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Expedition Stories
Our fleet navigates the world in search of adventure. These are the stories they bring back…
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Previous Reports
6/3/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in England
Fair Isle, or to the Vikings the Far Isle, this outpost of sandstone battlements among the waves, is a study in contrasts which evoke all of the greatest beauty of northern Scotland. It rises from the sea in towering cliffs, layers of ancient seabed now folded and upthrust into crenellated walls whose bases are under constant assault by the swells and spume. But atop this bare escarpment rest peaceful rolling meadows, grazed by sheep, home to a few gentle people and thousands of seabirds. The ever popular Atlantic Puffins live just at the juxtaposition of these disparate worlds, burrowing into the edges of the sod for their nests, and when they leave them, lingering on the sward for a few minutes before launching themselves out, over the abyss, on frantically beating wings. While most of our ship's company went ashore to encounter these delightful creatures and to have tea with the hardy local human inhabitants, I took a Zodiac a couple of miles south, bouncing over the confused swells in search of an historic shipwreck. El Gran Grifon was the flagship of the supply fleet of the Spanish Armada; after the defeat of the armada she rounded the northern coast of Scotland and came twice within sight of the Irish coast, but was beaten back by terrible storms. Finally she fetched up on the rocks on the southeast coast of Fair Isle and was lost on September 27th 1588, pinned in a narrow gully so close to shore that the crew were able to escape by climbing up the rigging when one of the masts collapsed on to the rocks. Information about this wreck is scanty at best and I had only a very rough map and description of its location, but with the encouragement of Expedition Leader Tom Ritchie I was determined to make an attempt to locate it and dive on it. With my dive buddy Lisa Trotter, I entered the water and descended to the bottom of a gully that resembled the one described in the account I had read. The floor of this rocky submarine canyon was at about 40 feet and I understood that the remains of the wreck were considerably deeper, so we swam out and down, scanning carefully along the way. Though we could not locate any sign of the wreck at first, marine life was profuse and I used our underwater video camera to record the low kelp forest, crabs, worms and fish we encountered. Finally our air was beginning to run low and it was time to start back to the Zodiac; I signaled Lisa and we made our turn, and there right before us was the great anchor of the Gran Grifon! We had to move quickly, but I was able to get some excellent shots of the fifteen-foot long anchor laying among the boulders while Lisa examined it. We were thrilled to find this artifact, a remnant of one of history's greatest fleets, which had lain there on the bottom of this cold sea for over four hundred years; it seemed a very fitting event for the first dive on the inaugural expedition of Lindblad Expeditions' M.S. Endeavour . On our return leg to the ascent point we also located two of the cannons from the Gran Grifon, cemented into the bottom and difficult to recognize after four centuries, but nonetheless exciting. The opportunity to explore such a remote and significant dive sight, and to share our discoveries immediately with the guests onboard the Endeavour through our high tech digital video cameras, is a great thrill for me. It opens up new worlds and new contrasts around a fair island I have long loved.
6/5/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Scotland
Today we made a visit to Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides. The M/S Endeavor anchored in Loch Dunvegan which provides a beautiful landscape formed by the Tertiary volcanic rocks which comprise the entire island. We then took our Zodiacs to the castle. Dunvegan Castle is the seat of Clan McCleod, which has occupied it continuously since 1200. This is the longest continuous occupation of any castle in Britain by the same family. The castle displays a wonderful array of furnishings and artwork. Additionally, since the McCleods of Skye owned the remote island of St. Kilda that we expect to visit tomorrow, we enjoyed the photographic display of the history of that island. The McCleods were a major Clan that controlled a large portion of the Hebrides. Their "Fairy Flag" given, legend has it, by a fairy queen to the wife of an early McCleod chieftain, is on display in the castle. The flag is said to have magical powers that can be summoned for the aid of the Clan whose motto is "Hold Fast." These powers have been invoked twice in the past 800 years. Also on display is the drinking horn of the 13th century chieftain of the McLeods. It holds two bottles of claret, which the Chieftain is said to have drained in a single draught. The Castle is surrounded by extensive gardens on one side and the Loch on the other and the green mountains of Skye provide a beautiful backdrop to the setting.
6/7/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Scotland
Today we visited two islands of the Inner Hebrides, Canna and Rum, which are made up of volcanic rocks in what is known as the Tertiary volcanic complex. These volcanic rocks came to the surface as the Atlantic widened during the last 30-50 million years and they display a beautiful set of volcanic characteristics including columnar jointing such as that best known on Staffa. Several of the islands, including Rum where this photograph was taken, are comprised of the remnants of concentric ring dykes, part of which can be seen in the background. These ring dyke complexes are formed when the overlying rocks collapse into the void created by the emerging lava. Also on Rum we visited the very eccentric Kinloch Castle, a wonder of Victorian excess. The castle contains exotic collections of furniture and artifacts from around the world, brought home to Rum by the Bullough family, which owned the entire island. Fortunately the island is now owned by the Nature Conservancy.
6/9/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Ireland
Leaving Scotland and St. Columba's Iona yesterday, it was our good fortune to arrive this morning in the land where he was born and grew up, County Donegal in Ireland. Here he is always known by his Irish name, St. Colomcill and it is entirely appropriate that we arrived here on his actual feast day. With St. Patrick and St. Brigid, he is one of three patron saints of Ireland. First we went ashore on Tory Island where the voice of the increasingly rare corn crake could clearly be heard coming from the grassy fields behind the village. Many waders were nesting in the vicinity of a little lake while a party of choughs, calling characteristically, flew up from the beach showing their ebony plumage and coral red bills and legs. Tory Island has had a king from time immemorial, and the present king welcomed all of us very graciously. The island is well known for its school of painting - and some purchases were made. In the afternoon we arrived in Killybegs, Ireland's busiest fishing port, where the ENDEAVOUR docked. From there started a bus tour which took us through glorious scenery over mountain and moorland in a great circle back to Killybegs where the good ship ENDEAVOUR waited. A great day was had by all.
6/17/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Ireland
Skellig Michael What is it about puffins that make us fall so hopelessly in love with them? Is it because they stand up straight like us? Because they are so ridiculously cute? Is it the way that they turn their heads back and forth to compensate for their lack of binocular vision? Maybe it's their multicolored beak (which, by the way, is only colorful in the breeding season. Like us, they put on their finest show when they are trying to attract the opposite sex). Who could possibly resist a beak full of fresh, raw fish? The Skelligs (Little Skellig and Skellig Michael) are home to tens of thousands of northern gannets, common murres, Atlantic puffins, razorbills, black-legged kittiwakes and other compelling seabirds. Great abundance in the ocean provides a supply of food more than adequate to feed the gaping mouths of the young birds that are raised every year, and isolation from the mainland ensures that there are no mammalian predators (other than, in the past, humans) to raid nests. Unusually calm conditions allowed us to land on Skellig Michael and hike to the top, almost 700 feet above the calm seas. All but harassed by puffins coming back to their nesting burrows, we made it to the top where the remains of a sixth century monastic site sit silently above the avian melee.
6/19/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Ireland
Donegal This morning we sailed into the harbor of Killybegs, the largest fishing port in Ireland. From the harbor we took buses to visit the beautiful town of Donegal in the northwestern Ireland county of the same name. Some of us visited the town and its Castle built in 1610, as well as its historic 15th century Abbey at the head of Donegal Bay. Others of us drove into the countryside fir a visit to an active blanket bog, led by local botanist Ralph Shepherd, to see up close the flowers and other bog plants and to learn how bogs form. Particularly interesting were the sun dew (pictured) which are insectivorous plants. Over the last 4000 years the bogs have produced the peat which has warmed Irish homes for centuries. Local people had been cutting the turf and left it to dry through the summer before it is collected for the winter fires. When we returned to Donegal town, the wonderful smell of turf burning reminded us once again of the beauty of this green land and how it supports its people.
6/4/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Scotland
Our Zodiacs landed in the new harbor in Kirkwall this morning. The fact that the new harbor is four hundred years old provides some insight into our day, for this has been a day for us to travel through time. The extraordinarily well-preserved remains of the Neolithic (stone age) community of Skara Brae are on the western shore of this island. The site was first inhabited more than 5,000 years ago and was occupied for about 600 years. Entombed in sand until a violent storm exposed them in 1850, the remains are as they were rediscovered and unearthed, not a recreation. Looking inside, I marveled at just how similar the basics of these peoples' lives were to my own. They had areas for cooking, storage, sleeping and other activities. They even had stone furniture. I may fill my needs more easily, but over the millennia, our needs have remained constant. We visited spectacular examples left from succeeding ages, including standing stones, and the burial chamber known as Maes Howe. More recent is St. Magnus Cathedral, started in the twelfth century. Built of old red sandstone, the bedrock of this archipelago, the structure reflects the Viking influence, which is still evident in today's population. One of the most compelling stories has to do with something we could not directly see. Scapa Flow is one of the great harbors of the world. It is expansive in size, uniformly deep, well protected, and it has multiple avenues of access to the ocean. As we stopped to view the site, we heard the tale of the interned German Imperial Navy's High Seas Fleet at the end of World War I. As the final armistice approached, the commanding admiral chose to scuttle his ships rather than turn them over to the British. It was the greatest single piece of naval suicide the world has ever seen. At noon on June 21, 1919, 74 ships were scuttled. All but seven have since been salvaged. As we continued on, Undersea Specialist David Cothran was diving and photographing the SMS Dresden .
6/6/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Scotland
After a day of serious Scottish mist and gloomy skies, it was a relief to awaken to bright sunshine. By 06:45, Endeavour had already anchored in Loch Carloway, in the NW corner of the Outer Hebridean Island of Lewis, and we Zodiaced across the bay to make a landing - our destination the magnificent Brock about a mile down the road. These are round fortified dry-stone towers, of which about 500 are known throughout Scotland, all date from 2300 to 1400 years ago. Although the tower on Mousa (Shetland) is the most complete example, the Carloway Brock is the most impressive one in the Outer Hebrides and is none the less so for being partly dismantled on one side. This important archaeological relict is in a commanding location overlooking crofts and the distant coast where a family of ravens was wheeling in the wind. Then it was back for a hearty breakfast while Endeavour repositioned in East Loch Roag for our visit to another ancient site. Our excursion to the famous Standing Stones of Callanish involved a 3-mile journey by Zodiacs to the quay. The conditions could not have been better. A cold front had cleared the air and fleecy clouds were scattered across the sky. The road, which led to the Visitors Centre and Standing Stones, skirted the bay and was bordered by golden king cups, yellow flags and pink thrift. The Standing Stones were indeed extraordinary. The slabs themselves are of local origin - Lewisian Gneiss, formed 3000 million years ago from the oldest rock in the British Isles. The ceremonial stones are arranged in a central circle with four rows radiating from the centre at right angles. One is a double row that forms a kind of processional avenue. Archaeologists have revealed that the first stones were erected 5000 years ago, and the latest well over a thousand years later. No one knows for sure what significance these stones had for the farming people who erected them. Perhaps they were a monument dedicated to the moon! The light was glorious and excellent for photography. And the view of the glacier-carved landscape alone was worth the journey. As ever, the birds were busy in the crofts. Golden plovers in their resplendent breeding plumage could be seen from the perimeter path around the Stones. Starlings - that harbinger of the northern spring - were busy feeding their young in the dry stone walls. One hungry brood was being fed worms every two and a half minutes indicating a daily workload for the parents of at least 300-plus visits a day! Cuckoos, wheatears, a buzzard and a merlin (our smallest falcon that feeds on meadow pipits) greenshank and dunlin were also observed in this delightful location.But it was the afternoon that had the greatest treat in store - a circumnavigation of St. Kilda - the granite remains of a 60 million-year old volcano 50 miles out in the North Atlantic. Owing to foot and mouth restrictions, no landing on the island was possible to safeguard the flock of ancient Soay sheep, so the best we could hope for was a pass by the stupendous cliffs and the lofty stacs on which tens of thousands of seabirds nest. We were not disappointed. The conditions were ideal, with a relatively calm sea, brilliant sunlight and a cloud base well clear of Conachair - at 430 metres, the highest point of St. Kilda, and the highest cliffs in the British Isles. Captain Saeterskog nudged Endeavour very close to Bororay and the 750-ft high pinnacle that is Stac Lee. With 65,000 pairs of gannets occupying every ledge and the steeply sloping summit, it was a breathtaking spectacle as befits the largest gannetry in the world. One could only stand in amazement at the exploits and steel nerves of the men and boys of Hirta who used to climb these treacherous rock faces to kill the gannets for food. The next port of call was School Bay on Hirta - the main island - and the location of the settlement that was abandoned in 1930. When we arrived, the bay was like a millpond. Viewed from a few hundred yards offshore, the old stone houses, storage cliets and walled enclosures were picked out by shadows cast by the sinking sun. Soay sheep grazed on the lush green turf, while around us, fulmars wheeled and a continual traffic of puffins commuting to and from their burrows. Thus ended a terrific day.
6/8/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Scotland
This morning on Eriskay Island we heard (and a few of us, with a great deal of patience saw) the elusive corncrake. A quail sized bird, the corncrake has a distinctive, oft heard song. However, due to its habit of keeping low in the vegetation (it prefers meadows and grassland) and moving slowly, this shy creature is rarely seen. One field guide describes the corncrake's behavior as "skulking". Later in the day, on Iona, we stopped at the remains of the nunnery. Viewing these strikingly beautiful ruins, we could only imagine what we might have seen and heard had we been here when the Augustinian nuns resided here. Constructed of pink granite from the nearby island of Mull, the complex was started during the early part of the thirteenth century. Additions were made over the next few hundred years. By the seventeenth century, the nunnery was no longer active and began to give in to the wear and tear of the ages. Today, the vestiges are lovingly cared for by the National Trust for Scotland. Flowers add color and cheer to the cloister. Others, such as these ferns and this wild thyme have taken residence in the walls with no help from anyone.
6/16/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in England
Anyone up for some escargot?...This interesting composition was captured today at Saint Mary's Island, which is one of the many Isles of Scilly. While passengers were enjoying walks admiring all of the tropical species of plants at the Abbey Gardens on Tresco Island, I decided to enjoy the refreshing 55 degree F water and the natural lush kelp forests that surround these beautiful Islands. This Top snail was found grazing on this Cuvie or forest kelp (Laminaria hyperborea). Cuvie forms dense mats on stable rocks below the low tide level and is considered a brown seaweed due to its coloration which is derived from a dark brown photosynthetic pigment know as fucoxanthin. Brown seaweeds are considered the most useful to man, at least commercially, being the source of algin which is used in agars, ice cream, salad dressings, and even women's cosmetics. Brown algae as a group tend to be heartier than red or green algae due to this gelatinous substance (algin) which can dry up as a result of being desiccated by the sun at low tide and then return the kelp plant to normal turgidity as soon as the enveloping high tide returns. Since algin dries out or takes up water readily without deteriorating, the seaweeds that possess it can withstand the stress of the daily ebb and flow of the tides in near shore waters, hence this is the main reason why brown algae are found in these locales.
6/18/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Ireland
The Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher The unique landscape of the Aran Islands fashioned a distinctive way of life that has only really slipped from view in relatively recent years with the coming of electricity to the islands (in 1974), and the building of an air strip. That way of life was celebrated by artists such as J.M. Synge, who stayed on the island, absorbing its idiom, to produce his masterpiece of Irish theatre "The Playboy of the Western World". The islands are no longer largely self-sufficient but cater for a flourishing tourist trade. Aran Island sweaters, some hand-knitted on the island (the most expensive), some machine-knitted, some ("in the style of") imported from elsewhere in Ireland or even further afield, are prominently displayed. The first language of the island group remains Gaelic, and a significant number of visitors come to the islands to learn the language, notably large contingents of Irish schoolchildren from the mainland. The new economy supports some eight hundred permanent residents. Using our Zodiacs in the early morning, we were able to dock at Kilronan, the principal town on the largest of the islands, Inishmor, before the first ferry arrived from Galway. Using a fleet of minivans we were taken directly to one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in Western Europe, the fortifications of Dun Aengus. This site on the western edge of the island faces directly into the open Atlantic Ocean where Atlantic rollers pound the 300-foot cliffs. The site dates back to the Bronze Age, was at its height during the Iron Age, and continued in use into the early medieval period. Like other hill forts in Britain, it is a defensive structure with a series of walls protecting an inner enclosure. Additionally this fort has an outer line of defense that archaeologists call chevaux de frise, a kind of prehistoric anti-tank line, intended to stop cavalry attacks: the Iron Age Celts were a warrior society, masters of iron and of the horse. Who this tribe was protecting itself from is a puzzle that archaeologists are unable to answer with certainty. From predatory attackers from the mainland, possibly, since this island redoubt would have been highly coveted for its security. It could also be that the fortification was constructed ostentatiously by some high king to demonstrate his unrivalled powers. Certainly, whoever directed its construction in its various phases was able to summon up considerable social resources. Most of us walked up to the hill fort, through rock strewn fields, with remarkable views over the island, the limestone fields glistening in the sunlight to the evocative call of the cuckoo. Others took up the option of an island tour by bus. We all returned by the end of the morning to the quayside at Kilronan where our Zodiacs were waiting for the return journey to the Endeavour for lunch.
6/20/2001
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in Scotland
IONA ABBEY This morning we stepped onto Scotland's most sacred shores - Iona. In austere gray and pink granite, the famous Abbey rose from the barren soils, framed by a steely sky. Since its holy establishment by Saint Columba in 563 AD, this windy, water-bound island has attracted millions of people of all dominions. Gaelic, Irish, Scottish and Norwegian Kings are buried here, with the likes of Macbeth and John Smith (ex-leader of the Labour Party) lying side by side. It seems that even after death people travel vast distances to rest here. But not only humans make the pilgrimmage. Blackbirds also. In the darkly lit church, a service was coming to an end as we arrived. While local men, women and children sat silently, listening to the softly spoken minister, a mother blackbird clattered her clawed feet across the stone floor, two fledglings in tow. When the service ended and the congregation had moved out past the worn grave-stones and under the 10th century St John's cross at the Abbey door, she took to the wing and left her young bumping over the wooden chairs and bibles in useless pursuit. I opened a psalm book and read the first words I saw: The old has gone, the new has come. Leading away from the Abbey door is the funereal procession path, stones polished by the soles of countless pilgrims. Pausing amongst ghosts, one of our staff gave directions to a guest, whilst inside the mother bird began to sing, trying to coax her young out through the heavy wooden doors and into the cloisters. Here, amongst carved granite columns worn down by the hands of nuns and winter weather, the blackbirds have nested for as long as Abbey staff can remember. Under the granite arches and towering candelabras, I sat down on a pew. I didn't notice the baby blackbirds seated close to me until their panic pushed them into the air and towards the huge glass windows. Iona has such a presence, we are all drawn towards the light.
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