I thought I posted this from the ship - we all know what happened to thought!!....the photos are on facebook
22nd: The sea has settled, the skies are clear….Gap crew reckon the ship is charmed as we head for Elephant Is. Huge icebergs, blue and white and a magical sky, -1deg but about -20 on deck with the wind chill. We anchor at Pt Wild where Shackleton's men spent the winter - just a rocky Chinstrap penguin colony at foot of a glacier. A bust of Pedro the Chilean captain who took Shackleton back to rescue his men stands proud against the sleet. Incredible bone chilling stuff….. the swells are huge as we beach on rocks, the wind and water is icy… I have 4 layers on and 2 sets of gloves. Get dumped on by a wave….they were made of sterner stuff than me!
23rd: This ship has the world's best loo. - an uncurtained panoramic window. Flurries of snow flakes flit by as we sail to Deception Is, a flooded volcano caldera, through narrow Neptune's Bellows to Whaler's Bay, a deserted whaling station and research centre abandoned after being smothered in volcanic ash. It's blowing a gale now, a blizzard in fact, with horizontal snow stinging our faces as we walk up to Neptune's window. Updrafts suck the snow up vertically as we peer over into 50ft drop . Old buildings and caldrons, old graves, all half buried in old ash - an eerie place, but a ghostly beauty about it. A few swimmers brave the chill wind for a dip in the sea. The odd visiting penguin and seal, but they don't breed here - maybe they know something we don't…..
24th: What a difference a day makes…
The "real" Antarctic at last as we head down the Peninsula through sea ice, glaciated islands and icebergs. The sun peeps through now and then throwing different lights on the mountains, the snow, the drifting ice. I lean over the bow and watch the ice crash against the hull as we wend our way up the Lemaire Channel, past crabeater seals resting on the ice. They barely raise a flipper, and float off on their ice flow beds. At the end of the channel we anchor in a mill pond sea, and get ready for a zodiac cruise in "iceberg alley"….
Hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes; the ancient ice iridescent, an electric blue ….. penguins porpoise around the boat, hundreds, of crabeater seals lounge on the ice, even a leopard seal (reptilian looking evil guy out of Happy Feet.) Kayakers get their first paddle…
Photos are never going to capture this place....
Back to the ship, anchored at the base of a huge glacier for a bbq feast on the back deck, in perfect sunshine, listening to Gypsy Kings. You have to keep pinching yourself….
We retrace our steps through the Lemaire Chanel and a pod of Orcas play in the distance….
We anchor at Fort Lockroy, a restored British research base, now a fabulous museum, a fifties time capsule, and the most southerly Post Office, staffed by volunteers (currently 3 young women). It's plumb in the middle of an Adelie penguin colony. These comical little birds sit for hours, heads into the wind, on their nests of rocks; the mate occasionally waddles up with a reinforcing rock ….
Blue eyed shags and their chicks sit atop their iguano nests….
We dine anchored here, watching the sunset from the Polar Bar deck. We wave off the campers (so wish I could have gone!).
10.30, and the last rays of the sun linger a long time, lighting up the snow with shades of pink …. the half moon is already high in the sky. It's a magical night where darkness never really comes…
25th: Our last landing, and a chance to set foot on the Antarctic continent proper - a few of us celebrate being part of the 7 Continent Club. The Chilean base Gonzales, staffed with military, and more penguins who have the right of way….
It's really sad to go through the mudroom for the last time; everyone feels a little deflated, knowing the trip is coming to an end.
The notorious Drake Shake turns out to be a tranquil Drake lake as we head north to the mainland. We make such good time we're able to head via Cape Horn, so calm now, no hint of all it's ship wreck secrets…
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