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In the far north of Moldova is Soroca Fort is a very old historic fort which is located in the city of Soroca in the northern part of the Republic of Moldova, overlooking the Dnister River and the border with Ukraine.
Considered to have played an important part of the Moldovan defense system, the fort was constructed in 1499 by the Voivode of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, and completed by his son, the Voivode Petru Rareş.
The current building displays elaborate characteristics of late medieval fortifications. The walls are not built straight but in a curved shape to better resist projectiles, as are the four outer towers.
The entire building has a diameter of 30 meters, and 4 meters for each tower. Each tower has 4 levels, of which the first two lower ones were used for artillery. The walls are 3 meters thick
Kicking off my Moldovia series from my road trip around the country at Capriana Monastery, one of the most picturesque Moldavian monasteries, founded in 1429. It is situated 40km north-east of Chisinau.
The biggest monastic library in Moldova is saved here and the interior was being restored while I visited. Actually it was partially ruined during Soviet times and was fully reconstructed in 1989, and opened to visitors since 2008.
Capriana monastery situated in one of the most beautiful forest massifs – in Codru and it is considered to be a cradle of Moldavian written language, music and architecture.
There are three churches on the premises: the Assumption of Madonna – the oldest church, the Saint Nikolas church known for its unique frescos and the Saint George church that was built in a late baroque style.
Kicking off my Moldovia series from my road trip around the country at Capriana Monastery, one of the most picturesque Moldavian monasteries, founded in 1429. It is situated 40km north-east of Chisinau.
The biggest monastic library in Moldova is saved here and the interior was being restored while I visited. Actually it was partially ruined during Soviet times and was fully reconstructed in 1989, and opened to visitors since 2008.
Capriana monastery situated in one of the most beautiful forest massifs – in Codru and it is considered to be a cradle of Moldavian written language, music and architecture.
There are three churches on the premises: the Assumption of Madonna – the oldest church, the Saint Nikolas church known for its unique frescos and the Saint George church that was built in a late baroque style.
Welcome to Ishigaki Island, the hub of the Yaeyama Islands, in Okinawa, Japan.
This subtropical region is known for its beaches, snorkeling, diving and surfing, especially within Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park.
Each island has its distinct traditional island culture, but my favourite are tiny rural Taketomi, and the raw jungle of Iriomote, both reached by boat from Ishigaki.
You can fly here direct from mainland Japan, or from Naha, Okinawa, and the best place to stay is the wonderful @ana_ic_ishigaki_resort
More drone shots from Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most isolated island where people actually live!
The main goal of my cruise from Argentina via Antartica to South Africa, was to visit this place… a geographic anamoly, lying 1,732 miles west of Cape Town, 3,949 miles east from South America and 2,437 miles south of Saint Helena.
Some 238 people live here, with no airstrip, 5 to 6 days sailing from the nearest land. Visits by passing ships usually number around 4 per year, but no other soul had set foot here since 2019.
Tristan da Cunha is an active volcano and UNESCO site due to its extraordinary wildlife and a small community of humans have been living here since the early 1800s, as isolated as it’s possible to be!
The punk rockstars of the penguin world, rockhopper penguins are distinguished by the irreverent crest of spiky yellow and black feathers that adorns their head.
Biologists named the species after their behaviour - Rockhoppers are found jumping among the craggy, windswept shorelines of the islands north of Antarctica, including here at Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha.
Tristan is the world’s most remote island group, with humans only living on one of 3 islands.
Nightingale Island is an active volcanic island in with over a million birds estimated to breed on shote.
Great shearwaters are the most abundant, along with Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses. The breeding colony of northern rockhopper penguins, now an endangered species, numbers around 50,000.
Part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, Nightingale Island is densely populated by wildlife, especially birds - with a few thousand seals in the mix too!
The island is home to millions of seabirds, including 250,000 northern rockhopper penguins, great shearwaters, sooty albatrosses, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses, broad-billed prions, and two species of petrel.
Two of the world’s rarest birds are found only on Nightingale Island: the nightingale bunting (8,000) and Wilkins’s bunting (around 170).
Named after British captain Gamaliel Nightingale in 1760, the island is the oldest of the three Tristan da Cunha islands, with recorded volcanic rocks from 18 million years to 360,000 years old. The island group is only a small remnant of a much larger active cone.
The rockhoppers are the stars of the show here, and landing near their colony is near impossible, but the main island is surrounded by tens of thousands of seals who are happy to swim right up to our zodiacs!
While South Georgia is one of the world’s most beautiful islands and home to some of the most abundant wildlife on earth, it has a dark past too.
In 1904, the first whaling station at Grytviken on South Georgia was founded by Carl Anton Larsen, a Norwegian. 300 men worked there at its peak, mainly in the Summer months from October to March, almost wiping out the whale population, and decimating the deal population too.
Once processed in the factory at Grytviken, they were taken to Europe for sale as meat.
So successful was the operation, that overhunting made it unviable to operate any longer by the 1960s. Grytviken closed in 1964 and now the ships lie rusting around the bay along with the industrial buildings.
The abandoned whaling station has undergone a project to remove all asbestos and dangerous collapsing buildings and today is being taken over by seals as they return to colonize the area.
And there are 1000s of them! Curious and cuddly they run over to check out the few tourists who come by each summer.
More drone shots from Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most isolated island where people actually live!
The main goal of my cruise from Argentina via Antartica to South Africa, was to visit this place… a geographic anamoly, lying 1,732 miles west of Cape Town, 3,949 miles east from South America and 2,437 miles south of Saint Helena.
Some 238 people live here, with no airstrip, 5 to 6 days sailing from the nearest land. Visits by passing ships usually number around 4 per year, but no other soul had set foot here since 2019.
Tristan da Cunha is an active volcano and UNESCO site due to its extraordinary wildlife and a small community of humans have been living here since the early 1800s, as isolated as it’s possible to be!
Welcome to Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most isolated island where people actually live!
The main goal of my cruise from Argentina via Antartica to South Africa, was to visit this place… a geographic anamoly, lying 1,732 miles west of Cape Town, 3,949 miles east from South America and 2,437 miles south of Saint Helena.
Some 238 people live here, with no airstrip, 5 to 6 days sailing from the nearest land. Visits by passing ships usually number around 4 per year, but no other soul had set foot here since 2019.
Tristan da Cunha is an active volcano and UNESCO site due to its extraordinary wildlife and a small community of humans have been living here since the early 1800s, as isolated as it’s possible to be!
Some of you may wonder what the rules are for Antarctica, a territory governed internationally through the Antarctic Treaty system, signed by 12 nations in 1959.
7 countries – Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom have territorial claims while amazingly, a huge amount remains unclaimed by anyone.
Rules are governed by IAATO, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators to advocate and promote the practice of safe and environmentally responsible private-sector travel to the region, including defining how close you should get to different species.
The territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are actually a British Overseas Territory, but the IAATO rules still apply, and that means for penguins you can get up to 5 meters away from them.
If they walk up to you though (and they will) the rule is to not touch or disturb, and calmly back away. The principle reason being, the possibility to transfer germs in either direction.
With @swanhelleniccruises and drone shot by @bennberkeley
Larsen Harbour is a narrow 2.6 miles (4.2 km) long fjord of volcanic rocks known as the Larsen Harbour Formation. We spent one afternoon exploring this up close, where wildlife is abundant thanks to the fast retreating glaciers (see my previous post).
It was charted by the Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–12, under Filchner, who named it for Captain Carl Anton Larsen a Norwegian explorer, who made significant contributions to the exploration of Antarctica.
The most significant of these was the first discovery of fossils on the continent. Sadly, Larsen though is also the founder of the Antarctic whaling industry and the settlement and whaling station of Grytviken, South Georgia, which thankfully was closed many decades ago.
With @swanhelleniccruises and drone shot by @bennberkeley
Visiting some of the fjords here it’s hard not to feel that despite the natural beauty, this is a world wonder slowly dying.
212 of the 244 marine glaciers have retreated over the past 50 years and the rates of retreat are increasing.
The retreating ice on South Georgia Island is having a significant impact on the island`s animals.
Glaciers act like barriers, preventing the spread of certain animals such as the non-native rats that have become a threat to other species in the area.
Rat populations have boomed on the north side of the island as the ice has ebbed, while colonies of seabirds like pipits and small burrowing petrels have declined in number in that area—likely due to predation of eggs and chicks.
As glaciers in the center of the island shrink, the rats could spread to the south and decimate bird populations.
Meanwhile the gentoos, king penguins and elephant seals have more space then ever, so the larger megafauna are currently booming, changing the balance of wildlife.
Even on an island where spectacular landscapes are the norm, Drygalski Fjord is an extraordinary place.
Surrounded by enormous peaks on the southern tip of South Georgia, its long tongue of water terminates in magnificent blue glaciers calving straight into the sea, making it a breathtaking place for a ship cruise.
The 8.5 mile (14km) long fjord is named for Eric von Drygalski, leader of the German Antarctic Expedition of 1901-03.
The fjord sits above an important geological faultline – the mountains on the southern side are basalt and lava from underwater volcanic activity, while the northern shore is part of the ancient edge of the Gondwana continent, and some of the oldest rocks in the Southern Ocean.
Glaciers cover the mountains, with the Risting and Jenkins Glaciers providing a truly majestic scene as they slowly pour into the head of the fjord.
How on earth the penguins find their family among this group up 300,000 in South Georgia is astonishing. Apparently it’s from their unique call sounds.
But if on parent heads out fishing, it’s a heck of a task to get back through the crowds to find each other!
The sounds and the colours of this sight was extraordinary. We had a few hours here and I savoured every second.
At the of Drygalskifjord in South Georgia, several glaciers tumble in to the sea, but despite the harsh surroundings, life is abundant from thousands of birds to several species of seals.
What really interested me though, was the deep blue ice wall in front of us. But why is it so blue?
White snow reflects all colours of light. It’s so reflective is because there is so much air trapped between the snowflakes.
But over long periods of time, glacier ice is buried under new layers of ice and snow and the heavy layers press the air out. It also causes the ice to form large, dense crystals.
When light hits these crystals, they absorb long wavelengths of light and scatter short-waved blue light, which makes the ice appear blue.
This happens along the leading edge of the glacier, where the ice is calving, or breaking apart.
Not the usual habitat one associates with penguins, but actually most species like the grass. They make for good breeding grounds, and long grass can offer protection from the elements for the eggs too.
King Penguins, like rockhoppers and gentoos prefer to be on the coastlines near the beach, and with the glaciers receding, more grass is exposed here in South Georgia each year.
And while I have a few more penguin SPAM to come, keep in mind… if I posted one photo per day of each penguin here at St Andrews, one by one, it would take… 821 YEARS to post them all!
King Penguins are the most curious species of penguins I’ve met. There are 18 different species of penguins in all, and these guys are the second largest after the Emperors, which live in deep Antarctica.
St Andrews Bay in South Georgia is home ot 300,000 of them, the world’s largest colony. When landing here, even if we stayed the required 5 metres from them, they surround you. They won’t peck you but they are keen to have a VERY close look!
