Antarctica

Leaving the South Shetland Islands behind us, we are now within the Antarctic peninsula. On our starboard are the receding Islands and to port is Antarctica itself. The air has taken on a distinct chill, the sea has become very flat and dark, an inky blackness. It reminds me of the lake outside the gates to Moria when Gandalf was trying to conjure up the password to enter.
There is a silence around us, just the humming of the ships engines and the water parting gently across the bow. We are looking out at a land that is pure white reaching up to the mountain peaks and down to the murky sea. Ice is beginning to appear in the waters, chunks getting bigger and bigger from a small car to house in size. The engines slow as we begin to weave our way through an ice field. There is a loud thud, and the ship judders. Five minutes later the captain annouces "we hit an iceberg, but have checked and there is no damage". That's comforting! WE continue to weave our way through. Time becomes irelevant as the daylight remains for all but a couple of twilight hours in the middle of the night. All else is daytime.
We are heading for one of the many small research bases that are dotted around the continent. We will be visiting an Argentinian base, a Chilean base and a British base before we leave. These are the only inhabitations on the continent and are usually only occupied for the short summer months before the endless night of winter returns.
There is so much to say about Antarctica which would take pages and pages for me to describe.  I shall just say that we have seen humback whales & orcas, chinstrap, gentoo and adelie penguins, crabeater, weddell and leopard seals as well as the many birds here including the magnificent wandering albatross that can stay on the wing for up to 3 years as it takes its gentle glide circumnavigating the whole continent.
We have been ashore and sat beside penguin rookeries as they go about their business, building nests, heading off to the sea for food and returning. Sometimes the inquisitive ones stop, wander over and look a us wondering who or what we are. There is a 5 metre rule for approaching wildlife, but if you stand still and they are interested in you, then you just enjoy the close encounter that they countenance themselves.
They make a lot of noise as they prepare the nests made out of the pebbles they find. They also steal pebbles from each others nests and you can spend ages watching the crafty ones waiting for their moment to steal a pebble and waddle off at full speed with their prize firmly held in their beaks.
The whales are majestic and beautiful to watch but the penguins truly are the stars of Antarctica and are everything you think they will be from the many wildlife programmes we have all seen. The waddling, sliding, jumping; it is all there in real life. The only thing you don't know until you get here is the smell. A penguin rookery stinks of rotten fish and everything is coloured pink, the colour of penguin poo. They really are prolific in the toilet department. They also make "penguin highways" to get to and from the shore. These are the trampled down routes that they take back and forth. It is so funny to see jut their heads as they tramp towards their goal in the gulley of the highway. Then another comes the other way. There are no passing places an a penguin version of a Mexican Standoff ensues. Eventually one turns round and goes back the way it came followed on their tail by the winner of the standoff.
Seeing orca and humpbacks so close to the ship as they breach, their water spout first, followed by their backs and then, if you are lucky, the tail breaks out into the air makes you hold your breath in anticipation.
We have kayaked with penguins swimming around us in glorious sunshine and then through ice fields in a snowstorm with the snow freezing on the dark inky water causing it to turn to a frozen slush as we paddled, looking for a way back to the safety boat after the weather closed in suddenly. We have launched our kayaks from the sea ice standing on the ice at first and sliding into the sea. (Curiously, in the shallows the sea is transparent and you can see the bottom easily, but it goes deep very quickly and takes on the eerie inkiness of the deep ocean).
We have cruised around huge icebergs in the inflatable zodiac boats and seen seals and penguins resting on the ice floes before going back into the sea. We have watched a mother and baby humpbck swim alongside our ship and a group of 6 Orca out hunting.
In all it is truly a magical experice. I have attached some photos. We are currently in the Atacama Desert and uploading anything is difficult and videos are impossible. Photos are at link below.
Oh yes, and we had a small, initimate performuance from Joss Stone for around 30 of us in the ship's bar on the final night to round things off.
Enjoy.






Antarctica pics