Antarctica II

Day 2: We awake in the Antarctic Peninsular, Antarctica Proper ! In the morning there is a "Zodiac Cruise" (we get these when a landing is not possible, good at the start but tended to disappoint towards the end of the trip) to Foyn harbour. An interesting trip through the icebergs, the colours have all gone, just blues and whites !

 There is the rusty old wreck of on an old 1912 Norwegian factory whaling ship, the "Governoren". Yachts have attached lines to it to moor here, and left them, which makes our guide, Augustine, angry....& he rants about it for a bit !!

In the afternoon we make our first landing on Antarctica, I´d be lying if I said that this was not a solid reason for coming here ! I´ll have now travelled to every continent !!

On the way there there are several loud thumps as the ships hull hits large "growlers" (solid, very old, ice that is as transparent as glass and therefore difficult to see in the water). We stop at "Almirante Brown" station, an uninhabited Argentinian station that burnt down some years before and has been partially re-built. We plod about in the snow for a while, then, inevitable have a snowball fight !! The point here, is really, to have landed on Antarctica....

Following our run ashore is another Zodiac Cruise. This time around the remarkable "Paradise Bay". Which appears to be "Antarctica in a nutshell", everything is on a massive scale.....

And the odd dozing seal lying on his comfy iceberg...

 

"My God, this is an awful place !!"

So said Captain Scott, 2 years off 100 years ago. Obviously I don´t think that !  But, after only 2-3 hours onshore or out in the Zodiacs, despite 3 layers of socks in my wellies (you have to wear wellies !) my toes are numb ! and my hands are going numb. The humidity is high here but the temperature is only 2-3 deg C.

With out a doubt it is a hostile place. We will all return to the heated ship and have nice hot showers. I have renewed respect for those early pioneers. Especially Shackleton and his crew, they camped on the ice for 9 months, right through a Winter, with wet Woolen jumpers and not nearly enough food. It must have been just so damned uncomfortable !!