25 Oct 2015

Thousand Ships Harbour

As dawn broke this morning the Spirit of Enderby sailed into the vast expanse of water that is Thousand Ships Harbour, headed for a new anchorage off the shore of San Jorge Island. A new anchorage and a new island was the plan for today. The birders departed just after 6am to spend the morning exploring the birding potential of San Jorge Island. The birding proved to be excellent with good sightings and a pleasing diversity of species as the group walked along an abandoned roadway. After breakfast the rest of us headed ashore to the same small village and former logging camp and followed the same road the birders had taken into the interior. After some mixed messages from the locals it became apparent that it was possible to keep walking to the school and larger village. Several hills later we were in for a wonderful Sunday surprise as the community had just finished the weekly church service. Impromptu singing and dancing followed and our small group became quite the procession making our way through the jungle to where the Zodiacs were now waiting.

After lunch we took the opportunity for a first snorkel stop. It was an opportunity to test equipment and become familiar with the underwater creatures. Our very busy first full day of the expedition concluded on the small but picture postcard perfect Utuahu Island, where we were entertained by the impressive local pan pipe band.