32 hours, 3 flights, too many ham and cheese sandwiches and temperatures from 25C to 6C later I've arrived in Ushuaia!
I met up with various people joining the Expedition along the way - mostly thanks to the power of Instagram. Agam saw my post from Terminal 5 where he was on a 8 hour layover from Delhi so he was first. Then in Buenos Aries I was expecting to meet up with Dej and Rozita and a couple of others from an Instagram group that had been founded - and found them sitting in a sunny restaurant outside the domestic terminal. It soon became clear that there were quite a number of us on the flight down to Ushuaia so the 5 hour wait (well 4 hours really by the time I'd cleared immigration) passed relatively quickly in a blur of meeting new people.
Although I'd slept intermittently on the transatlantic flight until we'd landed in Sao Paulo at 04:45 local time, I was very happy to find that my premium economy upgrade on the flight down to Ushuaia had paid off and I had a seat that actually went into a bed so I was able to doze in relative comfort.
On arrival in Ushuaia we were met by Robert Swan and some of the team. This first night was not part of the expedition but even so, as part of the covid precautions, they'd laid on bus transfers to the hotels that we were staying at. By the time I'd checked in and had a much needed shower the lack of sleep on the plane had pretty much caught up with me and so I had a nice early night (which with a 3 hour time difference was basically my normal UK bedtime!)
Wednesday was basically a free day and although we are not allowed to explore too widely the hotel is situated on top of a peak and there are marked trails to walk along. It turns out I'm not great at following trails - I got lost once and also managed to find a dead end in what was
supposed to be a circular route so had to turn round and come back the way I came. As well as the view from the summit of Cerro Alarkén there was an amazing peat bog as well as a forest of a weird lichen that made the trees look like they were covered in fur. I also saw a wonderful soaring bird of prey but have been unable to identify it (and couldn't get a picture) so am hoping I'll see it again another day.
On returning we had to register for the Expedition itself - first a covid test (the first of many!) and then paperwork and a "gear check" to make sure we have everything we need (which surely in all my bags I must do!) . By this point more and more people had been arriving so it's been a lot more conversations, getting to know people, finding out why they're here and a lot of names to remember! Part of the registration process was issuing name badges so hopefully that'll help tomorrow...
My day ended checking out the hotel spa facilities - enjoying the outside pool and hot tub overlooking the lights of the city and the fading mountains with light snow coming down. Am looking forward to our first proper day tomorrow - another walk followed by our first talks from the Expedition team.