The six weeks since I got back from that amazing Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica trip have just flown past, what with being unable to get anywhere because of the weather plus Christmas and New Year when the whole world seems to go to sleep for 3 weeks - and here we are with me heading off again tomorrow.
How many of you can remember 50 years back? Well, this time 50 years ago there was a volcanic eruption on the island of Tristan da Cunha - one of nine British Dependencies (as they were known then - now British Overseas Territories I think). To mark the 50th anniversary of the evacuation of the island the Royal Mail Ship St Helena is making a special trip to carry the Governor of St Helena (who also has jurisdiction in Tristan and Ascension Island) to erect a plaque on the volcano and generally celebrate with the islanders. When i first heard about this a couple of years ago I was first in the queue for an allocation of cabins and so, on Tuesday next week, myself and 12 Island Holidays clients (plus the Governor and enough others to make the passenger list up to 120) will sail from Cape Town and head south west. Everyting is weather dependent but, should we be lucky enough to be able to land, the process involves climing from the tender up a rope ladder! Now that should be a laugh and my clients have strict instructions to keep their cameras firmly in their bags until we're safely ashore!!!
We'll spend 3 days at Tristan including (hopefully) circumnavigating Gough, Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands but all that depends on the weather - after all, we will be in the Roaring Forties.
I'm off to South Africa tomorrow and will be staying with friends for a couple of nights before the rest of the group arrive. We then have two nights at the wonderful Constantia Uitsig before beginning our adventure in earnest. I'm afraid there won't be bulletins - no internet, no mobile phones and so on, so it's sort of incommunicado which, in this day and age, is very special. I don't know about you but I find this instant communciation non-stop a bit wearing. It never allows you to concentrate on any one thing for more than a few minutes without being interrupted. And I used to think the telephone and fax were a pain!
Anyway, must go off and start packing - to say nothing of three loads of ironing plus cooking supper and so on. A woman's work .........
I'll report as and when I can.
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