Eastern Canada is as close to the United Kingdom and Europe as it is to Canada's own west coast. This is evident in the grocery stores, in particular, at the cheese department, which are often overflowing with European cheeses! Red Leicester, Double Gloucester, Wensleydale, Caerphilly, Edam and Brie! The choice of cheeses is wonderful! We are both big cheese fans, so this refrigerated paradise was one of our favourite hang-outs whilst stocking up on the daily supplies. Really sharp and aged Cheddar is often our go-to cheese-of-choice, but we were spoiled! Cheddar infused with Irish whisky, with cranberries or apricots, smoked gouda, Camembert, and Stilton. Cheese is milk's attempt at immortality! Fermented and moldy, old and crumbly or with holes in it... It is a remarkable food... You can buy a box of crackers and some ... read more

Out on the far-flung eastern edge of mainland Canada is the small maritime province of Nova Scotia. We decided to do a smaller trip together this year due to our schedules, so we opted to stay in Canada and do a bit of road trip to explore Canada's Atlantic seaboard... Halifax We flew into Halifax and stomped through drizzle and sleet to get to the B&B in the downtown core. Next morning was wet snow and particularly gloomy, so coffees and hot chocolates were plentiful as we slowly loitered around the city streets. The imposing Citadel on the hill above town was officially closed and half buried in snow, but we still made it inside the grounds and enjoyed the ramparts and cannons that once guarded the city. There were only two or three other tourists ... read more

I had a lot of time at sea on my last voyage of the seaon... A final crossing of the Drake Passage, a stormy couple of days on the ferocious Scotia Sea, and an epic five-day sail from South Georgia to Buenos Aires (almost) on the ever-grumpy South Atlantic. These ten or so days at sea were spent with my muse and my friend, the Great Wanderer and his albatross cousins. The Wandering Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, Southern and Northern Royals, Grey-headed, the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross as well as a cameo appearance from an Amsterdam Albatross! These massive birds with their 3 metre (11 ft) wingspan that soar effortlessly above the towering seas as they follow the ship in their search for food are mesmerizing. I spend hours out on deck fascinated by these birds that can ... read more

The many men so beautiful And they all dead did lie And a thousand, thousand slimy things Lived on and so did I. Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Samuel Taylor Colridge, 1799 Deck 8 is an open platform - it’s windswept and exposed. It’s ideal for some jogging or for some small piece of solitude as hardly any one goes up there. I love being up high on the stormy seas with views across the rolling waves as the ship heaves up and down. The wild wind charging through the sky and battering the vessel – I love it! Gravity assisted running – just for a second I am flying! My Antarctic antics are continuing! My little feathered friends are growing up fast, and the air is cooling down. The southern winter is fast approaching at ... read more

“I have often the impression that, to penguins, man is just another penguin – different, less predictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and minds his own business.” Bernard Stonehouse. The Antarctic Circle - 66°33’16”South… The line of latitude that gets at least one day of every year when the sun doesn’t set and at least one day a year when the sun doesn’t rise. King Neptune let us sail over the Antarctic Circle into his icy realm of sea-ice that sprawled from horizon to horizon as the vessel nudged its way southward towards Marguerite Bay. Eventually the ice tangle turned to a solid barrier and we could go further. The massive ice sheet blanketing Adelaide Island lay before us but there was no way of reaching it – it was a spectacular ... read more