The Traveling Widower

Tag: antarctica

  • Coming soon – Penguins!!

    Created with Google Gemini

    I do have one more trip scheduled in October (another cavern…woot! And more stairs for Moro Rock… boo hiss) but the remaining big one for the remainder of this year is Antarctica, the land of penguins (and a lot of ice). I am really looking forward to this one. But first I have to prepare…..time to gear up once again. And that’s what this post is about. So go take a nap if you are not interested. Or read this to take a nap. Whatever works for you. 

    Sorry, but when you do all kinds of strange trips, you are constantly thinking about the gear you need. My garage now has a row of hooks for the 5 or 6 packs I now own, I have converted one closet into my camera gear storage, another shelf has my four camera bags, and then another few shelves are reserved for the varied gear I need for hiking, kayaking and snorkeling. But now I have to deal with really cold weather, and doing some stuff I have not done for quite a few years – snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and mucking around in snow. Antarctica is a month away. Yikes. Fortunately, gearing up for Antarctica will also be preparation for another cold weather adventure – Churchill Manitoba in 2027. Really cold – -30F at night.

    The good news is that most of the “expedition” type tours provide at least some of the cold weather gear – National Geographic/Lindblad provides an outer, waterproof insulated shell (with a hood) as well as an inner fleece jacket. Human Habitat provides all the gear other than the base layer. Not much to pack for that trip. These are not free of course – it’s just part of the package. National Geographic/Lindblad also has an outfit that rents a lot of the other gear – the most important of these are the waterproof, insulated boots. I can’t imagine trying to pack those unless you like traveling in heavy boots. Nope. You can also rent waterproof pants, ski poles and other cold weather gear. I’m going to need a lot of that in the future, and some of which I already have – I used to do a lot of winter hiking, climbing, skiing and snow-shoeing in Colorado, so I already have a lot of that stuff:

    • Insulated, water proof gloves/mittens
    • Goofy but waterproof/insulated hats.
    • Heavy boot socks
    • Lots of fleece pull-overs, some from Google (they kept as fed and clothed).
    • Heavy kayak pants (yes, we will be kayaking along the ice shelf).
    • Waterproof gloves for kayaking.

    There were a few missing things from my packing list, so I waited for my trip to Colorado to fill in the few remaining blanks. Why wait for this trip? Denver has a flagship REI which carries has just about everything you would need for any outdoor adventure. What a wonderful store – it used to be the old Forney Transportation Museum, which repurposed the old Denver Tramway Powerhouse building from the early 1900’s. It’s now a wonderland of outdoor gear.

    REI Denver Store
    REI Denver store

    I spent multiple hours wandering through the store, and eventually found the few things I needed:

    • Insulated shell pants – good for skiing, hiking, maybe even for Zodiac cruising instead of the kayak pants.
    • Heavy fleece pants – wear on board and under outer shell pants
    • Winter buff – I think these used to have a different name. It’s basically a neck warmer. I bought a light-weight one in the Galápagos Islands when all the boat drivers had one. Great for wind, spray and sun protection. Never thought there would be specialized neck warmers before. 
    • Glove liners – you never have too many of those

    The only thing I could not find, was a new pair of hiking/travel shoes in which I could fit my Forest Gump brace and my foot. I tried on 6 different brand shoes and none of them worked. It is really a pain having to bring multiple pairs of shoes since I only had one pair of water/beach shoes which I could use with the brace. The good news is I found two pairs, one for serious hiking, at a Merrill outlet store once I got back to good old boring Sacramento. I doubt if I’ll ever be able to hike without that brace, so all my other shoes and boots will be going to charity (Soles For Souls).

    So that’s about it for Antarctica clothing. All I have to do now is figure out how to fit all this “stuff” into the same suitcase I’ve been using for the past year. I’m rapidly learning how to slim down what I bring on trips – all the ships do laundry, and most of what I bring can be dumped in with underwear. It’s not that expensive and worth it. Another problem with the Antarctica trip are the “free” jackets – you get to take them home at trips end, but how do you stuff them into your luggage? I’d like to reserve enough free space in the suitcase so I have an option to keep them. The other choice is to leave it, and Nat Geo donates them to charities. 

    Some of my other scheduled trips will also have luggage related issues as I’ve mentioned before, so this will be a good time to figure out how to travel light. The Baja trip will really be a challenge – 30lbs in luggage, and 6.5 for carry-on. My camera bag weighs over a pound…most of the camera gear will be in my suitcase. Who needs clothing anyway.

    The other challenge I’ll have with Antarctica is my photography gear – much like Alaska, I’ll definitely want to carry the big lens as well as a second camera body. I’m guessing that there will be times that I’ll need the long 500mm, as well as a shorter lens for closeups of penguins or landscape shots. Switching lenses in the cold, or on a fast moving Zodiac, is not something I really want to do. Way too risky (for the camera, not me).

    And I still have to figure out what to do with my “other” camera – the phone. I had a waterproof case for my Pixel 8, which worked great for bouncing around in small boats or in kayaks. Before I left for Alaska, I bought what seemed to be the perfect solution for the new Pixel 10 XL, though a bit expensive – a flexible plastic sleeve, with a big metal flange and glass lens arrangement that is completely waterproof, and could be used for snorkeling and diving. It was built for regular sized phones, but their support group said it was stretchy material which will fit the larger XL models of phones. This was a lot like a shoe salesman telling you that a wide width size 12 shoe will fit a narrow size 13 foot. Nope. I tried that once and it did not work. Same for phone covers – the metal flange scrapes on the back of the phone. That’s not a good thing. I’m hoping the company (www.Outex.com) agrees. It’s a really nice product, just not meant for larger phones.

    So I’m still working on that problem..

    That’s enough geek talk on gear. I’ve already got my packing list for Antarctica, and with over a month before leaving, I’ve got plenty of time to begin “test packing”. Expect many penguin photo’s in the near future. 

  • How to fit 50 lbs of stuff in a 25 lb bag

    Most of what I packed for the Road Scholars trip – no problem with a Subaru Forrester!

    As I alluded to in a previous post, this one will take a crack at explaining how I have been cramming everything you need for photography, kayaking, snorkeling, hiking and general purpose living for a long adventure, and meet the stringent baggage rules for airlines, small cruise ships and even worse, single engine planes. Yeah, some of the trips I’ll be going on are in remote places, and the only way to get there is on small planes. I even get to go on a float plane for one trip. That will be a real treat. 

    You have already seen photos of the camera gear I may bring along on a trip. As I mentioned, there is much more than just the cameras and lenses – there are lots of chargers, cables, extra batteries, memory cards, lens cleaning stuff – just a lot of extraneous but thankfully small objects that need to find a place somewhere in the luggage. I have four options now for packing camera gear in carry-on luggage:

    1. A Think Tank camera roller bag, which can hold pretty much all my stuff, including the GoPro, and it fits in all overhead storage, including commuter jets. I will never check in my camera bag – too much temptation for baggage handlers. The problem with this bag, is that I wind up with two roller bags in the airport until the big bag is checked. Awkward at best. The photo below illustrates how much you can fit in this bag – 2 camera bodies, the big lens and 3 others, the GoPro gear with plenty of room to spare for a laptop, books, a sweater. The weight with the gear below comes in at 17.5lbs.
    Think Tank photo roller bag.
    1. A LowePro backpack, which holds the same amount of gear as the roller bag, but it’s a real backpack with great back and shoulder support. It also fits in overhead storage, but weighs more than the roller bag. I have yet to use it, but likely will for the Antarctica trip. As you can see below, the backpack holds even more gear than the roller bag, and is comfortable to carry with padded shoulder straps and a real waste supporting hip belt. It too weighed in at 17.5 lbs. My only fear is that it might not fit in coach overhead compartments on smaller planes. I usually fly business/first class, so hopefully it will fit.
    LowePro Backpack – Tons of room
    1. A mid-sized back pack from Think Tank – this was the latest pack added to my collection, and can hold a limited amount of gear. If I bring the 500MM lens, I can fit one camera body, and maybe 2 other lenses. It also has limited space for the other stuff you like to bring along on carry-on luggage – meds, iPad, maybe a light sweater, batteries. I almost need to bring a second, small carry-on for that stuff. The proverbial small piece of luggage that fits under the seat in front of you. Where my big feet are supposed to go. As you can see in the photo below, there is a lot less room for gear in this pack – I can fit all the regular camera, gear, but not the GoPro case, and there is little room for extra stuff in the front pockets. But, it only weighs in at 14.5 lbs, and easily fits in any overhead compartment. Plus, I can use this as a pack for hiking.
    1. And last and least – a smaller LowePro camera pack, with even less space for cameras than the other bag. Good for a trip requiring only two smaller lenses, or just the 300MM and one camera body. It’s basically a day pack. 

    For my trips to-date; Option 4 worked fine for Colorado, since I only needed one body, and 2 smaller lenses; Option 1 worked best for the Galápagos Islands, where I carried pretty much everything I owned for this spectacular trip, where snorkeling and underwater photography were on the agenda; I struggled with packing for the Baja trip – I wanted to see if I could pack less, and wound up buying the in-between sized pack (Option 3) at the last minute (I like shopping at camera stores, almost better than REI). The new pack really was not large enough, and I wound up carrying all the extra stuff in the luggage, which was really full. But it worked. My next two trips will be easy – I’ll need the big lens and 2 bodies, so I’ll take Option 1 or 2, either of which should fit in overhead for all the flights. I hope. 

    One of the key factors to check for each option is the overall weight of the packed bags. Some international flights limit your carry-on weight. For the flight from Guayaquil Ecuador to the Galápagos Islands, I believe it was 19 lbs. The roller bag (#1) worked, but the big backpack (#2) did not. My trips next year will also be a problem, since both have really small planes to get to the final destination. I have not quite figured that one out yet.

    My solution for the carry-on weight problem, is to pack all the extraneous get (chargers, monopod, extensions sticks…pretty much everything but cameras and lenses, in the checked baggage. That seems to work.

    So how about the rest of the stuff you may ask? That depends on the trip. Life was easier for packing before my wife passed – we had two large checked bags plus two carry-ons, and were able to distribute most everything we needed including SCUBA gear, my large shoes, all of my wife’s fancy clothing (I dressed a little more casually). There was always enough room. She had more shoes than me, but hers fit inside mine. We were a great match. Now I’m limited to one reasonably large bag for everything but the camera gear. Bummer. But, by figuring out how much clothing I really need, I can leave more of the space for hiking/snorkeling necessities. The magic key is “on-board laundry”! We did this on our one long cruise to the South Pacific – we paid for the laundry package, and had clothes cleaned almost every day. That left plenty of room for other things. I did that as well on the last Geographic cruise. It’s not that expensive, and relieves a lot of packing pressure.

    Fortunately, for the trips I’ve been on so far, I have been able to just bring very light layers, enough for getting there and back, and a few days worth on board before I send stuff off for laundering. Plenty of room for fins, mask, wet suit, and other items needed for excursions. Trips to colder climates (Alaska, Antarctica) will not be a problem either since I will not be snorkeling – I’ll just need more layers, and some of my expedition level hats and gloves. National Geographic provides a parka and fleece layer for the Antarctica trip, and their are outfitters that provide boots for both trips. No need to try and pack heavy footware for those trips. I’m not sure how I’ll get the heavy parka home though – shipping from Santiago Chile?

    Here is all I packed for the Galapagos Islands – that included snorkel gear (fins, mask, etc), a thin wet suit + other neoprene things, water shoes, light deck shoes, a hiking stick and enough clothing for 6 days to cover travel back/forth to US and a few days on board. The small backpack fit in the luggage. And I wore my huge hiking boots on the flight.

    For the Baja trip, most everything was the same except I had fewer camera components – no large lens and extra body since I thought the whales would be close (sniff). I also left the Sea Life camera behind, and just brought the GoPro. Which I never used (sniff). I wound up repacking the camera gear in the new mid-sized back (Option 3) instead of the smaller bag shown in the photo.

    And then there are auto trips. No problem packing on those, especially with a large SUV acting as my traveling closet. For the long Road Scholars trip, I basically emptied out my closet into the back of my car. Well, not exactly, but I did have a lot of stuff in the car. Plus I could carry all of my camera gear without worrying about weight restrictions. Same goes for whale watching, hummingbird chasing, and anyplace else I decide to drive to this summer.

    One of my trips in 2026 will be a major packing challenge – Baja Jones. For this trip, I’ll be sleeping in a hut on the beach along Laguna Ojo de Libre, which is in the middle of nowhere, Mexico (I upgraded to a hut with an en-suite shower…woo hoo). To get to this very remote place on the Baja peninsula, I will first drive to San Diego (a favorite place), stay overnight in a hotel, and the tour will begin the next morning with a limo drive to Ensenada, Mexico. Assuming our countries are not at war by then, there we will board a single engine Cessna for a 2.5 hour flight which hopefully will land safely in Guerrero Negro. There is a single runway airport there – it looks like it is paved.  I’m not sure what the weight restrictions will be, but I doubt if I’ll be able to carry too much. I’ll probably have more weight dedicated to camera gear than clothing – no hiking, no snorkeling or swimming, so bare minimum for clothing, enough for four days in the hut. Everyone will probably smell like salt weather and whale breath after a day anyway, so who cares what you wear. I’ll have fresh clothes waiting in my traveling closet when we return to San Diego.

    The Kodiak Island (or How to Not be Eaten by a HUGE Bear) trip will likely be a bit simpler – this is a photographers trip, so they will expect the 8 passengers to be carrying a lot of heavy camera gear. Plus, I’m guessing we can leave a suitcase at the hotel in Kodiak, so I can just bring what’s needws for the four days on the fishing boat. That will be a very strange trip – sleeping in a converted shipping container, with a shared bathroom for four people, and sleeping in bunk beds. Not a lot of room for luggage, or anything else for that matter. No laundry on this trip. I hope my roomate does not snore. Or is an axe murderer. Something else to worry about.

    So, I’m definitely learning the ins and outs of photography travel – I hope to have it down by the end of this year, and continue to slim down what I take for each trip going forward. Maybe someone will come up with spray-on clothing.