We were hoping to walk on Cape Horn but the windy was too gusty and it wasn’t safe to land- it gusted up to 100 Km/hour. We did go out on deck to feel the ‘real’ Cape Horn weather. At one point I was going to go up to the 5th deck but a staff member said not a good idea because of the wind.
We ‘drove’ around in circles next to Cape Horn for about 45 minutes and then we headed off to our next stop at Wulaia Bay.
Tibor picked the ‘high physical demand’ excursion and hiked/walked up to the summit to get some great views of the bay. I took the easy forest/coast excursion and saw a number of different birds- Flightless Steamer Ducks, Fire-eyed Diucon, Albatross, Petrels, Andean Condor, South American tern, Magellanic Snipe, and more.
At Wulaia Bay, we walked around the area and visited the old abandoned Radio Station building. The area once held farms and the cows, pigs, horses were released when the farms were abandoned. Don’t know what happened to the horses but the cows and pigs are now wild. It was particularly odd to see cow pies (poop) on the trail. Didn’t actually see any cows or pigs. The area also has a number of dead trees from the invasive beavers.
At the Radio station is a barrel. This barrel was a replica of the barrel used by the sailors in the area. They would write letters and leave them in the barrel, the next sailor would search thru the barrel to find a letter that was going the same direction and would deliver it. We could leave and take one post card if we wanted. I left a post card and picked one up and will deliver it to a town near our home.
When we got back to the pier they had a hot chocolate station and were giving out hot chocolate (with or without whisky). That was a nice, warming touch.
On the way to Ushuaia, in the Beagle channel we saw so many whales, fur seals and birds it was amazing. It was a bit late in the day so all my pictures were blurry and dark but it was incredible to see.
At the end of the cruise, guests are invited to submit pictures they took during the voyage. Most, but not all, of these pictures would be used to create a slideshow that was shown in the lounge. I submitted a couple of pictures and was happy when the crowd went ‘oohh’ when they saw one of my pictures.
