Antarctica 2

17/12/16 Camping on the ice

We had the biggest day ever.  Two excursions then the long awaited campout on the ice.

Stop 1: a bay overlooking a glacier.  The glacier calved twice while we were there.  There was a lovely hike up a tall snowy hill to a view of the glacier and the bay.  I marched up on my own slow with lots of stops for looks.  You went up on a beaten path through knee deep snow.  Maybe deeper but that was how far you would sink. 

At the top there was a little cliff rock you could sit on and admire the glacier.  That's where I saw the best calving from.

On the way back down it was a sleep snow path and a lot of people were falling over. I decided to check out of that whole scene and instead decided to roll down the snowy hill.  Oh it was so much fun, like playing in the snow on a snow day back at home.  So I tumbled down the hill in my waterproof clothes with snow flying and me dizzy and silly.

Stop 2: Penguin Beach

Summertime and the living is easy.
Penguins are jumping, and the ice is high

Jes and I decided that the beach was so good that I not only wouldn't go on the hike on that island but we wouldn't even go to the rookery. I have seriously not gotten tired of watching the penguins go in and out of the water.  They do it in this series of little hops one then on the stomach in the water then away. And the reverse on the way out.  They spin and seem to almost scrub themselves in the water.  And then they stand on the beach and preen. 

The beach was covered in variegated pebbles of beautiful colors, from deep purple to clear white to lovely stripes all over.  And the penguins were coming down from the rookery onto the pebble beach and into the water and back out again and resting or preening or making their way over the rocks. 

We walked all the way up it both ways and at the end of that it had kind of used our time.  Which was wonderful.  We had so many times we just stopped and let them roll by. 

This bay was also excellent for the beautiful clear ice bergs littered around it.  Apparently when the glaciers calf impressively they can create mini tsunamis which push the ice bergs way up the beach. 

While we were there a giant ice berg way off shore cracked in front of us and started to sway to and fro as it tipped on its side, like a giant clock.

3: Camping on the ice overnight

They took us over after dinner. We had been briefly trained to put up the tents, but everything is harder on knee deep snow.  Jes went in to over her knee on her sprained ankle which was bad but not reinjuring.  So first we had to trample the snow enough that you didn't "post hole"  every time you stepped so the tent would stand straight.  We had these little gauze tents- I was expecting a lot more you know sturdy thickness, but they were really easy to set up and stayed basically warm enough.

Jes and I built a couch by sitting in the snow with our next door neighbors and enjoyed the view some.  Then this guy Tian was playing around trying to build a snowman with the powdery snow and this other guy David began building a full sized one and called him to join.  I joined in too and together we built a real snowman.  We called him Neko after the glacier that was shedding this morning and dressed him up in our stuff.  We even gave him a life jacket as a jacket, one of the ones we wear on the zodiacs. That was adorable.

So then Tian decided he wanted to build a snow fort and I climbed the little hill to the penguin colony with some people. They took us over to the island after dinner so by this time it was like 10:30. We climbed up and then lay there in the snow watching penguins and talking for a while.  Then we headed back down around 11:30, close to midnight. Tian's fort was going well, real walls, so hung out there with Jes til the sun went down. This just made it a dimmer twilight look. I thought about staying up til the sun came up because it wasn't much more of a feat than staying up til the sun went down, but Jes said she wanted to sleep on the ice properly for the full experience of spending the night.

So we bedded down. The tent felt warm in the air,  but the cold of the snow had no trouble getting through the tent bottom and the foam pad, and the sleeping bag to my bones.  So whatever bits of me were in direct physical contact with the ground would get steadily colder til I rolled over. It was all good though, the weather was so nice we hung out outside for hours there really enjoying being on the island.

I went to bed at 12:30 or so and woke up at 4.  Tians snow fort was all done, chest high with crennelations and a shelf and a portal. He had slept out there sort of. We hung out some more and then I did maybe another hour of sleep and then our wake up call came. We had to tear down the tents and load up.

Jes and I were like the second to last people to sleep and the second to last people on the boats.  We love you ice.

18/12/16 Whale day

So we got up like lambs at 5am and packed our tents and got back on the boat.  I felt good but very little sleep meant a bit of nausea and of course I was pretty cold.  But we got on the ship and to breakfast as it opened so legendary breakfast followed by a legendary hot shower followed by almost napping but in my pj's on my way to buy a few postcards this guy says to me, "you know there's whales out there right?" So I run out half dressed and there they are, three humpbacks virtually napping just under the surface of the water.  They would blow breathe regularly as they felt like it and you could see their whole fins and fluke just below the surface and really the whole outline of their bodies cause it's so high up like I've never seen. 

So I have a good gawp and then go back for my camera, my jumper and Jes.  And we go take pictures and watch for ages.  They even stuck their heads up out of the water some which were covered in horny little bumps.

Soo then we go to the historical research station.  It was an old 1960s mapping station which had been restored and was also located on top of three penguin rookeries and a cormorant rookery.  So we looked at both.  Also cool news a guy who works on our ship worked the restoration the first year it was happening.  They even have a post office on the island.  Technically the first British territory base.

We went through more ice covered passages today as well.  The coastal mountains are so high here.

And a little napping.  But very little.  I'm a sleep so hard.

But there was a last coda to the day,  I was passing out after a long day and sooooo tired when the announcement came on.  And I was like that better not be whales because I am not getting up, there's whales on deck the announcement says.  Jes and I groan in unison and also throw off the covers in unison.

It must have been someplace full of krill, because there were in excess of 20 whales out there.  Now some were really far away,  you just saw the spouts go off in the distance.  But some were right by the boat,  diving for food and coming up.  So there were lots of cresting backs and some tails.  Often three of them diving together. 

19/12/16 Our last real day

Two excursions in the Shetlands today,  heading back north.  The first was called Deception Island,  a really cool island because it is a volcanic caldera, so it is in like a 300° crescent shape.  It's formed from a ring of seeping volcanos and last erupted in the 90s, so the whole island is that black volcanic basalt, including the beach which is a black sand beach like Hawaii.

This was the first day we had anything approaching real weather.  They said 30 knot winds coming off the mountains and there was real swell in the water.  After the second excursion we had to time our getting off the boat to be between the waves.  Like wait for the wave to lift the zodiac up, then climb out quickly, then the zodiac drops down, next person gets ready.

Some props need to be given to the weather here.  It's been incredible.  Above freezing temperatures, very little wind, bright sun out at least a few hours a day.  Our drake passage was really easy both ways (though jes did throw up on the way back so not limitlessly easy,  but not the infamous choppiness).  When we camped out and it wasn't even cold til really sunset that was a blessing.  I mean we're rugged up but that works which is enough.

Ok so we had a zodiac cruise first along the cliffs but it was very splashy and cut a bit short because of aforementioned weather.  But we got along some of the caldera but not as far or outside it. 

Then we landed on the beach and you could take a quick walk up to Neptune's bellows,  a dip where you can see a volcanic cone.  Jes didn't love the uphill but the view was fantastic,  you could see straight down the steep crag of the caldera, and literally you know it's formed from all these little volcanos and one of the crags framing this depression was the inside of one of the volcanos, the cone, and you could see the circular curve and the blasted on volcanic ash like a patina. 

Today was the day of the polar plunge, and we stayed up there til there were like 15 minutes left. So we had to kind of forced march out. I was on the fence as to if I wanted to do the polar plunge, but you know in the end I never stay out of the water. 

If you'll recall it was extra cold and windy that day so stripping off my six layers of clothes didn't seem that smart, but I had been jogging back soooo I just went quick.  And the more I took off the more I was totally gonna do it.

So I got down to underwear and ran in.  The water was like one degree, but the air was like two before wind chill, so when the water hit my body it wasn't even a shock, just like getting into a cool pool. So I ran in, with the ice all around, and when I got about thigh deep I dove.

That was a shock, but I stopped for a short celebration before running back out.  The cold got pretty intense back on shore in the wind, but clothes were like an active and intense pleasure. I put on my shirt, and could like feel its warming properties like a balm on my skin.  Surprisingly quickly.  The only bad bit was my feet which had spots of both pain and numbness, which makes you more nervous about the numbness. But I got them into socks and had a nice sauna back on the boat. 

By the time I changed, showered, saunad, and ate lunch we were pretty close to our next destination. Jes crashed, so I went out alone. I lucked into another splashy zodiac cruise.  By now in half moon Bay,  the swell had gotten big, which again limited the length of the cruise, but also made it like a roller coaster, up and down the waves.

So we got some party time crashing through the waves and some good views of the basalt cliffs.  Then we landed, this was a big colony of chinstrap penguins. One special thing about this colony is that the island is made all of rocks. And to get from rock to rock the penguins have to adorably jump.

I was tired, but I stayed til the last return boat because it was our very last excursion.

20/12 /16 - 21/12 /16 Going home

And then we turned back and headed home. Back to ushuaia for me and Jes,  back actually home for most.

We went into an antinausea meds coma for the first day, and Jes even threw up this time, but still a like completely unheard of calm drake passage.

I went out one time and the water was like spilled oil, mirrored glass.

Orcas showed up but I seriously only got out there in time to see the splash. Jes saw them though.

There was also a single young whale who hung out waving. Like it would roll on its side and and flap its fin to and fro in the air. I was in the shower for some of that too, but caught the act enough to definitely enjoy.

We made great time because of the calm drake and decided to sail around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. We got great views of the land, clear day and we got close.

And then up through the beagle passage in Terra del Fuego. We saw dolphins leaping, their whole bodies whip cracking out of the water.

We spent the last day in the library studying guide books and picking the brain of the guide. We got a great itinerary for Argentina and Chile going, I'll post that later.  And then the night before we pulled into port. We spent the last night listening to the cruise musician, who followed across the universe with feeling good just for me.

We traveled 1700 nautical miles. Most southerly latitude 65° South at lamer channel.

I felt, as we embarked, watching lands end fade into the distance again like I had gone as far as I could go. I had reached the end of the earth, and then I kind of sailed off of it.  Now in two directions, to the east and the south. I don't know. Not like my travels are over but like that bark turns again home. I think I have done it as much as one can or something, seen the world. It's an awfully big world. And an awfully small one too.