Antarctica! (cont.)

Day 6

Actually, think back to day 5. Because that's kind of where this is starting. Night 5 / morning 6 was camping time. After dinner on the fifth night, about 40 of us headed over to a small island off the coast, set back into a small cove to camp for the night.

Easily the most extreme place I've camped and easily the least amount of gear I've had with me while camping. Unless you count sleeping overnight on the beach. It's a pretty cool place to camp with glaciers surrounding about three quarters of the island and the rest facing a relatively protected bay. A few people used tents, but most just had bivvy sacks and sleeping bags. I chose the latter and compressed a small area of snow to place my setup. I would have built an igloo, but once I saw Henrik, the Mighty Norwegian, carving out a small city with a snow shovel, I decided to go the other way. I figured my minimalist approach would make for a good contrast.

It never really got dark, though the sun did technically set. I slept well and was even too hot at times. Whoever said Antarctica was an unforgiving place obviously didn't go there with me, as I make the weather perfect as a matter of routine wherever I travel. This fact is documented in this very blog in posts regarding Torres del Paine, the Galapagos, and the Amazonian jungle.

Early in the morning we headed to Neko Harbor for our first continental landing. Here we found one lazy Weddell seal, more penguins, and a 115 m high lookout that we could hike up to. Coming down from the ridge we hiked along, you could see where people had slid down to the bottom and I was very disappointed to be told we couldn't do that. I would have done it anyway, but by doing something I had expressly been forbidden to do by the guide team, I would have most definitely assured my self in deep shit. It would have gone something like:  "Yay! This is awesome! I'm sliding down a 300 foot hill in Antarctica! Those suckers can't tell me what to do. Oh no, how the hell did I get airborne and upside down???!! Damn that hurt when I landed and my shoulder dislocated. Hhmmm, I don't seem to be slowing down. Crap, I wonder how much the fine is for running over that penguin and killing it. And cue the skid off the ice and the plunge into the freezing water and being banned from the rest of the excursions." So I hiked down like everyone else, then cruised around in the zodiac looking at icebergs.

After Neko we went to Port Lockroy. It used to be an old British scientific base. It was abandoned  in 1962 when the British lost interest in Antarctica due to the rising stock of The Beatles. It fell into disrepair, but was renovated in 1996 when Britain regained interest in Antarctica due to the falling stock of Oasis. It is currently maintained as a historical site by four poor souls who rely on passing ships for soap and chocolate. There is a gift shop and the southern most post office in the world. If you're keeping score at home, I've been to the most southern bar in the US, the most southern Irish pub in the world, the most southern city in the world, and the most southern post office in the world.

I don't have any good shots that show the whole place, because I bought a postcard that did. Oh, and there were naked ladies painted on the walls inside. Here's Liz Taylor...

Day 7

Damn, day 6 was long. Day 7 we went to Palmer scientific base. The slightly better funded US base down the road from Lockroy. They have a hot tub, a bucket of krill, and brownies. They did not share the "special" brownies with us. But our guide had a pink mohawk, so I'm pretty sure they were around somewhere.

Then there were more penguins.

Then...

Day 8 / 9

Confusion sets in. Not sure what happened on which day, so they are combined. You'll never know the difference. I had a sore throat, fever, generally feeling of blah. Skipped the polar plunge and don't regret it. Zodiac cruise with whales and icebergs.

Saw some orcas. I discovered the ten-photos-in-one-second function on my camera and took about 300 pics of them in about 10 minutes. They pretty much all looked like one of the following.

Day 10

Lobster party. These are the suits we were supposed to wear if we had to abandon ship. They are designed to keep you warm for an extra half hour or so, so you can contemplate your inevitable demise while developing hypothermia at a more controlled rate.

Some of us thought it would be a good idea to wear them to the bar on the last night. It was hot. That didn't last long.

Day 11

Disembark and put off blogging about the trip for another week. I'm sure I left some stuff out, but it was just more rocks, ice, and penguins. Go there yourself if you want to know what it's all about.