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Published: December 3rd 2006
During my time in Antarctica I kept a paper diary. I am so glad I did, as the enormity of what I experienced while I was there is too overwhelming with hindsight, and if I hadn't kept a record of my thoughts and feelings as I was experiencing them, there is no way I would be able to convey them now. So, without further ado, I give you
Emily's Antarctica Diaries . . .
Day One: Thursday 23rd November 2006 We boarded our boat at around 4:00pm - our home for the next 10 days is called 'Explorer'. Purpose-built for exploration travel and with an ice-strengthened hull, she first sailed to Antarctica in 1969 and has been a regular visitor ever since. Following refurbishment in 2004, she is a pretty nice boat! I am sharing a twin cabin with a lady from Worthing, of all places! She seems nice, but seems to feel the need to give a running commentary on everything she does, which could get a little tiresome . . .
We set sail at around 6:00pm, and so far everything is pretty calm. But we don't hit the infamous Drake Passage until a bit
Day One: me on the ship
Very happy, nervous and excited!later!
Day Two: Friday 24th November 2006 Not much to report today really, as we have spent the whole day at sea. I slept really well last night, and am beginning to find the rocking motion of the boat rather soothing when I lie down. The weather has been on our side, and remains calm!
Our onboard lectures have begun, and so far I have attended lectures on the first Antarctic explorers, seabirds of the region and Antarctic geography and geology. We have also watched Attenbrough's 'Life in the Freezer' and a film called 'Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure'. If all that isn't enough to pass the time, I sit and play cards with Abran and Carrie. Good times, and I can sense the excitement building as we approach our destination.
Day Three: Saturday 25th November 2006 Another calm night at sea, and another good nights sleep. First lecture of the day was about the various members of Shackleton's 'Endurance' crew, which was really interesting but completely surpassed by our first sighting of an iceberg at 9:45 this morning! It began to sink in, then, what we were going to see. We have been briefed
about how to get in and out of a zodiac, the five-metre rule with regards to approaching wildlife (ie, don't go within 5 metres of them, but if they then choose to approach you that's ok), and we have also been told not to remove anything from the continent (including penguins - doh!). We have to disinfect our boots when we leave and enter the boat, and scrub them clean before getting back into the zodiac after being on land. It all seems really well managed.
We have also seen a lot of wildlife from the boat, including whales, petrels (including the Antarctic and Cape Petrels) and albatrosses. We should be able to leave the boat this afternoon for a zodiac cruise, as we are currently making good progress towards our first destination - Elephant Island. This is the famous place where 22 members of Shackleton's 'Endurance' crew waited for his return with help for 4 months after their ship was crushed by the ice. Wow.
Later: Just got back from my first zodiac outing - only one hour around the island and no landing, but wow! I saw hundreds of chinstrap penguins, an elephant seal and a
fur seal. There were also rumours of a leopard seal in the vicinity too, but we didn't see it from our boat. The penguins are amazing. Pure joy! The zodiacs can travel much faster than I thought they would be able to, and it is so much fun. We sped through a group of petrels that, as soon as we got near them, soared into the air surrounding the boat and it almost seemed like they were dancing with us and each other, they were so graceful.We saw some of the most stunning icebergs and formations, like I have only seen in photographs. Let me tell you, they are much more incredible in real life!
A great day.
Day Four: Sunday 26th November 2006 Woke around 6:45am. I slept well again although I felt a little queasy for a while as the seas are ever so slightly rougher. Apparently there was a beautiful sunrise at around 3am, which I obviously missed! I'll definitely set my alarm for it tomorrow though.
We have arrived at Paulet Island, home to around 100,000 pairs of Adelie penguins. The weather could not be better - clear, blue skies and
sunshine, low wind and it is relatively warm. It is stunningly, etherally beautiful here. Not for the first time, I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to see it.
11am: We took the zodiacs and just spent 3 hours on the island. I saw Adelie penguins in their thousands, blue-eyed shags nesting and Weddell seals on the beach. There are also the remains of a stone hut that Nordenskjold's 'Antarctic' crew built, when they had to spend the winter of 1903 on the island.
It is beautiful here, and I could have spent all day watching the penguins, they are amazing. I was sat watching one group for some time - they are sitting on eggs at the moment so are easy to watch. Males and females take it in turns to sit while the other goes and washes, catches food and collects small stones in its beak for the nest. It's very cute. One such penguin, a small dirty one I nicknamed 'Manky', was obviously an extremely unpopular member of the group, as every time he tried to waddle anywhere to get a stone, he would get squawked and nipped at by every penguin he passed.
It was very amusing, but I also felt rather sorry for the little guy.
12:15pm: I have just had an update to say that, because the weather has been so kind to us, we are able to get further south than we would normally be able to, and therefore we are going in search of Emperor penguins! Oh please! I am keeping everything crossed. We are not normally able to get anywhere near them on our trip, and apparently people pay around $12,000 to go on special trips to see them, so if we get to that will be such an enormous thing! (For those of you not familiar with Emperor penguins, they are the type that the film 'March of the Penguins' was about)
4:30pm: Just got back from seeing an EMPEROR PENGUIN!!! It was just stood there, on a flar piece of ice, and was so calm as the captain navigated the boat through the floating pieces of ice and parked up right next to it. I didn't get as close as I would have liked to take a picture, but it's amazing all the same. The weather is still so gloriously sunny and still and
we have been so lucky with everything - I can't help but wonder that our luck has to run out at some point!
7:00pm: Unbelievable! We just went for a walk out on the ice! The frozen Weddell Sea - AMAZING. This experience was incredible in itself, but was made even more so because an Emperor penguin just came right over the ice towards us and modelled for us for ages so we could take pictures! It got so close, within a couple of metres and was so curious and unafraid. It was followed by three Adelies, in a similar curious mood. I have never, ever seen anything remotely like this in my life. The world is, truly, a wonderful, beautiful, remarkable and surprising place. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. And the sun is still shining!
What an incredible day. One of the best in my life.
Day Five: Monday 27th November 2006 Awoke at 6am to a slightly overcast morning, although it is still pretty calm. Apparently the sunrise at 2:30am (which I was going to get up for but changed mind!) was beautiful - serves me right. Hopefully I haven't
missed my chance with the weather to see one!
11:15am: Just got back from another landing on Brown Bluff, an extinct volcano, home to more Adelie penguins, as well as some Gentoo penguins. I also saw a leopard seal (from a distance) and a Weddell seal from the zodiac. There was blue-eyed cormorants flying around as well.
Afternoon: I'm not very well this afternoon (AWFUL period from HELL) so have opted not to go on land for this afternoon's landing, which I am disappointed about but feel it is ultimately a sensible thing to do. I'll have a sleep in the warm instead.
Later: Apparently the trip was good, but they didn't see anything that we haven't spotted already, so I feel slightly less bad about missing it. It was the Captain's Antarctic supper this evening (with free bubbly!) and everyone dressed up. Except for us travellers that is - we let the side down a little bit, but nobody seemed to care!
Day Six: Tuesday 28th November 2006 12pm: I had my first bad night's sleep last night, which was more due to my feeling unwell than anything to do with the ship.
But I'm generally feeling much brighter this morning, which is a relief.
Have just been to George's Point, Ronge Island - so much snow! We saw some more Gentoos and some Chinstrap penguins, which are smaller than Gentoos but very pretty. We had to trudge through 2ft of snow to get anywhere, which was exhausting but fun, and after the amazing three-course meals we have been having onboard the ship it was good to burn a few calories! We amused ourselves for the morning by birdwatching, and by walking up a hill and then sliding down it on our bums! Hoorah for waterproof trousers!
There are some beautiful little icebergs here. Every single one is like a floating work of art; they are like beautiful, natural sculptures, shaped by the elements. Amazing.
This afternoon we are off to Port Lockroy, an old British research station which is now a shop, museum and post office, where I can post my postcards (17 of them!) and maybe buy a small souvenir.
2pm: OMG, I am so unbelievably, overwhelmingly, happy and joyous to be here! It's great to be alive!
Day Seven: Wednesday 29th November 2006 7:45am: So, yesterday afternoon we went to Port Lockroy, an old British research station, now used as a museum, shop and post office. Three people work there during the summer months - I wonder what that would be like? I can't imagine it; I think that, despite the amazing location, I would probably go a little mad.
Port Lockroay is sat on a small island, about 0.5 sq miles, and is also home to a colony of Gentoos. Scientists have divided the island into two sections - one that the public can access and one that they cannot - to see if close human contact has any kind of an effect upon the penguins' breeding. They have discovered that it has but, bizarrely, not in the way you would think. Apparently, the success rate of penguins that breed on the public side is higher than that on the side where they live undisturbed! They think it is probably because the human visitors scare off the skuas and other nasty birds that might normally try to steal the eggs.
Anyway, I didn't buy anything at the shop, but I had a good look around and posted my postcards (those
I sent one to, let me know when it arrives!).
Apparently, today we are going to land at Whaler's Bay, Deception Island. No prizes for guessing what happened there then! Apparently there are thermal springs there and we are allowed to bathe in the 'warm' pools if we like. I have my bikini on just in case, but not sure if I'll be brave enough to do that!
12pm: Well, I did it! I went for a dip in the thermal pool, which was actually lovely and hot! Some people actually opted to also run into the sea, but I decided against that one, deeming it a step too far! It was brilliant though, whenever we dug our hands and feet into the stones it was really toasty - lovely!
Deception Island was a bleak, cold and miserable place with a very strange negative energy. I think this is due in part to the fact that it is actually an active volcano, which I guess must provide strange energies, but also because when one sees the masses of whalebones scattered along the shore, in addition to the near-empty shells of the whaler's buildings and enormous, rusty oil
tanks, you can't help but imagine the scene of carnage that must have taken place. It was also snowing heavily and was really windy, which can't have helped matters! It is a sad island. Anna, an ornithologist and one of the expedition team on the trip, told me about a woman who had been on another trip she took there - apparently she was a healer (and I guess therefore rather susceptible to sensing energies) and apparently when she got out the zodiac onto the island she couldn't wait to leave. I knew exactly how she felt, and it was strangely comforting to know that I wasn't the only one to be affected by the island in that way. I'm glad I did the dip in the thermal pool, though, as it did cheer me up and was a great way to end the landing.
Bit of (potentially) bad news though - I've just seen the forecast for Drake Passage (which we head back to this evening) and at the moment it says 'rough'. Gulp! Although that could, and hopefully will, change in the next few hours. We only have one more landing to make, which will take place
this afternoon. Then the big sail back to Ushuaia begins . . .
Time for lunch now though, I've just got the announcement: 'Ladies and gentlemen, lunch is now being served in the dining room. Welcome and enjoy! Bon appetite!' Brilliant. It's become our favourite call!
7:15pm: Spent the afternoon at Half Moon Island, a gorgeously pretty and picturesque island surrounded by snow-covered mountains. I saw my final penguins of the trip (sniff!) - small groups of gentoos and chinstraps - and also some elephant seals asleep on the water's edge. There is also an Argentinian research station on the island as well as some large whalebones and remains of old boats - a stark reminder of what the island was once used for. But it was a lovely spot for our final landing, and it was with great reluctance that I boarded the zodiac to take me back to the ship, after spending the afternoon penguin/seal/scenery watching and generally getting my mind blown by the immensity of everything I have seen.
Day Eight: Thursday 30th November 2006 Nothing to report today, except a day of (relatively) rough seas and therefore a day in bed
for me! As long as I am lying down I feel ok with the swell, so I have spent the whole day like this, sleeping and not much else! I haven't been ill once though, so think my plan is working pretty well.
Day Nine: Friday 1st December 2006 10:15am: Well, I managed to get up this morning, which is better than I achieved yesterday! The swell has greatly reduced, and since around 6am when we got to Cape Horn, we have been sailing along the coast of Tierra del Fuego. It's pretty overcast and has been raining a fair bit, but we're nearly there and hopefully over the worst! It seems so strange seeing so much green again after a week of ice and snow.
3:10pm: The trip is nearly over, and we are nearly at port now. The trip officially ends tomorrow morning though, so although we will be in dock we will still spend the night on the boat, which will be weird. I just got back from our final briefing and a viewing of the expedition team photos, which are lovely but I don't think I'll be buying one at $50 a
hit! To be honest, I think most of my pictures are as good, if not a bit better, than theirs anyway.
I am feeling very emotional about the whole experience, and I really get the sense that I have just witnessed something truly unique and special. It's difficult to comprehend it all and let everything I have seen and done sink in, and I think this may take some time. We are allowed off the boat when we get into dock, so so after we have taken a trip into Ushuaia to stock up, I think much wine will be consumed in celebration tonight!
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So, there we go. My Antarctica experience. I wish I had written more, I wish I had written differently, but I'm glad I wrote something. However, words truly cannot do it justice and even the pictures barely scratch the surface, so the only way to really understand my experience is to book a ticket and go yourself . . .
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Sam
non-member comment
There is, and always will be something incredibly cool about penguins. Great pics and a very well written journal! All in all, good work!