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Packing Is Going To Be Tricky... ⬆intro next ➡The Prologue As regular readers (and indeed, anyone who knows Amanda at all) will be aware, she is badly prone to motion sickness. I think trains are generally ok, but planes, boats and cars on even moderately twisty roads are all dangerous modes of transport. She also doesn't like the cold, yet we've been to the Arctic, to Sweden, Finland, Iceland... She has a good claim to being the world's most unlikely international traveller.Well we'd long felt that the Antarctic was something we wanted to do, but the Drake Passage (from the southernmost tip of Argentina, where most Antarctic cruises start) is two days in an area notorious for heavy seas. The likelihood of her surviving that in any fit state to enjoy a holiday was something we rated as essentially zero. But then! Back towards the end of 2024 we discovered that there are options to fly to meet the ship in Antarctica itself rather than sail out with it from Argentina! So all of a sudden we're talking to Audley and they're telling us lots of things that make this sound like we can make this work. It's only a small subset of the total trips available, and (oh dear, we knew this was coming) it does cost a fair bit more, but it's suddenly transformed the whole notion of what we can do. And because it's a bit of a limited opportunity, we can't hang about. In September of 2024, we're booking for January 2026! Now, we would almost certainly have been able to book a lot later if we'd been indecisive, but one important factor is that we have a good choice of cabins at this point. We're recommended to choose one of two specific cabins at the centre of the ship which will be the most stable if the sea is rough. That sounds like valuable advice (shameless plug: this is the sort of thing that's kept us coming back to Audley for so many years) and we take it. It's possible to fly both ways, but we've chosen to cruise back. It's a bit cheaper that way, but that's not really the reason. By the time of the return voyage, Amanda should be reasonably used to the ship movement, and even if it's a bit bad for her, we no longer risk spoiling the holiday, and we think it'll be another part of the experience that we should try. Also, we'll add a couple of days in Buenos Aires rather than fly straight back, which should be fun if Amanda's ok and give her time to recover if not. So we've made our choices, we've booked it, we're sorted. Well, ish. First thought: do we have sufficient insurance coverage? Err, not really. We have pretty top-of-the-range travel insurance, but this is an No. There is a higher tier than we have, but it's mainly offering us things we don't need, and the extra cancellation cover is not really that great. So there must be specialist top-up cover for this sort of thing, mustn't there? Blimey! How much?! It seems that this is a sufficiently niche market that premiums are just stupid: roughly 20% of cover! Are they really suggesting that nearly one in five people who take out one of these policies will claim the maximum or are they just taking the piss? We decide to take our chances: remember the rule of thumb is that it's never worth insuring for a loss you can afford. We'd be be pissed off, certainly, but our insurance will cover the lower risk but bankruptingly expensive things like emergency air ambulances and treatment. Second thought: how do we pack? See, we're spending some time in Santiago, Chile, on the way out, because Audley strongly recommend at least a day of slack in our schedule: if there's a delay and we miss the flight to the ship we're completely stuffed! Santiago is going to be pretty warm and then so is Buenos Aires, while our packing list for the cruise is very emphatic about the cold- and wet-weather gear we need to take. Ah, but we have to limit our luggage to 15kg hold + 5kg hand baggage on the Drake flight, so we can't just stuff things in willy-nilly, and because we don't come back the same way, we can't even leave excess in storage to be collected on our return. And as many of you will know, my camera kit isn't light, and that has to be one of our top priorities. Well, we've got plenty of time to work it out. So in the second half of 2025, we start spending more money on things like Icebreaker merino base layers, thinking that maybe in the height of summer there could be some special offers going. Not that there are, really, they're obviously wise to this plan. I'm also pondering a new camera lens which has only been on the market for a year or so [Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 for you nerds] and would be better for long-range wildlife pictures than anything else I presently have. Unlike my current ‘big’ lens, it wouldn't fit my second camera body, so there'd be no point taking that and the total package weight would end up fractionally less. Fifteen hundred quid, though, not sure... And that's a grey import; the official Canon price is over two grand! [£2,299 as I write this, slightly less I think back then.] Definitely not paying that. Still, viewed from the right angle, it's something of a bargain. Yes, I know, “Gosh, that's cheap!” may not be the first thing that comes into most of your heads, but compared to Canon's high end professional range, it is! Ponder further... Another thing we have to do: get medical approval! Understandably the company doesn't want medical emergencies in a place where the nearest hospital might be literally days away, and the customer demographic is not, shall we say, skewed towards the young and fit. They give us a questionnaire, part of which has to be filled in and signed by our doctor. They also need proof of our medical insurance cover. What are we letting ourselves in for? Nearly the end of the year, and I'm still um-ing and ah-ing about my lens, but between Christmas and the New Year, I find a deal that I simply can't resist: just over £1200 from a grey import company with lots of positive reviews. I'm cutting it a bit fine, I know, but their delivery estimates are well within the time I have; just hope that they are being realistic. Yay, they keep me well informed by email and the lens arrives in plenty of time. Big shout out to Cameriz. It's quite the monster, but I take it out for a play down by the River Mole and while I don't find the perfect kingfisher for Amanda, I get some very fine duck closeups. [As we are heading back to the car, we find ourselves talking to another couple of walkers who had seen a kingfisher just a few minutes previously. Bah humbug.] Anyway, we've now sorted out our packing. Fortunately it's not that sort of cruise, so no need to take DJ's and ballgowns. ⬆intro next ➡ |