Today we got to stand on Antarctica proper. Not that it was actually a “ticklist” for me, but, this does complete being on all continents, and before Maaike, not that it’s a competition mind, but, if it was, I’d have won ;) (she was first on Antarctica though, convincing the boat driver (Marla) that she had to touch land first)

Aaaaaaaaanyway ;)

Penguins. It’s a rough life, and rocks are seriously important things. They steal rocks from eachother, and, if caught, well, the one who is being stolen from is not happy! Females (who have already hatched their chick) will have sex with males in return for stones… sneaky things. And the smell.. it’s.. a full rich aroma that’s for sure.

We also went for a cruise around (that was always the pattern, half the passengers would land while the other half cruised, then swap). You can see the chinstrap penguins are perfectly happy on the small iceberg with the leopard seal, they can move faster on the iceberg. That said, I’d have thought once in the water they’d be toast, but maybe not.

In the afternoon we went for a cruise around Kinnes Cove

Lots of Adele penguins in the water, videos will have to wait for Europe when there’ll be more time for uploading and editing! Did you know there are only two types of penguin? The white ones coming towards you, and the black ones walking away from you ;)

We also did the polar plunge. They give you a harness and tied you in too! not taking any chances with heart attacks ;) Water was a balmy 1 degree or so. I cheated and had a sauna first (yes, there was a sauna on board), so it actually wasn’t that bad at all to be honest! We did get a certificate for our troubles too!

Then we cruised on towards Trinity Island, passing many many massive tabular icebergs on route. It was utterly awe inspiring.. you have to be there…. Tabular icebergs come from the ice-shelves. Big things. We were sailing past them for at least an hour (and of course, we’d been seeing icebergs for most of the journey since the Falklands)

What a nuts place this was – Point Wild on Elephant Island. Here it was that 28 men from the Endurance Expedition landed, and 22 stayed for 4 months while Shackleton et al went off by boat to South Georgia for rescue.

The passengers didn’t get to land unfortunately, above you can see a few of the expedition staff on land, at Point Wild. It doesn’t look like much, and it really isn’t. A very small inhospitable spit of land. The Endurance crew (Wild?! and a couple of others) had rowed 7km along shore to find this spot, it was the best they could do, and it was here that they made camp. What a brutal place to be for 4 months.

There’s a monument to the Chilean captain (Luis Pardo Villalón) who was the captain who rescued them off the Island.

It’s funny, we had the calmest seas getting there, and even then we were unable to land (ice on the landing and a bit of a swell). Most trips they can’t even see remotely as much as we did, let alone have the opportunity to do a zodiac cruise around the place.

And then there was this guy, a sleeping juvenile humpback whale. Every 6 mins or so it would come to the surface, have a breath, and sink back down again.

Then in the afternoon we went exploring around more of Elephant Island.

The whale above might be a Southern Right, I’m not quite sure, maybe a sei whale. Definitely a whale anyway ;)

It was a funny time Christmas on board. Anyone doing this trip (especially solo) had to be aware that they were skipping Christmas with family, or not Christian / religious etc. The staff planned competitions (decorate your door, poetry and songs), but there were also options for those who wished to opt-out. So it was well done, as everything was well done on the trip!

Unfortunately forgot to take a picture of our own door?!?! ah well, we didn’t win anyway ;) the guy (George Curran) who did the really excellent portraits won… here’s one he did of me. I quite like it :)

I did enter the poem/song competition, and, whilst a finalist, the best definitely won (rudolf the red nose reindeer, but all about the crew etc.)

Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the hull,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a gull,

The adults were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of fur seals ran through their heads,
and away on the deck I heard such a clatter,
I ran to the porthole to see what was the matter

The moonlight glistened on the crests of the waves,
and cast a strange light ‘oer penguins watery graves
When all at once I thought I heard hoofprints,
Was it reindeer I said?
Surely not, they’re all dead*.

The reindeer being dead refers to South Georgia, where reindeer had been introduced (for meat), and recently eradicated by (NZ) helicopter pilots who shot the lot.

Dinner was fantastic as ever, turkey, ham, more brussel sprouts than could shake a stick at.. honestly, I think I gained a good 5-10 kg on this trip! (more to come on food later). Pictured below is Cat and Mel – mother and daughter, of Welsh extraction and great fun. They’d actually done the penultimate trip to ours, but enjoyed it so much that they decided to stay on for South Georgia!! Really great fun to be around. We did make other friends on board, hard not to, but unfortunately didn’t take many pictures. Pictured with me is Colin, a brother of one of the staff (Adrian, the ornithologist in residence), also great fun. I do wish I’d taken pictures of Alex and Clare two brits on the trip, but was too interested in chatting than taking pics. Hey ho, hopefully catch up with them again in London sometime.

Please note, not all of these pictures were taken by me. There were a lot of really excellent photographers on the trip, and some of them very kindly shared their best photos. Where possible I have attributed the picture taker, if it wasn’t me or Maaike.

I don’t know much about Orca, except that they’re not whales but actually a dolphin. Anyway, Type D are apparently the rarest, and we had the most exceptional viewing of them while en route over very calm seas to Elephant Island. Did I mention yet how lucky we were with the weather? ;)

Those pictures were all mine, but, like I said, other passengers with better skills, and often better hardware also shared their pictures. These next pictures all came from a passenger called “Rick”, and this one is probably my favourite, here uploaded in full res.

And these are some more of his pictures.

It was amazing, about 70 odd Orca, in about 5 family groups they think. Only the 17th “confirmed? sighting ever. We were with them for, oh, an hour or so. It was a magic part of the trip, everyone was buzzing for days after. Many thanks to Rick for sharing his most excellent photographs.

Quite the Christmas present!

Please note, not all of these pictures were taken by me. There were a lot of really excellent photographers on the trip, and some of them very kindly shared their best photos. Where possible I have attributed the picture taker, if it wasn’t me or Maaike.

“Gold Harbour offers a beautiful vista, with the beach backed by an amphitheatre of hanging glaciers, vertical cliffs, and the snow-covered peaks of Mt. Paterson. With 25,000 breeding pairs of king penguins, this site is home to an abundance of wildlife, including both seabirds and seals.” (description from our trip handbook.. I’ve been cheating and using excerpts ;) )

Stunning place Gold Harbour, hanging glacier just falling off into the ocean constantly.

It’s not the clearest, but you can also see a leopard seal munching the remains of a king penguin there. The skua?! was annoying the leopard seal too.. lucky he didn’t get munched also!

Then time for lunch, while we moved to Cooper Bay

“Cooper Bay is home to South Georgia’s largest chinstrap penguin colony, and also offers nesting ground for gentoo, macaroni and king penguins. The landscape has been sculpted from rock and ice over the last 5,500 years of glacial retreat, and is now a relative oasis of greenery in comparison to with the Antarctic-like scenery of nearby Cape Disappointment.”

Finally we cruised through Drygalski Fjord before leaving South Georgia. It was one of the few times we didn’t have perfect weather, so we couldn’t really see the sides of the fjord. We did see the massive glacier as it retreated up (and in so doing creating) the fjord.

Certainly South Georgia was a highlight of the trip, a wonderful place to experience. The wildlife abundant, the sights majestic, a wild place. Hearing the stories of the whalers, glimpsing into their hard and bloody existence, yip, quite the trip, and not even in Antarctica yet :)