Blogs from South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, Antarctica - page 2

It would be two days sailing through bad weather to Antarctica or so we were lead to believe, the weather however was so good that we were able to land at an Argentine research station in the rarely visited South Orkney Islands. The base is located in a bay where a Scottish expedition ship was once frozen in the ice and the crew were forced to survive on penguins and seals for eight months. The base has been operating since 1904 and seems to be an Argentine land grab rather than anything else as little scientific research appears to be going in. There are 16 males at the basement during the winter months and they have a small museum, a church and several bars. These islands are remote, cold and harsh but I did see the ... read more

Continued from Part 2... Day 11: Today is another full day at sea. South Georgia is quite a ways from mainland Antarctica, but the plan is to stop at the South Orkney Islands tomorrow. We sleep in till 10:30 and it feels amazing. After three straight days of waking up by 6:00 AM this is a much needed sleep-in day. It’s quite cloudy today and visibility isn’t so great so we use the day to go through pictures and read and whatnot. As I am reading Unbroken, the story of Louie Zamparini, I finally have some time to think about the Japanese treatment of POWs in WW2. It was disgusting, violating every international law for prisoners of war. I tell Nimarta that what the Nazis did was so horrible that people seem to forget about the ... read more

Hi to all of our loyal blog followers. It's always great to learn new words and phrases in different languages and with an all Chinese charter, learning was inevitable! My counting in Mandarin has greatly improved for example. Prior to the trip I could quite confidently count to nothing in Mandarin, now I can count to six... I can even say 'once, twice, sold'.. Eetze, artze, maila! Please and thanks, good morning and seal. Rocks and kettle, cold and look... 春節 I can not read any of it though. The writing is very complicated and has thousands of characters. It's interesting that the Chinese writing system is so complex yet the Chinese eating system, with chopsticks, is simple... Curious... Anyway... The Year of the Cardboard Dragon I've just spent another three weeks in the Antarctic on ... read more

The South Shetland Islands are a remote archipelago off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. They are glaciated, rugged, windy and exposed. Massive penguin colonies hang out there of course! We got on land at Point Wild on Elephant Island, one of the more easterly in the island group. This is the site where Frank Wild of Ernest Shackleton's 'Endurance' expedition of 1914 - 16 stayed behind and watched over 21 of the expedition members while Shackleton sailed off with five others to get help. It is a cramped area of bare rock, horrific weather and brutally cold and rough seas! These men were stranded here for over 3 months with an upturned boat for a house, makeshift stone walls and canvas from sails for blankets. To make their ordeal worse it was on a ... read more

Zoals beloofd op deze blog meer foto's van Antarctica. Deze blog toont onze klim en klauter activiteiten aan land, het kajakken tussen de ijsbergen door en de moeizame tocht met het zeiljacht door het ijs. Maar om aansluiting met de vorige blog te vinden eerst nog even een Leopard seal op een ijsschot ( die zeehond die niet alleen pinguins opeet maar ook rubberbootjes stukbijt) en een walvis. Uiteindelijk zie je hoe we weer veilig in de thuishaven komen, via het Beagle kanaal terug in Ushuaia . In de volgende blog beelden van de bergen van Patagonie, en van een van de moeilijkste rotsklimwanden ter wereld, de Torres del Paine.... read more