nature – Nannie RaRa

Travelling the coast of Chile

28th Apr 2026 Nannie RaRa

In late March 2026, I joined the HX ship MS Roald Amundsen to travel up the coast of Chile.

The adventure started in Buenos Aires where we spent the night before flying down to Ushuaia to board the ship. There had been the first sprinkle of snow that autumn.

Cape Horn

Our first adventure was to attempt a landing at notorious Cape Horn. Cape Horn marks the boundary of the Drake Passage and is where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet. The waters around Cape Horn can be dangerous with strong currents and winds. There was no guarantee that we would be able to land – it all depended on the weather. The expedition leader had tried three times previously to land but without success.

The sea was a bit choppy but the expedition team made it to land and decided it was safe enough for us. We climbed in the boat and went on shore. It was a bit difficult getting out the zodiac because of the waves.

On shore we climbed 157 steps to the top then across a boardwalk to the Albatross memorial dedicated to sailors who had lost their lives at Cape Horn. There was also a lighthouse to visit.

Coming back was more hazardous as the waves had picked up. One boat left the shore but had to return as water was entering. They reduced the number of passengers from 12 to 8, so that the boat would be a bit higher in the water. This worked and we were all able to get off. The expedition team were wonderful – a hardy lot standing thigh deep in the water all day ensuring our safe landings.

Puerto Williams

It was bright and sunny as we approached Puerto Williams. There were seals around the boat and turkey vultures overhead. After clearance by Chilean authorities we could go ashore. We chose to go on the long walk in the countryside surrounding the town.

There were beautiful views and we saw many birds including a thorn-tailed ryadito, crested duck, kelp goose, upland goose, caracara, cormorant and black-faced ibis.

Later in the evening we saw dolphins around the ship playing in the water. There were also magellanic penguins.

Pia glacier

We went for a zodiac ride to the edge of the Porter glacier. The weather was perfect – sunny and still. The sides of the fjord had trees growing on the granite slopes and there were several waterfalls. While coming back a Chilean dolphin joined us jumping in and out of the water alongside. There are only about 5000 Chilean dolphins in the world and they are endemic to the Chilean coast.

Back at the Pia glacier we went ashore to get a closer view. We could hear rumbles every now and again as pieces of the glacier fell into the water. The water itself had many pieces of ice from the glacier drifting about. On shore we walked though a small forest. There were also several bushes covered in berries. This was autumn.

Back on our ship we watched a seal and then sailed through the fjords.

Through the fjords towards Puerto Natales

It was very breezy on deck this morning and a bit rainy and cold but there was a rainbow. In fact there were several rainbows both this morning and during the trip. We saw black-headed albatrosses, petrels, seals and whale blows.

We passed Cape Froward, the most-southerly point on the mainland. All places further south, including Cape Horn, are islands.

We travelled through the Magellan Strait and then later through the White Narrows- the mountains at either side were so close it felt as though we could touch them.

I saw my first Andean Condor flying above the mountain tops.

Puerto Natales

This was our first view of Puerto Natales. When we had docked we went on a bus tour round Puerto Natales. We started at the main square and saw the museum and church. There was also an impressive mural.

Puert Natales church, town square and museum

We then went onto the Milodon cave.

Here bones and skin from a prehistoric mylodon – ground sloth – were found in 1896. There is a life-sized statue of a mylodon in the cave.

The cave was huge and had amazing views. The rock looked like huge slabs of concrete.

The weather improved and it got warmer and sunny with little wind.

The next day, the weather changed and it was misty and rainy. We went to the Torres del Paine national park. Torres del Paine was beautiful, although we couldn’t enjoy it fully because of the rain. We walked to see the waterfall – Mirador Salto Grande.

Originally there were 39 people who had planned to do the long walk to the Mirador Cuernos, but because of the rain only seven of us did it in the end. The path was well laid out but there were so many puddles that had to be negotiated. We didn’t see the mountains at the viewpoint because of the low clouds. Some people who came after us saw them and also some guanacos. And then it snowed.

It had still been an enjoyable walking through Torres del Paine.

We left Puerto Natales. There were many, many black necked-swans and later on a few flamingos.

Black-necked swans outside Puerto Natales

We passed through the White Narrows again. On our way to Puerto Eden we saw Chilean dolphins, several condors, storm petrels and whales. The weather was sun, rain and many rainbows.

Puerto Eden

There was quite a bit of low lying cloud and mist as we approached Puerto Eden. Later it was sunny and the water was calm. Puerto Eden has only 90 people living there. They have one doctor plus an assistant and a hospital. There is a school for children until they are 14. Then they had to go away to continue their education. Now they can opt to learn online. Some children leave school at 14 and join the family fishing business.

There were boardwalks around the town. Large bushes of hardy fuchsias grew wild. There were many green-backed hummingbirds in them. They wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to photograph, although I did manage to capture an austral thrush and a Patagonian Sierra Finch. There were many ferns and cycads amongst the damp undergrowth on the cliffs.

Later we went on a zodiac cruise around the islands nearby, seeing the mussels which the inhabitants of Puerto Eden fish for. Although they are unable to fish at the moment because of algae in the waters.

We set out for Caleta Tortel going through the British Narrows, having to do 90 degree turns, sounding our horn to warn that the ship was turning to port.

Caleta Tortel

It was very foggy first thing, but the fog gradually lifted and we could see the town of Caleta Tortel.

This town has no streets, just boardwalks. We walked all around in the sunshine with local dogs guiding us. The community put on a display of music and dancing.

There were fuchsias and hummingbirds – but not as many as Puerto Eden. There didn’t seem to be much wildlife at all. We heard chirping from a bush and this turned out to be a house sparrow. They are similar to the ones in the UK but with much more grey rather than brown.

There were several wooden carvings around the town.

At sea

We spent most of the day on deck watching for wildlife and there was plenty. We saw dolphins, porpoises, shearwater, albatross. There were about twenty whales – fin, humpback and sei. Then later on we saw 4 blue whales. These are the largest creatures to ever have lived – a blue whale can weigh as much as 30 T-rex. The blue whales were so close you could hear the sound of their blow.

There was also an amazing sunset.

Castro

It was cloudy at first in Castro, but then it turned sunny. We saw lots of gulls, turkey vultures and lapwings.

Several buildings at the water’s edge are built on stilts. The town has very steep roads from the quay to the town. We had dogs guiding us again. If any of the dogs strayed into the territory of another dog they would start barking and the new dog would take over guiding us. Their kennels were beside the street.

In the main part of the town was the Church of San Francisco. It is built entirely of wood but in the style of a Gothic stone church.

We then had a coach tour to Chiloe National Park. We walked over wooden boards in the forest, learning about the plants and trying various berries. I particularly liked the Murta berry. There was a young turkey vulture sitting on top of a viewing platform. It didn’t seem bothered by us.

There were plants with huge leaves known as Chilean rhubarb. Fuchsias were growing and were being pollinated by the Patagonian bumble bee which was big fluffy and orange. This species became endangered after the introduction of the European bee.

Some of the trees were growing in a dark part of the forest. The trees grow several stems which blocked out the light so nothing was growing underneath. They live like this for about a hundred years, then they fall and one or two of the horizontal trunks will twist together and grow shoots. They can then live another couple of hundred years.

We also saw a white-throated tree runner at the top of a tree – we have similar birds in the UK which we call tree creepers. We also saw some dark-bellied cinclodes.

Niebla

There were lots of whales, on our route to Niebla, including blue whales. I saw a couple before breakfast and heard their blows. There were also South American sea nettles in the water – these are large poisonous jellyfish. Northern royal albatrosses were flying around.

The ship stopped at Niebla and we had a coach ride to Valdivia. There we had a tour of the highlights of the city. We stopped at the main square and walked down to the river. As in many of the Chilean towns we visited the power cables were all overhead.

There was an old Oberon class submarine. It had been built in the UK and after decommissioning from the Chilean navy became a museum piece.

We walked to the fish market, but as it was afternoon most of the fish had been sold. The turkey vultures were sitting waiting for scraps. There was a stall with hundreds of mussels. Other stalls were selling fruit, including murta berries which we had tried earlier. Another stall had home made rose hip syrup – rosa mosqueta. It was being sold in random plastic bottles.

We went to the museum and saw several rooms dedicated to the Mapuche and showing a lot of their silverware. Other rooms were associated with Lord Cochrane who helped Chile in their wars of independence in the 1820s.

We came back to Niebla and tried to find our way to the fort. Only a ten-minute walk we were told. We walked for ten minutes then asked again. Only a ten-minute walk we were told. We walked again, but couldn’t find it so we came back to the quay and caught the last tender back to the ship.

At sea heading towards Valparaiso

It was a sunny day, there were big waves and it was windy but warm. I spent the day on deck wildlife watching. There were lots of whale blows in the distance. We saw both the norther royal albatross and Salvin’s albatross as well as petrels.

Valparaiso

It was misty when we arrived in Valparaiso where we left the ship. Valparaiso is a thriving port. We had a coach tour round the city – getting off several times to look around. We also took a ride in the funicular railway.

The street art was very impressive. It began in the 1960s/1970s.

Santiago

We drove to Santiago to stay overnight before leaving. Most people were returning home but I was off to Easter Island.

nature

Garden visitors

3rd Jun 2025 Nannie RaRa

Jenny Wren makes visits to my garden, but is not that often seen although I hear her loud noise quite a bit. I managed to capture a short video of her hunting for food amongst the parsley.

The great spotted woodpecker has been visiting my garden regularly over the years and eats from the peanut feeders I put up.

For the past few years the woodpecker brings its young along to show it where to find food by feeding it from the peanuts. Here are a few videos of this happening.

The young great spotted woodpecker is sitting on the branch of the oak between the two peanut feeders.

This is a more distance shot of the great spotted woodpecker feeding its young.

The young woodpecker moved to a different tree. The adult great spotted woodpecker had to bring the food over to it.

nature

Birds by the estuary

4th Mar 2025 Nannie RaRa

Near to me is an estuary and we get many migrant and native waders and other water birds. I’ve taken a few short videos recently.

First up is an oystercatcher walking along the edge of the river looking for food.

Next is a curlew, it wasn’t far from the oystercatcher and again was looking for food.

There are a flock of brent geese that have been around all winter, roosting overnight in the field behind me before travelling down to the water for the day. These few were swimming on the water.

This is one of the egrets that live at the estuary. It had chased off another egret, then stood around before taking flight.

nature

Nearby feathered friends

25th Dec 202411th Jan 2025 Nannie RaRa

I’ve recently taken short videos of birds near me.

I have peanut feeders in my garden that hang from an oak tree. There is a holly bush next to it so the birds can hop in and out to safety, ready for when the sparrowhawk appears.

I usually have blue tits, great tits and great spotted woodpeckers on there, but recently some starlings have appeared. I also have magpies and jackdaws in the garden and the jackdaws have tried the feeders as well.

There is a ruined church just down the road, and a flock of finches have taken up residence in the trees and copse. You can hear the linnets chattering away as you pass by. I’ve also seen chaffinches, gold finches, greenfinches, yellowhammers and brambling.

There is a river estuary a short walk away with a nature reserve on the opposite side of the river. The birds don’t know about the reserve so they come on my side of the river as well. There are dunlin, teal, oystercatchers, avocet, knot, godwits – both bar tailed and black-tailed – and many others.

I’m not very good at telling which bird is which, so if I have named them wrongly in the videos, do let me know.

And lastly here is a flock of Brent geese. They travel from the farmer’s field where they overnight down to the estuary. You can always hear them coming.

nature, Travel

Alaskan adventure

27th Sep 2024 Nannie RaRa

Nannie RaRa’s latest travel adventure has been to Alaska aboard the Hurtigruten ship MS Roald Amundsen. We saw so much wildlife.

We started and finished in Vancouver.

Vancouver

Our journey started in Vancouver at the Hyatt Regency. We wandered down to the harbour and saw our ship MS Roald Amundsen plus lots of sea planes. Vancouver is a city of man-made waterfalls.

The next day, a coach tour of the city with stops in Chinatown with the narrowest building, then a visit to Stanley Park, our first view of totem poles and our first walk in a forest. The original trees had been cut down 200 years ago, so many of those we saw were 200 years old.

On to the ship.

Sea day inside passage

Our first day was at sea in the inside passage. It was very foggy to start with but this soon cleared. The scenery was captivating with the forests going down to the water’s edge.

We saw some Dall’s porpoises.

We had chance to explore the ship. We also had our first swim in the infinity pool. Coming out a lady pointed out some humpback whales nearby.

We were on deck after lunch and saw the blow and then the backs and tails of many humpback whales.

Misty Fjords

It was foggy first thing but later became sunny and warm. We passed the New Eddystone Rock on our way to Misty Fjords where we had our first outing by zodiac.

The water was very calm. We saw a great blue heron and a bald eagle’s nest.

Wrangell

We started our tour of Wrangell with a botanical walk in the Tongass temperate rain forest. We tried thimble berries, salmon berries, blueberries but not snot berries. The trees were very tall and straight.

We were asked to be noisy so any bears would know we were there. We saw some bear poo with red berries in it on the trail. One lady walking her dog had a radio playing loud music.

We saw a red squirrel in the tree top and saw and heard chickadees. Chickadees are very similar to great tits.

We walked back to town. There were many churches in Wrangell including a Russian Orthodox church.

After lunch on board ship, we walked down to the petroglyph beach. We asked a young lad on a bike which way to the beach. He told us to ‘shake a right’. We found several petroglyphs but also did some stone skimming in the water.

On the way back we stopped at a souvenir shop. It mostly sold furs which had been trapped by the lady’s hunter husband. They had lynx, beaver, otter, wolverine, black bear and fox.

Sitka

We went to the raptor centre in Sitka where they help bald eagles, and other birds that have been hurt, back to health before releasing them into the wilds. They had both bald and golden eagles there.

Near the centre was a river packed chock-a-block with salmon on their way upriver to spawn. There were signs of bear activity with poo and discarded salmon bones.

We walked back to town through the forest, seeing lots of ground squirrels and seeing and hearing ravens.

There was a totem path trail and one of the totems had recent bear claw marks on it. By the river were several bald eagles – they were becoming so common we started calling them pigeons.

We stopped at the visitor centre which had an exhibit on the Tlingit people. There was another Russian Orthodox church in town. An episcopalian church had a Jewish cross incorporated in the stained-glass window. A lady spoke to us about the story behind the window. The window had been ordered from the east of the country. They waited months for it and when it arrived it had the wrong design, but as they needed the window, they decided to keep it.

Icy Bay

It was colder today and ice started to appear in the water as we approached Icy Bay and the Guyot glacier at its head. The glacier is over 1000 metres tall.

The melting glacier had waterfalls thundering down into the water. The bay was covered in bergy bits – small chunks of ice and small icebergs.

We read for a while before it was our turn to go in amongst the ice in the zodiacs.

At sea, pilots at Seward

The next day was a sea day and we went towards Resurrection Point and Seward to change pilots.

There was a bald eagle’s nest on the outcrop at the entrance to Seward.

Kukak Bay

We spent the next three days in Katmai National Park. The scenery was spectacular.

First stop was Kukak Bay where we went out in the zodiacs.

We saw our first brown bears, watching one catch and eat two salmon. We named him Sam Bear.

A seal poked its head out of the water, he was named Salty Seal. There were also bald eagles around.

Moser bay

Next day we went to Moser Bay on the south side of Kodiak Island. Kodiak is the second largest island of the USA. The south side is tundra and the north, trees.

There were many fishing lines out so our ship had to stay outside and we manoeuvred in the zodiacs.

We saw an arctic (blue) fox, and spotted a mother with a young deer. We also observed a bald eagle and saw salmon jumping.

There were several humpback whales about on our way to Geographic Harbor. There were about eight or nine humpback whales including a mum and pup. We watched as they came closer and saw several tails as they dived and heard the blows of near ones. Then one of the whales jumped out of the water and breached – something we had been longing to see. It was magnificent.

Geographic Harbour

We arrived in Geographic Harbor to a sunny still day.

There was a sea otter outside the harbour that we watched floating on its back, occasionally waving a flipper or diving down.

We went in the zodiacs to the head of the bay where there were several brown bears. This time they were walking along the shore.

One brown bear went and ate some berries. We named this bear Barry.

We also saw fireweed – we know it as rose bay willow herb. It is said that when the flowers are at the top of the spike, winter is on its way.

We also saw both a young and adult bald eagle. We have not seen pigeons in Alaska, but reckon bald eagles are the pigeons of Alaska as they are very common.

We also saw a belted kingfisher whizz across the edge of the water.

There were several whales on our way to Unga as well as a couple of Orcas.

Unga Island

At lunch on our way to Unga island, the waiter showed us how to make a duck using our napkins. The waiter made a perfect duck, mine was a burping penguin and my grandson made a long-tailed blind duck.

Unga was very windy and misty. It was going to be a rough wet landing.

We weren’t allowed in any of the buildings in the abandoned town. They had been taken over by nature with wildflowers everywhere. We had to watch out for cow pats from the feral cattle that had remained on the island. We didn’t see any of the cattle.

Dutch Harbor, Unalaska

Dutch Harbour, part of Unalaska was a large town with an active port used for the fishing trade. There were piles of crab and cod pots.

We walked along the spit, noticing lots of bald eagles including young and parents calling to each other. There were also small pipits.

By the water’s edge were several WW2 pill boxes. We had a look around the WW2 museum and also the Aleut museum. Outside the Aleut museum were some sea otters that were very close to shore. Guess who forgot their camera?

We walked back to the ship kicking stones all the way.

In Unalaska we spoke to a lady who worked with the fishing fleet. She told us the fishing boats had turned for home as there was a storm coming.

At sea, missed St Pauls, Pribliofs

The next two days were at sea. We carried on towards the Pribliof islands and it was quite rough.

There were a lot of birds including shearwaters around and we saw a couple of humpback whales.

We couldn’t land at St Pauls because the weather was wild and windy and the waves were too big on the beach for a safe landing.

We encircled the island but we were too far away and it was too misty to see much. There were lots of fur seals on the beach and cliffs of the island.

St Matthew

The weather had improved by the time we got to the uninhabited St Matthew island. There was a clear sky to begin with but then the fog rolled in while we were ashore. We were so glad to set foot on land.

On the beach we saw the footprints of a red fox which lives on the island. We also saw Rock Sandpipers bobbing in the water near the shore. They were not wary of us. We also caught sight of McKay’s Bunting. Both of these are only found on St Matthew. Puffins were nesting on the cliffs.

On the island were hundreds of singing voles. You stood still and they would come out of their holes in the undergrowth and wander around. We didn’t hear them sing which is like a squeak. The singing voles are endemic to St Matthew island.

Nome

We set sail for Nome, arriving earlier than originally planned as there were going to be strong winds which would have hindered our entrance into the harbour. We arrived in the afternoon and had time for a wander round the town before dinner.

We were warned that there might be Musk Ox in town and to run if we saw them. We didn’t see any.

We looked in the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum which was very interesting and well worth a visit. The telephone kiosk brought back many memories of the times before mobile phones.

The next day we went into town in the rain and wind to see a talk by a man who owns about thirty Alaskan huskies and has been in the Iditarod run four times. He brought four huskies with him.

We had a go at panning for gold and found several tiny flakes and a miniature garnet.

Then an early lunch in Old St. Joe’s before our flight to Vancouver.

Vancouver

Vancouver was a change from Nome – warm and sunny as opposed to wet and windy.

We stayed overnight in the same hotel as before. After breakfast on the 34rd floor – we both had waffles with maple syrup – we had a swim in the pool on the fourth floor.

We had a few hours before our flight back home so we went to a supermarket, then walked along the seafront, coming back via loads of stairs. At the hotel we went into the hospitality suite and played table football and jenga.

Then to the airport for our long flight home.