ZECO TRAVEL TALK

A Community Blog for Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions Travelers

Articles written by: Shirley Metz

About the author:

Zegrahm Staff: Company Cofounder/Expedition Leader

Shirley is a modern-day adventurer and explorer. In 1989 she became the first woman, and one of the first Americans, in history to ski overland to the South Pole, a journey of over 800 miles. She has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records, and in 1989 the Soviet minister of polar research and exploration bestowed his country’s prestigious Polar Award upon Shirley, the only woman to receive this distinction. Shirley is a cofounder of Zegrahm Expeditions and a member of both The Explorers Club and the Society of Woman Geographers.

On Location: Emperors, Chinstraps, and Icebergs – Oh My!

We had a rather blustery stop at Paulet Island, but our reward was an emperor penguin right on the ice near our ship. Most likely, it was one of the penguin chicks we saw sitting on parental feet in our March of the Penguins trip last month… We greeted it with a hearty “Hi! Remember us?” At recap we toasted the youngster with a glass of champagne.

Brown Bluff was also a windy stop, but once we landed it was calm in the lee of the bluff. We were able to do some really wonderful Zodiac cruising among spectacular icebergs and had a picture perfect time with two humpback whales who preempted our recap. We’re looking forward to Bailey’s Head tomorrow and a landing among the chinstraps!

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An Ocean Apart; A World Connected

Nikolskoye Accordian PlayerA world-renowned colorectal surgeon and an Aleut living across the Bering Sea in the Commander Islands – these men have never met and yet they share a common interest. Any guesses?

When Russia first opened the Kamchatka area to visitors in the last decade of the 20th century, Zegrahm Expeditions was among the very first to explore the Russian Far East. Imagine what the natural wonders of Alaska were like before the U.S purchase of the territory and you can imagine what lies in store for the visitor to Kamchatka: terrific numbers of Steller’s sea eagles, brown bear, walrus, Steller’s sea lions, otters, northern fur seals, and a plethora of avian and botanical species. The geology is equally amazing. The Kuril-Kamchatka island-arc includes some 68 active volcanoes in its 2,000-km length, of which 29 are on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Read more

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