As I write it is 18th March, we are circumnavigating very slowly around the island of Tristan da Cunha, a last look before waving farewell. Three long blasts on the ship's horn, and now we are setting off on the long voyage to Capetown. Four Giant Kestrels are gliding around our wake, swooping and turning so elegantly.
17thMarch.
On St Patrtick’s Day and we were moored off Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan archipelago. We set out at 8am for a tour in zodiacs. There was a lot of high swell, but it was a wonderful experience. We floated beside huge colonies of Rockhopper penguins, they look so funny with their spiky eyebrows. There were large seals everywhere, and between them all, the noise was incredible. The penguins call out to each other, the seals bark and cry and to add to all of this, the birds are singing or calling. Magnificent, with so many different kinds of birds. It is a huge nesting area for Great Shearwaters. We saw small song birds: thrush, and buntings landing on rocks near us. They nest in the tussock grass. But dozens of other kinds of birds. None of these animals are accustomed to humans, and as a result are very tame and curious and come very close.
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| Rock Hopper penguins - they have yellow spikey eyebrows |
In the afternoon we set out for an hour to tour around another volcanic island, called, Inaccessible Island. It is easy to work out how it got its name.
16thMarch.
Tristan da Cunha
The weather is wonderful, so we are very fortunate to have been able to land and spend the whole day on the island. It has the most remote population in the world, 267 inhabitants who all live in a settlement called Edinburgh on a flat part of the island at the base of the volcano. Everywhere is covered in volcanic rock, formed by the last volcano in 1961 when the whole island had to be evacuated.
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| One of the original houses |
It was discovered by the Portugese in 1506. First community settled there in 1816.
There are 8 families, descending from the first settlers who were Scottish, English, American, South African, Dutch, and Italian. In the early days they brought in oxen and harnessed them to simple carts for unloading boats. The first cottages were thatched with Tussock grass, later they planted NZ Flax and used it for thatch, it lasted longer. All are built with stone walls.
In 1961 the eruption of the volcano changed everything. At first the residents were taken to Nightingale Island, and later to England where they saw a world they had never experienced. Traffic, buses, trains and goods to buy and sell – they had never used money before. Many of them chose to return to Tristan when it was safe, but some of the population remained in England. Those who returned had to rebuild the houses and the churches.
The inhabitants are like one large family and worked together to rebuild their homes. The women do carding, spinning and knitting – after dyeing, the wool is laid out on stone walls. All the residents have a potatoe patch, they depend on potatoes as a staple food. Several of them have cattle and sheep, ducks and hens. They brought in Southern Cheviot rams to improve the quality of the wool.
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some residents have cattle |
Crayfish harvesting is most important for economy. Fish brings the only royalties into the island, it is the main industry.
Small boats catch about 5 ton of cray which is then placed into holding tanks of salt water. After it is weighed, graded and sorted it goes to South Africa. (Market is America and Japan) The cray operation is owned and run by South Africans.
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| Local resident!! |
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| New Zealand Flax for roof thatching |
Before cars, elderly people used donkeys to get around, now they are not used and they are just grazing. There is a school and a hospital. A doctor and surgeon come for short term postings.
The Catholic church was built 15 years ago. Both Anglican and Catholic come together on special occasions. There is a Governor: Sean Byrne, and a modest residence. Winter groups make handcrafts for sale.
Our guide from Tristan is named Rockhopper Copper as he is always rescuing penguins, and he is a local policeman.
Diesel generators are used for electricity. Alchohol can be a problem, also inter marriage a bit of a problem.
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| Its a long way to everywhere! |
There is a splendid post office and tourism centre, where all sorts of things are sold including first editions of stamps. One traditional British red post box! I found some very good quality homespun wool and knitted goods. I couldn’t resist buying hand-spun gloves with a penguin worked into them.
The Albatross bar, is the most remote in the world and there is one supermarket for everything.
We had a wonderful day there and tucked into fresh cray sandwiches for afternoon tea with a locally brewed beer instead of tea. What a wonderful day, amazingly our faces got sunburnt – it was unusually warm and we had taken warm clothes rather than sun hats and sun cream! My face is very red as a result.
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| Local beer |
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| a working post box |
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| Post Box Falklands |
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| John and Steve |
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| Post Office and Tourist Centre Tristan |
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| Local guide explaining about original house. |
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| Handspun, handknitted tea cosy |
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| Rockhoppers |
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| Inaccessible Island - cascade |
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| Some of the penguins we saw |
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| Bank of generators that keep Tristan alive. |
15thMarch, Gough Island.
We are moored this morning off Gough Island, in the Tristan archipelago. It is misty and
moisty, with a swell, in fact pouring rain. Apparently, it rains here almost every day. Gough is a bird reserve and rich in breeding sea birds, several kinds of albatross, petrels, skuas, buntings, and other birds along with Rockhopper penguins nesting here. There are no permanent inhabitants, but there is a weather station with meteorologists, and scientists. It is cold and wet, looks so miserable that I decided not to go out on the zodiac trip, I can see quite well from the ship. John dressed up in all his gear and set off – I am sure it will be worthwhile getting soaked. He said it was well worth getting soaked and they had a wonderful trip.
We were invited to the Captain’s table last night, so dressed up a bit. There were 7 of us, the others were very interesting. It was a very pleasant evening with a very engaging conversation and we were last out of the dining room. We learnt a great deal about Ponant’s future plans.
A rodent eradication program will start in these islands next year, hopefully the bird population will increase, with their eggs and chicks kept safe from the rats and mice. At the present time rodents are slaughtering the chicks.
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| Sunset on Tristan |
The weather is wild and woolly, with lots of high waves, but improving. We are followed by a wandering albatross, and sometimes a black browed albatross. It was particularly relevant to attend a lecture by Fabrice on the Albatross, his favourite bird. Every day we learn something new. The exhibition team are very impressive.
There are always giant petrels or Albatross following the ship. Many legends have been written about them and they are always respected. They mostly live in the southern hemisphere.
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| Rockhopper penguins - crests like spiky eyebrows |
Wind is important for their travels. The Royal and The Wandering have a wingspan of up to 3.8 metres. They are so graceful. Their tube nose allows them to secrete/expel the salt that they ingest while at sea. They have strong olfactory glands. They look strange and ungainly as they take off for flight using their webbed feet to run on the water for take-off. On the crest in Nightingale Island they have worn a runway for take off. A researcher told us they took off and patted him on the head on their way! They prefer to stay in the air, as they lose energy when they stay on the water. They don’t use energy when they are flying -they can sleep. They stay close to the water, and don’t fly high. They have a good sense of smell, and mostly eat squid who come to the surface at night to feed on krill. They are independent birds, not social. But maintain a breeding partnership.
They live long and breed late. The Sooty albatross fly in pairs and do a ballet while courting. They produce a large egg 200 – 400 grams. They can locate their nest by smelling. It takes 2 months and more for incubation. One adult stays with the chick while the other searches for food. Chicks stay on nest for up to 8 months before they fledge. One chick only, a very low production of chicks. Some birds do a 12,000 km trip to feed their young.
When the young take-off they are on their own, they don’t come back for several years.
When moulting they keep flying and it happens gradually. They have to change their feathers to survive. They can circumnavigate the globe in 46 days. One wandering albatross was recorded as flying 25,000 km in 9 weeks, (55km per hour, max 90 kph) Powerful GPS. Albatross tagged with a radar tag have become policemen of the ocean, with information fed into research sites.
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Tristan Albatross - breeds on Tristan Islands. Wingspan up to 3.8metres. |
Their predators are rats and cats. Tristan and Gough are infested by rodents. Young birds don’t know how to defend themselves. Also over fishing with long lines. Numbers reduced by 50% in the past years. Illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean is very destructive. Birds ingest a lot of rubbish including many plastic items. We have seen grey headed, black browed, royal, wandering, light mantled, and sooty. Petrels are close cousins.
We must have healthy oceans to help give oxygen to the planet. There is a proposal to protect the Weddell Sea, but it was refused by the fishing interests of Russia, China and North America. An Antarctic Environmental Protocol was attempted.
The Expedition Team held an auction to raise funds for the eradication program. It was a lot of fun, and fortunately a small group of people were generous. It was a great success.
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| Chef of Le Lyrial |
On the long journey to Capetown with 4 days at sea, we were entertained and informed by superb lectures and documentaries.
The Chef gave a cooking demonstration yesterday of his version of risotto. Except for the fact that he used an awful lot of butter, his recipe was similar to mine. We then had a brief tour of the kitchen.
Sebastian our Geologist presented a lecture on:
Hotspot Volcanism and the formation of the Most Remote Inhabited Islands and Archipelago in the World.
Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island and archipelago are all volcanic.
Tristan is 2060m above sea level, the land part is just the top of a huge volcano. Volcanos push up and create these islands. Nightingale Island’s last eruption was as recent as 2004 but it was under water. Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands are all part of the same base.
Gough Island is 400kms to south of Tristan.
He spoke a lot about the movement of plates in our planet and noted that Australia is moving rapidly towards Indonesia at a rate of 6-7cms per year.
Lecture by Anina: Living on the Edge – between colonisation and survival.
For beginning of life, we all need oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon. ¾ of earth is under water. 1st stage: Beginning of an island: plants start to grow on rich soil. The seeds arrive by birds, wind or sea. They feed on each other and start to create soil. Following on life is created on volcanic islands.
Plants and birds are native or endemic.
Native: indigenous and exist in other locations.
Endemic: found only in one location.
Inaccessible Island has a unique small flightless bird: The Inaccessible Rail. It probably had an ancestor who could have flown there from South America. Research is continuing on finding an organism to eat plastic.
Why penguins don’t suffer from cold feet. Warm blood comes from the heart and flows to the feet cooling on the way. It circulates back to the heart and warms on the way.
Undersea deepwater species have no sunlight, no photosynthesis. They produce chemical energy. More than 500 species live underwater. Yeti crabs for example, they are hairy and live very deep down. Tube worms grow up to 2m long with a retractable plume. Vent shrimp have no eyes, but have bacteria necessary to survive.
The real master of survival is fungi: for example, Radiotrophe fungi, growing in Chernobyl. They use melanin to harvest energy and use surrounding radiation. Research is continuing to find out if it can reduce problem of radiation.
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| Giant Petrels |
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| Handknitted handspun gloves with certificate: Tristan |
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| Local guide: Tristan |
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| Catholic church Tristan |
In a few more days we will be in Capetown. We have booked several tours. The first to Robben Island to see the prison where Nelson Mandela was held, and the second to a world famous botanic gardens, and later a wine tasting.
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