Wind rider

An adult Northern Royal Albatross.

Huge birds, their outstretched wings measure 3 metres (12 ft) across. They spend 90 percent of their lives riding the winds around the earth circling the southern oceans. The roaring forties, furious fifties, and screaming sixties: the Albatross latitudes.

Gliding low over the waves they can reach over 100 km. They lose more energy through their legs in the water than through flight and so they barely come down, sleeping on the wing. Indeed, they are like extraterrestrial beings, almost entirely adapted to the air. And if it were not for having to reproduce and lay eggs they would not even come down to earth.

Their life spans average between 40 and 60 years, rivaling that of humans. With lives spent wandering over the wild, windy oceans I can't help but imagine the things they have seen, the stories they could tell...