Sept 9, 2022

Stage 5 of 36, day 5 of 43: 72.04 km, 552m climb, 3:23 Moving, 4:20 Total, 54.6 kph max

Country	Distance	Climbing
Slovenia	352.2	5149
Italy	29.3	346
Croatia	40.7	272
Total	422.2	5767

It was a miraculous day. We went to sleep the night before knowing that the weather forecast had been solid for a couple of days: hard rain during the hours we would ride. But in the morning that was hard to believe as we looked out to see almost no clouds. We had a decent hotel breakfast, cleaned bike chains, packed up and left a bit after 9am. It was warm and sunny, but there were some eerie very dark clouds out to sea as we rode south along the coast, crossing back into Slovenia after just 5 km in Italy.

Our luck held and we had some fun gravel sections. This day had two GPX tracks, 5 and 5g where g stands for gravel. The gravel option was said to be a tiny bit shorter and would cut off some sections with bad traffic so of course I took it, along with many others.

After that we had a climb that included a tunnel over 500m long, and the second we were out on the other side, my phone said “Welcome to Croatia”. Also the sky got way darker.

It started raining at 33 km but somehow the weather gods smiled and it just stopped. A little later we rode through a very wet area but it never rained on us again. Feeling good, we hit the official Croatia border station. It was a bit of a zoo with many cars and a few others on bikes too. The Europeans just flashed their cards but the border lady was very interested in my American passport and scanned it for a long time before stamping it.

Then we were off on a Croatian gravel climb up to a beautiful viewpoint with a view of scary clouds over the sea. We stopped for snacks and photos.

We had some more gravel sections, lots of turns and then one comically muddy section. But the sun was out and the next thing we saw was Ype’s lunch van, at a gorgeous spot on the coast.

From lunch it was under 20 km. It really felt like a half day. We rode up and down, through a funny holiday park and eventually came to the campground and found the Bike Dreams truck. By this time I was hot, so I didn’t bother with a shower or soup, just put on my bathing suit and went in to the Adriatic Sea. It was so nice, I’d go so far as to say perfect – about 24-25C/75F, refreshing and pretty clean.

After a long soak, several of us had hot outdoor showers, ate soup and then headed to the bar that had just opened. Local beers were cold and yummy – we spent a couple of nice hours there.

Eventually it was time to set up my tent and prepare for dinner – I was on the serving crew tonight. We had bruschetta appetizer, pasta with shrimp/mushroom sauce, salad, lots of wine and dessert. There were basil plants at each table to harvest from. Then the washing line to clean a million plates, pots and utensils and we were done. What a great day!

Sept 8, 2022

Stage 4 of 36, day 4 of 43: 146.82km, 1682m climb, 6:44 Moving, 7:34 Total, 66.1 kph max

Country	Distance	Climbing
Slovenia	326.4	4965
Italy	23.8	250

We started out the normal way, with a big Bike Dreams breakfast at 7am. Everyone was ready early since the forecast was for rain most of the day, starting soon. So we headed out before 8am and cruised along, down the valley.

It was pretty, following the famous Soča River (known as the “Emerald Beauty”). It has an amazing emerald color, everywhere.

We rode in a group, on gorgeous uncrowded roads, with a funny river crossing at one point. At about 40 km, I felt first one drop, then many, then pretty quickly it was raining, hard. I added shoe covers and a rain jacket at a little bus stop, missing a massive downpour, but there were so many more that before long I was soaked. There were a bunch of one-way construction zones with traffic lights, but soon, we got to turn off on a little-used road that climbed up steeply and consistently, 9-11% mostly, 600m total.

We were still 2 km from the top when I came upon the lunch truck, setup with rain shelters. It was absolutely pouring and SO nice to get off the bike and refuel.

I left in a lull and then got soaked finishing the last 2 km to the top. Then lots of rolling and down, and up again… I wasn’t very psyched. Finally I stopped around 80 km for a snack in a tiny bus stop. 6 or 7 riders came by pretty quickly and I jammed the food in my mouth and took off and caught them. We road up another 200m hill, and rested/ate/peed on top at just over 100 km.

After crossing into Italy, the road went up and down for a while and I was not feeling strong or motivated. But then I came to a viewpoint looking over Trieste, a city I had wanted to visit since I was a kid.

The road changed to one lane, one way and it was not our way. It was full of cars, one after another coming up and no room to ride. Some crazy car driver was trying to go down it and honked madly at me when I passed him. But we both couldn’t go at all. Finally the line ended so I cranked off down the hill as fast as possible. It was super steep so the car had no chance. It went on and on, then got SUPER steep (-25%?) and turned to cobble stones. Before I realized it I was passing the other riders who were all playing it safe with their narrow tires and walking. I emerged into the city and was immediately fully awake. The traffic was insane! Busses and motorcycles and cars, all going at a snails pace and me, airing on and off sidewalks, passing on the left, having a blast. The route twisted around and came out at the water front by the government buildings. Gorgeous and such fun riding.

I met Bob R [actually Simo who played up a joke on day 1, introducing himself as Bob, just to add confusion – the truth came out day 4 or 5] and we rode the last part together, about 8 km, a roundabout route, up and down and around, sometimes through giant deep puddles, some bike lanes, but ending at the Hotel Sonia where Bike Dreams was all set up. It felt really good to finish this amazing stage.

We had nice hot showers then massive snacks, then made plans for going out to dinner. Niek, Bob M and I took a taxi back downtown to the Piazza Unità d’Italia which looked so amazing on the way in. We walked around for half an hour then settled in at a fancy outdoor pizzeria. We had a round of Italian IPA, pizzas, then wine – Bob and I went for Prosecco because the actual town of Prosecco is so close to us here (under 10 km). I was getting full but we are only in Italy for one night so a high-end gelato place was absolutely required. Mission accomplished.

Tomorrow we have a later start due to the hotel breakfast, 9am. That just happens to be the time that the weather forecast has scheduled 4 hours of hard rain to start. And of course we expect our ride tomorrow to take 4 hours. Today was the wettest I’ve been since 2019 in Argentina and I hope tomorrow doesn’t break that record. Good night!

Today was an optional ride – we are staying at the same campsite in Bovec for two nights. The ride was short, only 52km, but climbing to the highest point on a road in Slovenia, 2200m, a climb of 1800m or so. Both my Achilles were hurting from the previous two days so I opted for a rest day, along with many others.

After breakfast I walked “downtown” and did a little shopping, did my laundry, read and passed the morning very nicely. By lunch time everyone was back and we enjoyed a double meal of lunch plus soup. In the afternoon, not much happened, but we did make it to the Thrsty River brewery by 4. Bob and I had planned to meet there but when I showed up with 6-7 others, he was already there with 6-7 others. So we had a grand Bike Dreams party, sitting outdoors, most people opting for 4-beer samplers. I had a great NE IPA called Mirky, a stout, a “Belgian IPA” and a “Sour IPA”. And pretzels and more beer, so fun.

After that we walked back to camp and had a nice dinner, with lots of Slovenian Merlot. Bob had the “Marmot” and gave a great talk about the funny things that happened in the last day. Life is so good.

Sept 6, 2022

Stage 2 of 36, day 2 of 43: 82.41 km, 1574m, 4:43 moving, 5:25 total, 69.5 kph max

Total through 2 stages: 203.4km, 3533m climb

I slept a little better, maybe due to a gift of a melatonin pill. I packed up at 6:30, breakfast at 7, and we started about 8. Breakfast was the typical Bike Dreams: muesli/granola cereal, with creamy good yogurt and honey, banana and milk. Then a round of bread with peanut butter and super good cherry jam. Plus tea.

We started with a little climbing, warm in the sun. Soon we were out in the country, going up a very little used road, cool and shady. It gently climbed as we went up a valley with gorgeous views. That ended abruptly with a 18% grade sign.

Sure enough, it was steep. But not so long. Then a fun descent to a town were we picked up a bike path and took it for quite a while. Then up onto the “Russian Road”, which turned out to have a ton of traffic and be very steep. The climb was 800m over 8km, but some sections were way over 10%. Each switchback is numbered and I was counting it off in 50m chunks – they came rather slowly. I stopped for a banana and pee break, then continued. When I was down to 2km/200m to go, there was the lunch truck! They found a super scenic spot and it was SO nice to get off and eat.

I was pretty hot and it takes a lot of concentration riding the super steep switchbacks with motorcycles and camper vans everywhere. The jam ups gave the motorcycles problems too – I saw one couple crash and the passenger fell over hard landing on her head – she was ok but it was a little chaotic.

After lunch, I was energized but it seemed even steeper and hotter. Still how hard can 2 km be? Soon we were on the top, a zoo of people.

The descent was nice but comically crowded. I first passed a couple groups of 15-20 bicyclists, then two groups of 10 motorcycles, a bus, several cars and camper vans. Even with no one in front it was too steep to ride very fast. After the descent there was about 20 km to go, mostly downhill with a couple of little climbs at the end. The camp in Bovec is nothing to write home about, but not bad. Various people went out on beer runs. We had some delicious pepper/cauliflower soup and tons of snacks. Eventually hot showers happened and I scored a pretty nice tent spot.

All in all it was a good day of riding. My back is feeling quite good now, basically cured I think. My Achilles on both feet are sore – we are staying here two nights so I have the option of not riding the ridiculous climb tomorrow…

Stage 1 of 36, day 1 of 43: 121.1km, 1969m, 6:23 moving, 7:00 total, 75.8 kph max

After a second night of only 4 hours sleep, I woke up to fog but great excitement to be finally starting this adventure. There was a massive breakfast at 7, loading the truck, then we set out around 8:15. I hadn’t really tested my bike but it was perfect. We cruised through the city for a while, then countryside. After about 20 km the fog lifted and it got really beautiful. Everyone rode at their own pace, no leader, I was with others and solo sometimes throughout the day.

It was scenic, climbing slowly the first 50 km, then we had the first and biggest of 3 big climbs. It was over 10 km climbing about 800m. I kept a sane pace and stopped once to pee and eat a banana. It was warm and slightly humid, but noticeably cooler/nicer up high. At the top of the hill we found the lunch truck and had a nice refueling stop. Bread, pesto, cheese, tomato, pickle, arugula, chips, olives, cookies and more. I didn’t stay too long but headed out soon. The descent was pretty great – lots of fast curvy fun, only occasionally braking, lots of 60+ kph which felt so nice in the cool higher-altitude air. My back had been bothering me a lot but it was fine during the ride.

After some more flattish and super scenic cruising, the second hill hit. It wasn’t as steep or as long, but I was more tired so it wasn’t a lot easier. Then there was a third one, again a little smaller – by this time we had climbed 1900m, pretty rough for a first stage. Then a final descent, even faster. One section was 18% down but was too curvy to go fast. The 10% section below was better. Slovenia has lots of electronic speed signs, and one of them I passed said 76 kph in big red letters and then drew a picture of a speed limit 50 sign. The pavement was great, the turns mellow, little traffic; it was quite safe.

Then we arrived at the famous Lake Bled. We got to ride quite a ways around it, ending at Camping Bled, a huge campground, with hot water for showers, lots of tent space, free wifi, what more do you need? It was immediately back to the routine from the Andes Trail: first a round of soup, this time coconut cauliflower, a recipe from the cook on the barge Katie and I were on in Holland recently – our cook worked on board the same barge. Plus chips, drinks, cookies as needed, nuts, candies, whatever you like it’s there. I have a giant 3 person tent and a wonderful self-inflating mattress – I set up quickly, took a shower, then settled in to write this. What a first day!

After a nap, we had dinner at 6 with lots of fun conversations. It’s so cool to be back in this life I haven’t had for the last 3 years.

Funny thing of the day: there are so many Wordle varients it’s not even funny. When someone makes the obvious Spordle (Slovenian placenames Wordle) I found a real winner today: Strnj. I tried googling it with no luck, wish I took a photo for proof.

It was a little depressing on the last day before the tour to have no information from British Air about my lost bike and bag. My old friend Petra and her boyfriend cheered me up by taking me out to a fantastic outdoor restaurant for a few hours.

At 5, we had the Bike Dreams briefing meeting, received our jerseys, etc. A bit after 7, I finally heard that my bag and bike had been found and would be delivered the next morning. That was a bit late as we are scheduled to leave at 8 for our first (massive) ride. When I asked if I could come to the airport and pick it up myself in the evening, they said no because the plane would arrive after the office closed. But we knew from two other rider’s experiences that the office had to stay open until the last plane had arrived.

So our excellent driver Henk drove me to the airport, arriving at 8pm, just before the London BA flight arrived and just at official closing time. We talked to the nice baggage guy and he explained that he would bring out my bags after all other people had left, probably an hour after landing. Sure enough at about 9:30, he popped out and motioned me over. There it was! There was a little comedy with the customs guy who grilled me with a bunch of questions – turned out he was just really interested in our route.

We drove back to the hotel and pulled up at 10pm. There was Ype, our master mechanic, all ready with a bike stand, pump and tools.

I made it to my room in the hotel around 10:30 to find my roommate, Bob, from New Hampshire, working on organizing his bike and gear. We had a fun time together getting things ready and went to bed before midnight.

Travel these days isn’t yet back to what it was. My flight on Thursday was cancelled and rescheduled for 29 hours later. That flight worked ok but had the drawback of going through Heathrow, my least favorite airport in the world.

The flight to Ljubljana was 30 min late after a 3 hour layover so baggage should’ve been no problem. But after the bags stopped coming, I had to join at least 20 people at the lost luggage office – luckily I was near the head of the queue.

The guy took my information and sounded really positive about being able to deliver my bike and pack to the hotel in the morning, but I have doubts. I had booked a shuttle so that bringing the large box would be no problem – the guy was there with a Nathan Hoover sign and drove me 25 minutes to the hotel. I checked in and then went to the bar to see if there was any food. It was about 10pm and I hadn’t had dinner. No food but yes beer which was ok. While I was sipping a nice Slovenian lager, several of our Bike Dream riders walked up, two of whom had also lost their bikes/luggage. Soon, in walked three of the crew – it was great to see our Andes Trail master mechanic Ype after 3 years and nice to see our driver Henk who I had dinner with in June in Holland. I got to meet our guide Wilbert who I’ve emailed many times over the last 5 years (I signed up for this one early in 2019 and the previous trip in 2016).

We’ll make it work somehow, I am positive. Back in my room at 11pm, I received a text from British Air lost luggage, so at least the guy at the office did something right. Good night!

On September 1, I’m off to Ljubljana, Slovenia for my next bike adventure. This one is with the same Dutch company I rode with in South America, Bike Dreams. The ‘Balkan Boulevard‘ goes 3500 km through 7 countries, and lasts 6 weeks. If all goes well I’ll be home October 19.

This trip is in a similar style as the Andes Trail I rode in 2019: mostly camping out with some hotel nights sprinkled in. We’ll ride 4-6 days in a row, then have rest day somewhere interesting. The average distance per day is about 100 km and the average daily climb is 1450m (gulp). In the Andes we only averaged 1000m per day but had worse roads and presumably worse weather. I’ll be bringing my Salsa Cutthroat gravel bike again – it’s in the shop now for some last maintenance.

I have unicycled some of this route before, in Slovenia and Croatia, but I’m most excited about riding in three countries where I’ve never been: Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially Albania.

Watch here for updates – our first riding day is Monday, September 5, 2022!

I enjoyed perfect vision until my mid 40s. Then, as happens to most people, my lenses gradually hardened, making focus more difficult, especially close up. This condition is called Presbyopia. By the time I was in my late 50s, my distance vision was affected too. I switched from wearing reading glasses to multi-focal glasses that I could wear most of the time. They worked pretty well and weren’t expensive but I just hated wearing glasses.

I had started researching surgical fixes for presbyopia back in 2013, but wasn’t encouraged by what I found: many methods, none sounding great. In 2019, while I was riding through South America, my Danish friend Jens mentioned that he had heard RLE (Refractive Lens Exchange) was now the way to go. RLE is commonly used for people with cataracts too. He is a little younger than me and maybe had slightly worse vision. When we said good-bye in Salta, Argentina, he promised to let me know what he found out about it.

Four months later I was back home and Jens texted me:

Encouraged by this excellent news I started looking for a local doctor. I looked at quite a few, watched many patient “testimonial” videos, read reviews and finally settled on an office nearby in Mountain View. I made an appointment and was excited to see if I was a candidate. Then the damn corona virus hit and everything was locked down. My March appointment slipped to April, then to early May but finally I got to go meet Dr. Liu at Peninsula Laser Eye Medical Group. I spent a couple of hours there being tested by many machines and talking with the doctor and the surgical coordinator. I decided to go for it and they said they’d call once they had approval to restart non-essential surgeries like this. There are a number of lens choices available, but I decided to go with what sounded the best, not considering cost: the PanOptix Trifocal IOL. It has been in use in Europe and Canada for several years but was just approved in the US in September, 2019. Dr. Liu does lots of these.

California and Santa Clara County relaxed the stay-at-home order at the end of May so on June first I was able to have my right eye done. The surgery really did take only about 15 minutes although I was at the surgical center for 2 hours, mostly waiting for eye drops and other drugs to take effect. I had never had Valium before and was super relaxed but completely conscious throughout. There was not a single bit of pain – you see three bright lights during the procedure and I was instructed to look one direction or another a couple of times. It did take quite some courage to actually walk in that door and let the doctor poke a tiny ultrasonic vacuum straight into my eye to destroy and suck out my old lens. There’s no going back from this surgery for sure! If you’re brave, watch this video (warning: I did not watch this until after my surgery – you might not want to either as you can’t unsee it).

Minutes later I was sitting in the recovery room looking around, VERY happy that I could see though my right eye. It was encouraging that text looked more in focus than with my untreated left eye. Even though there was haze clouding my vision, I believed the doctor when he said it went perfectly. I had a long nap at home (due to the drugs I guess) then had a fun time that night, staying up reading and watching videos until 2am, noticing my vision getting better each hour. The next morning, the haze was gone and it was hugely better. It was so much better than my other eye – I marveled at how my brain was able to take the two different images and blend them, and see such better focus than before. In the afternoon, I had a post-op check up and Dr. Liu said the placement of the lens was absolutely perfect. All I had to do was keep up with a regimen of three different types of eye drops, four times a day, and just enjoy my eyesight getting better.

A week later I had another check-up and my vision was approaching 20-20 in the right eye (about 20-70 or 20-80 in the left). It was a miracle. It wasn’t perfect but I didn’t need glasses for driving or reading (except really small print). There were certain things on computer and phone screens that looked slightly funny/out of focus. There was a weird texture to the print when reading a Kindle book on my tablet. Biking has been fantastic now that I can really see my bike computer, I learned about several nice features I couldn’t use before. It is clear and crisp and super easy to read.

A week after that, I had the second surgery. It went the same as the first one, also a little scary to walk in, but, really, no problem. Grace drove me home again, another nap, then better vision by the hour and no haze and miraculous vision the next morning. I notice “halos” around bring lights and reflections – a known side-effect. But it’s not a problem at all and supposedly reduces over several months.

It’s been a week after the second surgery and glasses are a thing of the past. My close-up vision is amazing. I can read any size font. Distance vision is great. Other than occasional halos, there is nothing wrong or strange about my vision. I’ve stopped eye drops in the first eye and have another check-up in a few days. My vision should continue to improve slightly for some time.

I think this is the best investment in myself I ever made. If you’re wondering how much it costs, it’s not cheap. I paid $5807 per eye, including everything. I read that with mono-focal lenses, the cost averaged $3800 per eye in 2019 in the US and the multi-focal type I got costs at least $1500 more. One nice thing is that this type of surgical correction is permanent. I would 100% do it again – I wish this had been available a few years ago.

[Update about a month later] It is phenomenal! I can read anything, see anything, I don’t squint any more and my eyes don’t get tired!

[Update mid August, 2 1/2 months after the first surgery] While my new vision was awesome and I didn’t ever need glasses, my new left eye never got quite as good as the right. I had a couple of check-ups in July and at the final one, Dr. Liu told me my problem was astigmatism in the left eye causing the focus to not be as crisp as in the right. I had this before but for some reason it had worsened since my first surgery. While my right eye was seeing 20-20 or better, my left was 20-30 or a little worse. Both together worked fine, but he offered to do a simple procedure in his office called Limbal Relaxation Incision (LRI) to improve it. He offered this at no charge so after some research, I scheduled an appointment and had it done. The incisions themselves took maybe a minute but numbing eye-drops and sterilizing the area etc made the total time more like 15 minutes. After the incisions, he put a “0 power” contact lens on my eye. At this point my left eye vision wasn’t any better or worse.

I got used to the contact lens after a couple of hours and for two days applied an antibiotic eye drop four times a day. Then I went back in for another exam and Dr. Liu was very happy with the healing. He removed the contact lens and I drove home. During the drive I noticed my eyesight seemed better. When I got home and looked at Grace’s face – wow, it was even higher resolution than before! I am so glad I had this second procedure! I continued the eye drops for a final two days. Now it’s been a week since then and I pronounce the whole thing a 100% success! I donated all my old pairs of glasses to charity and both eyes are 20-20. It’s like a new life.

[Update January 2024, 3 years 8 months since the first surgery] I visited Dr. Liu for a checkup and was really happy to see that, as expected, I still have 20-20 or better vision in both eyes. I am not noticing any issues and am loving my vision. I still see halos sometimes around bright lights at night but I don’t really notice them anymore. It’s like my brain just doesn’t worry about them. I asked Dr. Liu what he would recommend for me today in 2024 if I came in with my vision from 2020 and he said he would use the same lenses, the PanOptix Trifocal IOL.

Since the Andes Trail bike tour ended in Ushuaia, where many Antarctica cruises start, it seemed natural to go there rather than just head straight home after finishing biking. Grace came down to Ushuaia too. She didn’t go with me on my exciting unicycle Antarctica trip back in 2011. This time we went with G Adventures, mainly due to the perfect schedule, matching the Andes Trail bike tour end. But also partly due to my friend Ira, who works as their photographer and recommended the trip highly. I met him on my previous trip in 2011. Getting back together with Grace was good – and it was better for us to be away from the distractions of home to re-unite. Real communication was difficult while we were separated for so long, in different time zones, with me having unreliable cell service.

As for great insights attained by riding 10,500 km across South America…I am not so sure. I found out that I really like biking after so many years on one wheel. I learned that many people are way tougher than me in terms of what they physically and mentally can put up with. I think I had it pretty easy, relatively, on the biking trip. One last thing I did is make a slide show of all the riders, over 50 people total, who participated in the 2019 version of the Andes Trail.

Back to Antarctica. After a few days in Ushuaia, we moved to a hotel where everyone on the cruise stayed one night. On the afternoon of the 23rd we boarded a bus for the short drive onto the pier and to our ship, called the Expedition. It was pretty exciting boarding and finding our cabin.

The Expedition is a bit more upscale than the ship I took last time. We had a very comfortable cabin with non-bunk beds and our own bathroom. It’s also a bit bigger, 126 passengers instead of fewer than 80. We explored the ship, hung out on the top deck, and then watched the pier disappear as we headed out the Beagle Channel.

Crossing the infamous Drake Passage takes about two days and can be quite bumpy. At the briefing that first evening, our expedition leader estimated it would be about a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is smooth sailing and 10 is you wish you were dead). Everyone cheered. We had a fancy dinner and it was great eating with Ira and chatting about the many many trips he’s done since ours together nine years ago. After more time on deck, loving the late night sun shine, and trying out our new G Adventures parkas, we settled down to sleep, the seas still calm in the channel.

In the morning, we had breakfast – the chefs and staff are really amazing on this ship. We met more of our fellow passengers, attended lectures, and Grace had to take some medication for the rolling. The ship is stabilized but even a “3” crossing is a bit bumpy.

We crossed the Antarctic Convergence – the line where cold water meets warm. Conditions were good, with a tailwind, so we looked to be ahead of schedule. We were told we could probably even do a landing the second afternoon which is unusual.

On December 24, we were in sight of various of the South Shetland Islands in the morning already. After lunch, we tried a landing but had to abort due to high winds. The ship moved over to Halfmoon Island and we were able to launch zodiacs and take a nice hike around the island, seeing penguins, seals and other birds.

The highlight was watching a skua steal a brand new penguin chick out of a nest! I had been on a similar hike here in 2011, on my last day in Antarctica. As before, it was raining but that didn’t ruin anything for anyone. It was great fun walking through the snow and watching the penguins do their thing. The setup for leaving the ship is amazing on the Expedition. There is a giant “mud room” where everyone is assigned a seat on a bench and you can leave your boots, life jacket, outer clothes etc between landings so you don’t have to store anything in your cabin. Super luxurious. They have the whole process of cleaning boots before and after and swiping in and out of the ship down cold – much more organized than I had before.

We woke up on Christmas morning further south down the peninsula at Danco Island. After breakfast I tried out riding the stationary bike in the gym. It was funny watching Antarctica outside as I cranked away on the bike, sweating massively. I resolved to ride everyday to try and counteract the amazing food.

There were two “operations”, as they are called, on Christmas, and both involved excellent hikes. First, we hiked to the summit of Danco Island, about 200m up, with amazing views in all directions. We could see the ship from the top, moving away unexpectedly. It turned out some icebergs were threatening so they moved away. Even though it was cloudy and gray, the views were just great in all directions.

In the afternoon, we landed on what was called “the big bit”, meaning the Antarctic continent. We had signed up for an extended hike – and were dropped off at one location, would hike along and over a pass, then slide or hike down to the regular landing zone. I think 32 of us were able to do this, four zodiacs full. We traversed on a kind of steep slope for a while, watching penguins close by and whales below. We got higher and higher and finally the expedition leader, Jonathan, said, “Who wants to go up and climb that peak?” My hand was up in a microsecond. Most of us went up with another guide, Eric, who has summited Everest recently without oxygen, a true mountaineer. He led us up and it wasn’t difficult but he did give some funny direction at one point, “Don’t fall here.” Yes it was good advice as you would slide a long way, but I don’t think it helped people very much. Anyway, we all got to the top and had a great view down to the bay where the ship was waiting and the kayakers were kayaking. We could see ant-like people (red penguins) more than 200m below at the landing.

What a treat – I never got to do any hikes like this on the last trip. We hiked down to the saddle, then slid/hiked down to the landing.

Back on board it was about dinner time and it was a jolly Christmas dinner for sure. After dinner, everyone who had signed up for camping, took off and set up tents on a nearby flat island. We were in Leith Cove in Paradise Bay. We stayed on board instead of braving the elements. I did camp out in 2011, with no tent at all!

The 26th was supposed to be an exciting day going south through the narrow Lemaire Channel but the weather didn’t cooperate so we eventually circumvented this route and blasted south through the Nimrod Strait. We basically spent the day on board, attending lectures, sleeping and eating.

We crossed the Antarctic Circle at 4 am on the 27th which was the goal of this expedition. We stopped at Horseshoe Island and conditions just kept getting better so it was decided that the “operation” to view the old British Base Y would also include a chance for a Polar Plunge! Grace was ready to take this on and had a great time, wading into the water, then when in enough, falling backwards in. Her feet were numb right after entering the water. It’s 0°C/32°F at this time of year.

I don’t know what the temperature of the air was but it was warm and sunny and nice. After her plunge, we walked around, looked at the restored British base, and took photos – it was a great day.

Back on board, to further take advantage of the weather, it was BBQ night, on deck! We sat outside eating, wearing shorts, it was great. So so scenic and fun.

We slept well below the circle, then on the 28th, tried for a morning “operation” at Stonington Island. Ice blocked the route there so we headed over to Red Rock Ridge where rising winds and high waves caused us to have to bail from leaving the ship, but the consolation prize was getting so far south, to the very bottom of their chart, 68° 18’S. We headed back north after lunch, with good views along the way.

On the 29th, we tried again at navigating the Lemaire Channel only to be shut down again, this time by huge icebergs filling the 1.6 km wide opening. So after lunch we redirected to Port Lockroy, run by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. I had visited in 2011 and had a passport stamp from their post office. This time, we sent ourselves a postcard, bought some souvenirs, and marveled at the old stuff there. We also got to explore nearby Jougla Point, walking around, lots of penguins (with babies) and seals etc. That was great.

The 30th of December was supposed to be an awesome day. We had headed north all night and were now near Antarctic Sound, the entrance to the Weddell Sea that I had dreamed about visiting since reading Shackleton 50 years ago. Initially it looked good for an “operation” at Gourdin Island but in the end, the sound was completely blocked by ice. We redirected to Astrolabe Island, a very rarely visited (landed upon) island. We did manage to land, a first for every crew member, even those that had over a hundred expeditions under their belts. It was fun; we hiked up the slope a ways then just sat down on some rocks for quite a while and watched penguins next to us and kayakers far below. It was cloudy and gloomy and Antarctic looking. In the evening, we had an hour of stories by one of the staff members who has been working in the Antarctic for 48 years!

For New Year’s Eve, we had a good walk around at Portal Point in the morning then headed over to Cierva Cove for a zodiac cruise. This would be one of the highlights of the trip due to the amazing whales. They were right next to the kayaks – it was almost scary.

In the evening there was a fancy dinner, then a talent show in the lounge. Grace had written a poem and told it really well, which earned second place overall.

After the show, we moved to the Polar Bear Bar, for the last performance of the ship’s band, the Monkey Eating Eagles. After some dancing and fun we took a short nap with our alarm set for 11:45 pm. We got up and rejoined the party, toasting in the new decade out doors on the back deck with everyone REALLY enjoying themselves. By this time the ship was rocking back and forth quite a bit so you have to imagine the whole dance floor full of people moving back and forth – very fun. At one point maybe 60 of us were dancing in a line cruising in and out of the bar, lurching and laughing uncontrollably. So funny. Here’s to 2020!

January 1, 2020 was out on the Drake Passage, a little rough, and I even got sick in the early evening. We were at the briefing before dinner which is in the lounge at the bow and I got there late so had to sit all the way up front. That got me a little queasy then it was immediately time for dinner. I had signed us up for a special treat: dinner with Eric, our resident mountaineer, who was hosting a special table dedicated to mountaineering. I found that as soon as I concentrated on his face I got seasick. I took some pills but it was too late and I had to go lie down (with a quick heave over the side of the ship on the way). I felt fine laying down and Grace brought dinner for me later. It was the only time I felt bad on the trip.

On the second, we continued the life at sea, lectures, films, eating, working out on the bike machine, etc. In the evening it was calm as we were back in the Beagle Channel and we docked in Ushuaia after dinner. We had one last night aboard, with a fun dinner and many goodbyes, then disembarked early on the 3rd and checked back into the Hotel Ushuaia. We spent three more days, hiking and enjoying the town, then flew home, arriving on the 7th of January, 6 months and 4 days after leaving in July on this crazy adventure.

It is great to be home, for sure, and I’m fine without riding all the time. But I have signed up for another big Bike Dreams cycling trip. I’ll be riding from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal from September 6 to November 18, 2020! More about that later… [Ha, covid! Turned out to be September 4 to November 12, 2023!]