Fadiouth - the Shell Village of Senegal

While visiting Senegal on the Viking Sun, we enjoyed a very interesting shore excursion to Joal-Fadiouth, known as the Shell Village.  Here's my 360 video of the fascinating local cemetery on its own separate island.  (Don't forget you can spin this with your mouse as it plays!)

Fadiouth is only accessible by boat or pedestrian bridge.  The entire island is built up of billions of shells that have accumulated over generations of harvesting. Shells are a part of everything in the town and are incorporated seamlessly into the architecture as well.  The shell-covered island and its town are well-known to tour operators and present a major tourist draw.  

I found the second shell island, connected to Fadiouth via another wooden bridge, even more fascinating!  The cemetery island also consists mainly of sea shells; but it provides an even more interesting and unique dimension.   In a country with an overwhelming majority of Muslims, the inhabitants of Fadiouth are 90% Christian.  On this island, Muslims and Christians are buried near one another, a rare occurrence in today's world. 

Location of Fadiouth

 14°09'06.9"N 16°49'24.6"W

 14.151911, -16.823485

Thanks for visiting...happy adventuring!

George

Presentation on Polar Vortex & Changing Climate

Here's a short excerpt from one of my recent presentations on board the Zaandam while cruising off the coast of Chile.  The aim here is to provide some context for understanding how ocean currents interact with atmospheric circulation to breed hurricanes and how the melting of arctic ice has influenced the polar jet stream and changed climate patterns around the world.



This is an experiment to see how effective it might be to use my 360 camera (Insta360 One X) for recording presentations.  Both the image quality and the sound could be much better; I'm still experimenting with tweaking the settings for low light conditions.  One problem is the extreme contrast between the screen and the background... very hard to compensate for this.  As far as the sound goes, I think the solution is to record the audio separately and then sync the audio with video in post-production.  A second camera from the audience's perspective will also give me some better versatility.

The 360 camera offers interesting possibilities because it is like having a camera crew with you.  Since it records in 360 I can select the point of view during editing - which gives me all sorts of camera angles to choose from.  In this video you can see that at times I focus on myself as the presenter and then pan the POV to show the audience.  When I have more time I will add more powerpoint images - as I did with the water skier losing his shorts in the video above.

Right now I'm preparing for my next lecture series on board the Viking Sun from Durban South Africa to London England.

Thanks for dropping by!  Happy travels!

Cheers, George

Sea Lion colony & Albatross - Short Videos - South America

Islets in the Beagle Channel near Ushuaia, Argentina

We've just returned home from South America after a terrific cruise on board the Zaandam!  Thank you to all those guests who sailed with us for your amazing support during my series of presentations.  As you know, I love researching the latest scientific findings for the presentations I give around the world.  We had an abundance of amazing stories for this cruise, from the experiences of early seamen rounding the Horn, Darwin's travels in Patagonia... to the Yaghan canoe people who adapted to living in the windswept islands and channels of Tierra del Fuego over the past 6,000 years.

I usually include short videos that I create during each voyage in my presentations and have two for this post: Sea Lions on the Valdes Peninsula and the Black-browed Albatross.  Please enjoy!

South American Sea Lion Colony at Punta Norte

If you are wondering how I achieved some of those crazy camera angles, my new go-to travel camera has become the Insta360 one X.  An amazing camera that takes 360 videos in high-def and allows us to select our point of view after taking the shot.  Opens up a whole new world of neat visuals.

The following video shows how tricky it can be for an Albatross to become airborne!

Wishing you many happy adventures!  Hope to see you again soon.

George & Jan

PS: My next series of presentations will be on board the Viking Sun April 13 - May 11, Durban, South Africa to London, England.