Message from Frank Tschöpe

21.11. Passed Shag Rocks today

Name correction: Sir Edmund Shackleton

When I meet Jonathan Shackleton right before his lecture I proudly told him hat I have just started reading a book on the "Endurance" adventure of Ernest Shackleton...he then asked me "Which book?" And I was not even aware that Jonathan has published his own book! ;-) so it came out that I had chosen the wrong book and he recommended his book to me.. ;-)

Then there was a longer, very entertaining lecture of 75min from Jonathan Shackleton. If you are not interested in history, then just skip the next paragraphs!

Here are some of my notes:

Edmund Hillary also succeeded reaching the South Pole with a tractor!

Shackleton born and lived in county Kildare , close to Dublin, 8 sisters, 1 brother! Moved to London at age of 10.

1902 Scott with ship Discovery to Ross Sea, failed reaching the South Pole, ship could be visited in Dundee

1907-1909 "Nimrod" --> plan of route: Ross Sea and then Ross Ice Shelf, camp on Ross Island! A small hut was built within 10 days! Climbed Mt Erebus 3800m! Google "Nimrod Shackleton" for more information!

Best Equipment from Norway, 30 sledges and even 15 ponys! 20 sheep! Dogs, but it doesnt work well! "If you have problems with dogs then it is mostly a problem with the owner!"

They started with sledges and 4 ponys..great excitement..but lost ponies over time (crevasses and also needed as food..did not reach the South Pole, but great experience and new insights!

Seeing all those fascinating pictures from old times in the presentation I finally thought "I myself would have been also one of the great explorers as I have the passion and stamina for it!" ;-) but nowadays most places are already visited, but I might step into the footprints of former great adventurers! ;-)

Some strenghts of Shackleton: Courage, Optimism and his ability to inspire others!

Today we reached "Shag Rocks" and we circled this rock formation 5 times, so it was a great day of photography! I took more than 500 shots and will delete maybe 400 of them! Then we saw a Southern Right Whale very close to these rocks. I took some photographs but these shots are not really good! Just for evidence that I have seen such a whale!

TomorrowI will be very busy as a photographer I I try to get most of it from South Georgia! I am likely to work only with my Canon camera, as 90% of my Sony shots have a white line in it! Some technical error with the aperture!

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Message from Frank Tschöpe

We are now very close to South Georgia! (About 18h to go!) The weather is sunny and we have again a calm sea!

Yesterday I started exercising in the gym. I am currently not in great shape so I started with 30min bike at 200 Watt and 15min running hills and 14kmh fastest pace! But I will improve over the next days. This morning I did another 45min of cycling at 5am! Today I had some music and then it is easier staying at 220 Watt the whole time! I missed the sunrise at 4:50am though! Going forward I plan to do sports each day for at least one hour! Otherwise I would be getting fat here as there is too much delicious food! Also I need to stay in shape as I have some ambitious plans for 2015! First I want to finish the Stockholm marathon below 3h and then I would like to be in the Top10 at the Laugavegur Ultra in Iceland! In former times I achieved rank 4, but nowadays competition is much stronger with over 300 participants and some very talented young Icelandic runners!

I have a break in photography as I concentrate only on the landfalls and am not going for "flying birds". This costs time and most of the shots are for the dustbin! At the Falklands I missed a few frames with the Rockhopper penguins, but on the other hand I was lucky with other frames! On one I have some penguins in the forground and the Ocean Diamond ship in the background! :-)

Welcome Antarctica!!! Since yesterday we reached Antarctica ocean zone, as the water temperature dropped from 11 degrees to about 6 degrees! South Georgia lies within Antarctica zone! Falklands not!

James Cook's sailings in the 18th century were presented in the lecture yesterday. Very interesting! He discovered South Georgia in January 1775.

Interesting facts: Male Elephant seals weight 5000kg! King penguins are going for divorce in 80%, so they always go for a new partner in their next breed! They usually have one egg. The smaller penguins lay 2 eggs, an A egg and a bigger B egg. Usually the A egg or A chick will be abandoned and they concentrate on their bigger B egg!

Today are many lectures! The first one is an interesting one from Jonathan Shakleton on his cousin Ernest Shakleton! Jonathan lives in Ireland and he is a very entertaining speaker! Later there will be lectures on penguins and also on photography! But the photography lessons are on a very low level so far! I think I will not attend them anymore!

On Friday at 4am we should reach South Georgia and I plan to get up very early to photograph in the early morning light! Maybe there is even a nice sunrise! South Georgia must be an amazing place! I have seen already many pictures and I will read a book on it today!

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Message from Frank Tschöpe

19.11. Second part: Approaching South Georgia

I am very fine again. After a long sleep my headache was gone! Currently the sea is rather calm! :-)

We will expected to reach South Georgia on Friday morning at about 5am, where we will spend 3 days for several landings, if weather permits! It will be one of the highlights of this journey! It is an extremely interesting place on earth both in history (started around 1800 with sealing industry) and wildlife! "Endurance expedition" or "Ernest Shakleton" you might google!

South Georgia is of 180km length, so it is a rather big island with high mountains! Called the "The Alps in mid-ocean", 2000km from Cape Horn! Many fjords and glaciers! Vegetation though is only in coastal areas. There is a population of around 1 million of penguins here!

We saw a 1h-video on South Georgia and how to behave there. There are very strict rules! In general there is the 5 metre rule as the minimum distance from wildlife, especially with respect to penguins and birds! You should stay at 25m distance from jousting elephant seals, as they might become aggressive and might bite you. Also it is not allowed to walk around in most of the abandoned whaling stations! There might be flying debris and other things!

I just attended an interesting lecture on he history of South Georgia given by historican Victoria! There are historic huts, a church and a museum! Also a cemetary where Ernest Shakleton is buried! James Cook I would also at least mention here! Just google him! S.G. attracted many adventurers, scientists and sometimes also mountaineers!

Weather is unpredictable and could be harsh and extreme! Flying debris is possible! Also avalanche danger! The sun could be extreme as I already experiened in the Falklands with a little sunburn in my face. ;-)

Animals like rendeer, mice and rats were intoduced 100 years ago by humans! Now an Erradication program started 2011! If we spot any mouse, rat or rendeer we have to report it! They should not be on Aouth Georgia and they will then be hunted, as they ruin the nature and bird wildlife!

Each day I plan to distribute my photography business cards to at least 10 passengers! That way I finally reach nearly all passengers! My final plan then is to offer all my jpg- pictures for a flat rate of 500USD. For these rich passengers here 500USD is just nothing! ;-)

There was a crazy offer on a very high prize level here: "Choose one bottle of wine/champagne at a prize of 400USD and get two other bottles for free!" I am very happy that I brought my own 3 bottles of red Malbec wine! So far we (I invited my room mates) started with the 2011 vintage of Malbec! It was already a very delicious wine! Vintage 2012 should be even better! ;-)

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Message from Frank Tschöpe

19.11. First sickness

Today I got a headache and I am not having dinner and going to sleep very early! I also take another of that anti-seasick pills from the doctor! So only a few notes today:

We visited Stanley this morning and that town was bigger than expected! About 2000 inhabitants, mostly british! They also drive on the wrong side of the road here, so I had to be very careful!

Today's lectures were on the geology of the Falklands and South Georgia! From a geology perspective the Falklands are neither british nor belong to Argentina! They belong to Africa!

We picked up 2 penguin researcher at the Falklands! So now all questions on penguins could be directly adressed to those experts!

There exists the Antarctic Polar Front, where the water abruptly is 2-3 degrees colder! The Falklands are not within this zone and consequently do not belong to the Antarctic region!

Elephant Island must be very interesting, also from a historic perspective! Jonathan Shakleton mentioned it today in his lecture talk! So you might google "Elephant Island Shakleton" and find something interesting!

The sea is getting rougher which is not good for me as I am currently in a critacal condition with my headache! Hopefully the sleeping pills will work soon.. As I understood we will need 2-3 days to reach South Georgia. We will change already tonight the time zone, but there are 1000km to go..

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15.11. First impressions from the Ocean Diamond cruise ship

This will be a great travel! We just got a first introduction and I expect a great travel! The expedition crew is mostly from Canada, but the doctor and also a geologist are from Germany! There is also some prominence on board with 2 relatives of Ernest Shackleton: his cousin and his grandson!

We are starting in a few moments and some storm and rough sea is expectrd this night on the Drake passage! I will get some medicine from the doctor before! It is a kind of sleeping drug! The doctor is free of charge! That is very positive!

They have the largest floating polar library here on board! It is very impressive!

Also impressive the Chinese people that had even better photography equipment than myself! I have seen the Canon 1DX in combination with 200-400mm already. This alone costs 17.000 EUR. The Chinese are crazy! I have seen them already photographing like crazy from the deck!

There is also a nice gymnasium with bikes and running treadmills and weightlifting! Very nice! So I am going to stay fit on board! Maybe I will also join the Yoga sessions!

One bad thing: I was the last in the cabin of us three! So consequently I got the worst bed which is the upper bunk bed! I hope not to fall down in rough sea! Tonight will be the first test for it! ;-)

So more lines from me soon! I am currently exploring the ship and at 19:30 there will be dinner!

Message from Frank Tschöpe

18.11 West Falklands: Carcas and Saunders Islands

I started the day with a 45min yoga session with an instructor from New Zealand! It is good for me doing some sports! Over the next days I will start a program in the gym, as otherwise I will be at risk getting fat with so much delicious food here!

Then we had the first 2 landings with the Zodiacs on the West Falkland Islands! My expectations were already extremely high, but they were even easily beaten! We had sunny warm weather of 10 degrees and the wildlife was fantastic! It was mind-blowing watching thousands of penguins! We had the rule of not actively going closer than 5m to a penguin, but luckily this is a one-sided rule not known by the penguins! So very often one ends in being closer to a penguin! Today I saw at least 4 different kinds of penguins and it was a great day for photograpy! There were also Albatrosses and other birds and many dolphins were nearly touching our Zodiacs!

Again I had severe technical problems with my Sony A7R! I will send it back to Sony! It is so unreliable! On the other hand my Canon 5dIII camera is great and would say that the 200-560mm is the best lens currently available in the market and not beaten by any Nikon glass! The 200-560mm is reason enough to go for Canon!

I already had 15 great shots on just one day, which is very seldom! But the penguins are very easy objects. Only sometimes other penguins run into nice, well-chosen frames and destroy them! And on other occasions you need some patience until the penguins open their eyes or are in a nice formation!

It is unbelievable seeing these Chinese people owning the best cameras and lenses! Even their waterproof bags seem to be the best available! First I thought that it was me bringing the best equipment on board (which costs already 30.000EUR). But these Chinese photograpers each have eqipment worth 50.000EUR or even more! It is hard to believe! So i am feeling poor on this cruise ship! It would be very interesting to see which frames they go for!

Another story from today: Someone lost and left his/her camera on the beach! It was a Nikon 800 with 24-70mm lens, so 4000EUR just lay in the sand! Unbelievable! First I thought one of the Chinese just left one of his 4-5 cameras! But the settings were in English and not Chinese. I guess they will find the owner!

This journey is that great that I would recommend you to book it right away! No time to loose and forget about all those second and third class holidays in Europe! If you want to experience something great then Antarctica is one viable option!

The Falklands are huge. We are now going another 200km on sea to reach the town of Stanley at the Eastern Falklands! It is the biggest town of the Falklands! It is british and also architecture is british! They don't accept Argentinian Pesos for obvious reasons! They even have a church, a supermarket and a pub! ;-) We will spend tomorrow morning there on land! Carcas Island however is very small with only 2 inhabitants. But usually in summer that population doubled, so then there are 4 inhabitants!

So interesting days are to come! The weather here is unpredictable, but today was a calm and warm day! Our expedition jackets were much to warm so I changed to my own cooler clothes!

Also interesting people here. I will maybe write another time more on them..

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Message from Frank Tschöpe

17.11. Falkland Islands

Just one correction: There are indeed 2 prominent persons among the passengers on board: One is Falcon Scott, who is a grandson of the famous arctic explorer Scott! And then there is Jonathan Shakleton, who is a cousin of Sir Ernest Shakleton! Today I had a smalltalk with the latter at the breakfast table! It was very interesting to hear that his parents married in Reykjavik where they stayed for about 3 months and he himself also spent some time in Iceland!

There are many interesting lectures on history, animal life and also on photography! Today there was one on the history of the Falkland Islands! It was very interesting! 120y ago there were 1million sheep on the islads! Nowadays around 2000 people are living there! During war in 1982 about 1000 people died! I will also join a photography course in the late afternoon, though I expect not to learn any new insights. But you never know!

There are 5 kayaking guides but I will skip kayaking, as there are many other things to do here! And it would cost you a flat rate of 1000 USD and it is open and dependent on wheather conditions for how many trips you will be going! At some days I will join the Yoga course with an instructor from New Zealand! I also plan to do 1h of exercise in the gym each day! But first I need to get rid of my cold and my soar throat!

I mainly live for my hobbies and I am very passionate for photography, hiking, running, travelling and going for all kinds of adventures! I am very happy to lead such a life and I am aware that on the other hand many people do lead a very boring life just focusing on their job! Most of those people however are not aware of this and over the years they got used to leading a very standard, boring life! Sometimes I am happy that they are not aware of this, as they would then get very unhappy on their life! Here you might ask yourself like "Do I really lead a fulfilling life?" I am very often laughing innerly when I am hearing the sentence "I am doing fine!" as in reality it is often meant as "I am doing fine on a very low level!" or even "I am very miserable these days!" But many people lie on this standard sentence! I know many of them! ;-) Better not ask "How are you doing?" at all!

Today after the "Zodiac briefing" we already got warm rubber boots! We have to clean then thourougly after each land excursion to get rid of penguin excrements which could behave like glue! ;-) We are allowed to approach penguins at a distance of 5m, but very often it is the penguins that might regard us strange visitors as a curiosity or an attraction and they will then inspect us more closely! They dont know about the 5m rule! It is a one sided rule only valid for us humans! So if they approach us then we will be allowed to be nearer to them then 5m and we will enjoy their closeness and curiosity!

The sea sometimes is very rough with some glasses already broken! Then it is a kind of mess with glass and drinks on the carpet! I continue to take those sleeping pills and so far I am not seasick at all! But I am not so sure how long I will be able to prevent sea-sickness! So far I kept my reservoir of red wine and chocolad nearly untouched! ;-) Once I feel more safe on my stomach and brain I will go to taste the delicious Malbec wines! I have 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages and tell you afterwards which vintage you should go for! ;-)

It is very mild currently and when the sun is out I go for only 2 layers on the deck! Sunrise is already at about 5am! That is another reason travelling here when european winter is approaching! ;-)

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Message from Frank Tschöpe

16.11. On the way to Falkland Islands

I am just having my morning tea while we are heading for Falkland Islands! So far I am fine and no sea sickness at all! I also took some sleeping pills for prevention! But I got a severe cold as I was too optimistic with clothes when walking in cold Ushuaia! I hope to do better in a few days as I would also like to do a kind of fitness programme in the gym! I dont want to get fat!!! Interesting to use the running treadmill in rough sea! ;-)

As of some rougher sea the ship had a longer break! It was the strategy as to avoid some severe wind! I hope the landing to Falklands could take place but I see no problems at all! The ship has some connections and will load fresh food in Port Stanley! ;-)

Food is like in a 5 star restaurant and one could choose the main menu from 4 different options! But the good thing on this trip is that it is "casual clothes" all the time! There are other ships where the dress code is different and business-like!

Also it is amazing that everything is there! Hot and cold drinkable water in abundance! I can even fill my thermos bottle with hot water for having tea during all the day!

There will be some presentations today and we will also collect rubber boots! Yesterday we got already a very warm yellow rain-jacket!

It was one of my best ideas to book this cruise ship travel! I could be on this ship for months and would feel very fine! It is really great watching the clouds, some islands! And very soon we will have some landings at the Falkland Islands and also South Georgia!

It is also very interesting to meetpeople of all different countries! There are very nice contacts! I also try to distribute my business card as a photographer! I already become known among the group to a certain extent! Latest when they see my big 200-400mm Canon lens they will know that I am big in the game of photography! OK, the Chinese also have the best equipment but I could not imagine that they find the right frames! ;-) So no competition from that side!

Unbelievable how many photographers are on board! it seems that nearly all persons try to bring back great shots! ;-)

There are 2 big groups from China of about 20 persons each! ;-) But many people from the US and Canada! Also Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and about 10-15 german speaking people. The german geologist even offered us some german presentations on selected topics, but we were all fine having all the lectures in English! :-)

We have currently quite calm sea! That is good for me to get used to being on board! I see land to both sides of the ship! ;-) To the right it looks lke an island!