| Flights To the Wild Blue Yonder |
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| Young Emperor Penguin |
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Time in the air will be around 20 and a half hours from Melbourne, Australia to arrival at the Arturo Merino Benitez airport in Santiago, Chile. I'll be having a long travel day as I'm getting up at 3 AM on Sunday morning my time. With the airport stop overs and time on the ground, the actual travel time will be 27 hours! I hope I have no delays. Here I am crossing my fingers again. I will be having an early night when I get in and off to bed!
On my trip I cross the "International Dateline", we gain a day when we travel east to South America and lose a day when we travel home from South America! I Arrive in Melbourne traveling home on March 1st. On the longer flights? Sleep? Yes!
Thank you all for the Good Luck Wishes! LS
We certainly will be testing out how good internet connection can be or NOT be with our communications on this trip. Will it differ to access a website or to send e-mail? Lynda has two choices. She can e-mail back to me and I update the website or enter into the website to update with her web designer access.
Weather can come to be a factor too. What will be will be, but it will not hinder our posting questions on the message board. One way or another answers will get through!
AB
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Helpful Hint for those writing a school journal entry
You may choose one day of air travel or ship travel for your journal entry.
The blue boxes show what Lynda was told the schedule would be. Do not write your journal entry from these.
The light red boxes are what actually happened. The information in one of these is the basis for a journal entry. Ignore the bold print you see in the box for the purpose of your journal entry. Boldly printed words are facts Lynda just mentioned. You should read over the text in the box not bolded. Then use your own wording for the journal entry about what happened that day.
After you write your journal entry, add two sentences onto the bottom of your journal entry.
One sentence should start with the words "I Imagine" and complete that sentence with what you think could happen next on the trip.
Example: I imagine tomorrow will be a very exciting day!
The next sentence should start with the words "I wonder" and complete that sentence with something about Antarctica that you in fact wonder about.
Example: I wonder how large the biggest iceberg will be!
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February 17 2008 Sunday
Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne to Sydney - Flight Time 1 Hour 20 minutes
Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport to Auckland, New Zealand - Flight Time 3 hours 10 minutes
Auckland Airport to Santiago, Chile - Flight Time 11 hours 20 minutes
A 2 night stopover in Santiago, Chile! The tour guides will take us on a bus tour around the Santiago area.
LS
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Notes on February 17th
5 am check for a 6am flight departure from our home airport, Melbourne Australia. Made sure our bags were checked through to SCL, the worldwide airport code for Arturo Merino Benitez Airport, Santiago, Chile.
Also made sure we were issued with 2 boarding passes for both of us. One for the domestic leg to Sydney on Qantas, the Australian airline. And the other for the international flight from Sydney to Santiago, via a few hours stopover in Auckland New Zealand.
Having these 2 boarding passes means that we can proceed directly to customs and not have to queue again at the check in counter.
A long long journey but we arrived in Santiago very tired indeed.
LS
On a trip like this it would NOT be good to loose your luggage or have it lag behind! This is why they ship it through to your final destination. You also can make your connecting flights better with no luggage and boarding passes all ready issued.
AB
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| Skyline of Santiago Chile |
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"Flights to catch and waiting
A lot of time has passed.
We catch up with our luggage
In Chile. Here at last!" AB
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February 19 2008 Tuesday
Arturo Merino Benitez Airport, Santiago, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina - Flight Time 3.5 hours
This will be a special charter flight and part of the Bentours Crusing package. My husband Geof and I are now only with our fellow adventurers for the Bentours trip. I'll be boarding the MS Fram at 5 PM tonight! LS
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Notes February 19
Flights all went well. The 3 and 1/2 hour flight from Santiago Chile was smooth and clear for the first hour with great views of the imposing spine of South America and the Andes. I have been snap happy with my digital camera taking a lot of mountain and volcano shots!
Arrived at the Ushuaia International Airport 12:20 local time. Temperature was 62F but it felt colder because of the winds. Ushuaia is located Latitude 54-48S Longitude 68-18W. We all browsed through the town "at the end of world". We visited the Maritime Museum to see the world's largest collection of polar model ships. The museum is located in the old jail! Ushuaia was a penal colony at one time. Nowadays you can have "prisoner parties" at the jail all dressed up in black and white prisoner costumes!
We are supposed to board the MS Fram at 5PM. After a fun time in town, the real ocean voyage to Antarctica will begin tonight on our ship.
LS
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| Andes Mountains and a volcano below |
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| Below on the flight to Ushuaia |
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| Lynda Joy Smith arrives at Ushuaia Airport |
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"So many sights but little time
In this unusual place.
Soon we will be boarding ship
And gone without a trace.
It seems to be quite windy
We notice Geoff and I.
More and more the two of us
Are glancing at the sky."
AB
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Now follow Lynda's trip on the MS Fram Itinerary until she flys home!
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| Lan Plane leaving Ushuaia |
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| Leaving Ushuaia under foreboding skies. |
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February 27 2008 Wednesday
Ushuaia, Argentina to Santiago, Chile - Flight Time 3.5 hours
This is a special charter flight and part of the tour package. LS
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Notes February 27
Our last day on board the MS Fram, and luggage had to be left outside our cabin door for collection before 11:30PM. Blue ribbons on our bags meant they were on the first flight out to Santiago, green ribbons were for the 2nd flight. Geoff and I had a ribbon of each color and we were booked on different flights as well!
A small mix up and we got this changed to tie in with the later flight as we were on the 7AM morning tour of Lake Escondido. A morning trip over the Andes to wander the shoreline of a picture perfect lake is a wonderful farewell to this very special part of our world. We are so lucky to have visited and said hello.
Our flight to Santiago was delayed for about 1 hour
LS
You would think the same last name would be a hardy clue! I guess you two were such nice traveler's they wanted to spread the cheer over two flights!
AB
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| Quiet Lake Escondito in Ushuaia |
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February 28 2008 Thursday
Santiago, Chile to Aukland Airport, New Zealand - Flight time 13 hours 10 minutes
Aukland to Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, Australia - Flight time 3 hours 50 minutes
Home Again!
LS
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Notes February 28 and Goodbye to February 29
Our flight left Santiago around 11:30 PM. We had a long day after a wonderful morning trip to the '1875' Pirque Casona Winery. A winning combination of history, gardens and wine cellars. Left us awed by the original cellars. A visit to the pottery town of Pomaire ended up as a hands on meet the locals. Happier people I have never met anywhere else in the world!
On the flight home I realized that we a had again crossed the International Dateline and lost the 29th day of February!
This is interesting for those born in the leap year. If you happen to be flying over the dateline, you loose your birthday! Glad I don't have any family members born on 29 February.
LS
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| Collectors Antarctican Ten Dollar Note |
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Photos courtesy of Lynda Joy Smith
Permission granted for photos to be used for this project only. Contact Lynda Joy Smith via the message board for any permission and/or arrangments concerning further use of these photos.
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©2008 Last Update March 2008
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