My journey in the footsteps of my cousin, Charles Darwin

The news came as the Turner family’s living conditions were evolving – especially for Anthea and Wendy’s 91-year-old father, Brian (Darwin’s eighth cousin, three times removed). In 2023, he moved to London to be with his daughters after losing his wife and their mother Jean. The couple had met as teenagers on the school bus and had been married for 67 years. After living in Stoke-on-Trent all his life, the widower retreated to a new life in the capital. Brian – a pleasant gentleman with a firm handshake and a soft Staffordshire accent – ​​explained that he had made adjustments. His gardening duties are lighter now. He’s still getting used to the subway. He is dogmatic about his daily ten-minute walk to Marks & Spencer to exercise and keep the fridge stocked. But his daughters insisted he mark this new chapter with a longer journey.

Anthea on the beach with sea lions

“We told ourselves that if daddy comes over, we have to go on holiday,” says Anthea (64). ‘The furthest the three of us had been together was Inverness in the early 1970s. We’re lucky that we’re all together – and daddy is game.

Their thoughts turned to cruises. They talked about Norwegian fjords, but then their eyes wandered to the Pacific islands with a family connection.

“I was nervous about going that far because of my age,” says Brian. “I didn’t want to be the one to hold everyone back. I probably asked Anthea and Wendy a few times if this was the right thing to do.”

Similar thoughts must have entered the mind of 22-year-old Charles Darwin in December 1831 as he stood on the dock at Plymouth, about to board HMS Beagle. He had been offered a job as a naturalist on a research expedition that, he was told, would last two years (it actually lasted five). Months earlier he had visited Staffordshire – the county of his paternal roots – to seek his uncle’s approval to set sail.

A pair of Galapagos penguins

GETTY

A new world eventually emerged before the bow of the Beagle: Darwin gazed at Sugarloaf as they entered Rio harbour, rode with gauchos through Patagonia and found fossils on the high peaks of the Andes. About four years later the Beagle reached the Galapagos. For the Turners, it took a full day of flying, although Brian’s first long-distance experience may have seemed like years. They too would explore the islands from the water.

The Beagle was a 28 meter long brig. Darwin had difficulty staying in his hammock, which was mounted above a chart table, and became seasick. Above him, a skylight framed the constellations. The Turners didn’t experience nausea on their 43-metre Ecoventura yacht – perhaps it helped that the hammocks were strung on the sundeck and that the luxurious cabins below had memory foam mattresses and windows overlooking tropical straits. Instead of the roast turtles the Beagle crew dined on, the Turners enjoyed appetizers and gourmet meals, including eggplant and almond stew with polenta, coconut panna cotta and Ecuadorian chocolates. Darwin overloaded the cabin with so many specimens that crew members tripped over them. Anthea and Wendy had packed so much stuff that they also took over the wardrobe in their father’s room (he didn’t mind). The boat was different, but many of the views were the same.

One of the Ecoventura fleet

‘You can’t imagine that the Galapagos was that That different when Darwin saw it,” says Anthea. “We immediately had a miracle. No one who goes there wouldn’t feel that.”

“There was a purity to it,” says Wendy. “It made me feel like I was pressing my nose against a window and catching a glimpse of paradise.”

They spent a week cruising between islands and made landfall using Ribs. Initially concerned, Brian managed to keep his balance as he waded ashore from these launches (although he did wet the bottom of his pants). On solid ground they saw those species whose subtle differences within the archipelago raised their cousin’s questions: including the famous finches and giant tortoises. Anthea went snorkeling with penguins and sea lions, and on Sante Fe Island a green Galapagos turtle swam so close she could feel the rush of its wake. One evening Wendy danced with the captain of the ship. The youngest passenger on board was an enthusiastic eleven-year-old. The eldest was no less impressed.

Wendy and Brian on board the Rib which took them ashore for each excursion

“It was the best trip I’ve ever been on,” says Brian. “I have never experienced such a variety of things before. It was the holiday of a lifetime.”

Just as impressive as the wildlife were the volcanic landscapes of the Galapagos, which first emerged from the sea five million years ago (a heartbeat in geological terms). Among them was San Cristobal Island, where Darwin had camped overnight on the coast and noted that the craters “reminded me vividly of those parts of Staffordshire where the great ironworks are most numerous”.

The comparison made sense to Brian: when he lived in Stoke-on-Trent, he saw the sky glowing lava red from the coke ovens. Like Darwin, Brian’s first love had been geology. He had spent many happy hours in high school in a classroom full of fossils and had followed his passion from working as a mining engineer for the National Coal Board until the mine closures. Family holidays included tours of slate mines in Wales or tin mines in Cornwall, or hunting for fossils at White Peak in Derbyshire (Anthea’s seventh birthday present was a geological hammer). Brian still has his sixth grade paleontology exercise book with carefully sketched copies. Seventy-five years later it was his plan to revive these chronicling habits. For the Galapagos, he packed a small camcorder, a tripod and a khaki jacket with four pockets. He would overcome the emphysema he developed decades ago by going into the well and walking the island paths.

All three Turners meet a giant turtle

“My main interest was to capture everything in the Galapagos and make a film. I really wanted to see lava flowing into the sea,” he says.

“Dad pushed himself out of his comfort zone and thrived,” says Anthea. “It was fantastic for Wendy and me to see him become more confident. He was ten years younger. We were initially afraid that he would end up at the back of the group. But the only reason he was in the back was because he was filming.”

The family often followed their relative – drinking cocktails next to Leon Dormido, a volcanic monolith that Darwin himself had sketched early in his journey. Later they visited Isabela – the island where Darwin had observed that iguanas ‘ran clumsily to one side, and others shuffled into their holes’.

The Galapagos are synonymous with revelation – and it was marine iguanas that provided Brian with his own revelation. Returning to the ship one day during a launch, he saw two iguanas swimming over the swell – heading for a small rock half a mile offshore that was “no bigger than a bedside table.” Only when the lizards reached their target did it become clear that half a dozen other marine iguanas had had the same idea and were already occupying the rocks.

“There was only a little bit of room,” Brian remembers. “But they didn’t fight among themselves over who would occupy it. They made room. And I thought, if you think about all the problems in the world, they’re all fighting over a piece of land. The lizards all lived happily together on that rock. All enjoying the sun. Wouldn’t it be nice if humanity were the same?”

It can take some time to fully digest an amazing trip. Decades after his return to England, Darwin wrote about the implications of his work, sketching a family tree with branches spanning countless species and an unimaginable span of time. The Turner family also reflected on the lessons of their journey.

Anthea and Wendy with a statue of Darwin

“My wife has only been gone two years,” Brian says. “It was a constant thought, wishing she was with me so she could enjoy it.”

“There’s no indication that Mom wouldn’t have wanted us to make that trip,” says Wendy. “Let’s embrace life even more – and do things together.”

“The elixir of youth does not come in a jar of cream,” says Anthea approvingly. “It’s about trying, trying things out. It would be nice to think there won’t be an end to that.”
The Turner family were guests of Abercrombie & Kent, which offers eight nights, seven of which are full board, on an Ecoventura yacht in the Galapagos, from £9,999 pp, including flights and transfers (abercrombiekent.co.uk)

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