We're in the Port of Montevideo looking up at the enormous container ship towering over us. Well I expect its normal size for a container ship but it seems enormous. It dwarfs our ship, the Plancius, our home for the next 18 days. Its fascinating watching it being simultaneously loaded and off-loaded, a continuous flow of lorries driving past, pausing for a few seconds while a container is placed on them then driving off – its all incredibly efficient. There are giant cranes everywhere and its only when you leave port and compare them to the city's skyline that you realise just how big they are – far bigger then any of the skyscrapers. From Montevideo its 1,437 nautical miles to South Georgia. That's 4 to 5 days straight across the Atlantic Ocean – did I ... read more

So here we are boarding our last train. From the outside the train seems really exotic – each of the dozen carriages has a different destination; Moscow-Munich, Moscow-Basel, Moscow-Paris etc. Right at the very end is our carriage, Moscow-Amsterdam, our home for the next 2 nights. Inside, even though its a Russian train, it has a totally different feel to it. The compartments are tiny compared to the Trans-Siberian. They feel ½ sized, only wide enough for a single 3 person seat facing a blank wall. When the 3 bunk beds are folded down there's nowhere to sit. And no endless supply of tea and coffee as there's no samovar at the end of the carriage!! Its functional – like being on a ferry rather than a cruise ship. Even the Russian staff seem different, somehow ... read more

This is our final stint on the Trans-Siberian – a mere 24hrs and we'll be in Moscow. As we set off I'm ready with my Eye-Spy guide but I'm confused - we've only been going 10 minutes but the km markers are reading km1650, Yekaterinburg is at kn1816 – very odd. Its takes a while to figure it out; there are 3 train route between Yekaterinburg & Moscow. The old northern route via Rostov-Veliky, the main route via Nizhny Novogorod and the more direct southern route via Kazan. Seems we are on train #15 “the Ural” which takes the southern route via Kazan. Now we've got that sorted we can relax and watch the scenery go past. Soon after leaving Yekaterinburg we also leave Asia and re-enter Europe, the scenery doesn't change. I'm expecting big grand ... read more

We're back on the Trans-Siberian again for a 3 day trip from Irkutsk to Ekaterinburg. This particular train, the No9, is much posher and more modern than the previous trains. There are digital displays at the ends of the carriage telling you the temperature, Moscow Time, if the toilet is free and which station is coming up. We've never had anything that sophisticated before but there's still the trusty samovar in the corner for making cups of tea & coffee. Initially the landscape feels far more inhabited and industrial. There are even giant fields of potatoes – the first signs of commercial agriculture we have seen. The forests are still around but they occur in patches between the more frequent villages and the occasional town complete with tower blocks. The whole area is a hot spot ... read more

From Irkutsk we follow the Angara River for 70km back to its source at Lake Baikal. 336 rivers flow into the lake but the Angara is the only river that flows out - its very wide and very fast flowing. I suppose that's why they dammed it for hydroelectricity and caused Lake Baikal to rise by several meters. Down on the shores of the lake is the little village of Listvyanka full of wooden houses with potato patches as their front gardens. Having seen so many little wooden villages form the train its nice to actually be staying in one. Like the rest of the houses in the village ours has no running water and the toilet is at the bottom of the garden next to the banya (traditional sauna). Its been like this since we ... read more