave in similar fashions to other penguins except they liked sliding across the snow on their belly much more than other penguins. We caught some interesting footage on camera, and they looked very cute when doing that.

We had spotted at least 4 other ships in the area and one of them looked huge, we wondered if they actually do landings at all, for it would take them hours if not days to load and unload people on usually small landing sites. Besides, I could not imagine how they could get everyone to comply with the boot washing practice and 5-meter approach limit to wildlife.

Click photo to view album
20080130 Wednesday Day 15 Neko Bay, Port Lockroy, Lemaire Channel, Petermann Island

Today we saw much more snow and icebergs which for the first time made us felt that we were really in the Antarctic. First landing on the Antartica Penninsula was at Neko Bay where we saw many gentoo penninguins and I did the walk up towards the top of the hill which gave us a better way of the surrounding area. Next stop was Port Lockroy where the British research Base A was nearly 65 degree South, saw more gentoo penguins and a huge skeleton of a whale. There was also an opportunity to send some post cards at Port Lockroy but it would take months to reach its destination! Saw gentoo feeding in action and how a bird was trying to steal its food while it fed. While we were passing the Lemaire Channel, we saw two whales passing by.

Our after dinner landing was Petermann Island where we saw a colony of Adelie penguins, this was the only type of penguin that we were expected to see but had escaped us so far, because they lived further south than most other penguins. They seemed to behave in similar fashions to other penguins except they liked sliding across the snow on their belly much more than other penguins. We caught some interesting footage on camera, and they looked very cute when doing that.

We had spotted at least 4 other ships in the area and one of them looked huge, we wondered if they actually do landings at all, for it would take them hours if not days to load and unload people on usually small landing sites. Besides, I could not imagine how they could get everyone to comply with the boot washing practice and 5-meter approach limit to wildlife.