Date of Entry: February 23rd 2016

Date of Writing: April 14th 2016,  Palermo Art Hostel, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Considering we’re camping in sub zero temperatures I’m surprised that we sleep past 10 am before properly waking up and starting  slow process of breaking camp.  First though we get more hot water cooking to pour into the dehydrated breakfast Darrel has bought for about 20 usd a piece in Ushaia.  They’re not bad, but camping was never really met to be gourmet, especially in Antarctica.

Once we’ve broken camp and gotten the tents packed up we get the three kayakers heading back to the sailboat in their kayaks while waiting for Darrel to come grab the rest of us and all the gear in the zodiac.

After a little time to relax and warm up back on board Darrell offers up a zodiac ride. Tash, myself and the Mexicans are always eager participants, James and Enora though are still tired from the night before which they spent reading, writing, and reciting poetry (aka partying at Vernadsky), and Matt is immersed in a book so it’s just the four of us puttering away from the Spirit of Sydney and back into the maze of the Argentine Islands archipelago.

As we round a corner I recognize the narrow passage where I kayaked through just 24 hours before, only now everything has changed.  The massive hanging ice wall has collapsed and blacked the channel entirely, huge chunks of ice littering the shoreline surprisingly high up. there’s no doubt in my mind that if we’d been under it during that collapse we’d all have been dead.   A sobering reminder of where we are, and just how rugged this environment is. Things can go wrong easily, and if they do we’re a long way from help.  Here’s the before and after photo, and a video to go along with it.

It’s utterly terrifying to look at but we soldier on reversing course and heading out towards the more open seas by another narrow channel passing seals, skuas, blue eyed shags,  and icebergs as we go.

Eventually we come to an awesome and active crab eater seal yawning and harrumphing very near by are boat making for some impressive photos and just a cool overall experience.

Eventually we leave this beautiful aquatic creature behind and keep going moving on to one of the most constant stars of my Antarctic experience, the icebergs.  The skies are cloudy but the sun presses through the bleak greyness with stubborn light allowing the blue ice to glow even brighter.  I had never seen proper icebergs before coming to Antarctica, and believe me when I say they are way too incredible, each one a unique and stunning work of art.

As we continue on towards an inlet we find a penguin in a tide pool doing some very strange things, jerking this way and that and working rather frantically to keep itself clean, something penguins in general don’t seem to give much thought to when they’re pooping on each other.

Eventually we leave this aggressive bather behind and Darrell suggest that he could drop some of us off on the other side of the island and we could hike up and over the hill back to the boat. Myself, Ulises and Mariana take him up on the offer but Tash is feeling the cold and I can’t blame her, but still, I can’t turn down penguins.

We hike through snow and rock watching the gentoos interact.  It’s a scene that’s become almost normal to me, but I still get a kick of watching the chicks chase there parents, and here I also get perhaps my best view of a bay penguin learning to walk in actual thick snow.  It’s pretty damn cute.

We walk together trudging up poorly trodden paths up over the little snow covered mountains and finally a baby skua up close.  The fluffy ball of down is surprisingly cute,considering how it’s parents look like bigger versions of seagulls.

After a while of hard walking in the cold we crest the hill to a view of Vernadsky base and the sun still struggling to shine, heading up and over another little hill to get back to the spirit of sydney in time for dinner.

We end up coming back to right around the same place as we were two days ago, finding our butt made snow slide still intact, we opt to take another ride down.

From there we head back to the boat, Ulises almost slipping on the treacherous rocky shore twice but managing to stay dry and safe.  Back on board we have a tasty dinner before heading back to Vernadsky for one last night of partying.  We’re welcomed to the base by a stunning sunset despite the grey ness of the day.

Tbe night is far from over and I hope to add a video to this later but we spend the night at the base until very late alongside a few other yacht crews for a night of conversation, darts, music, dancing, science and everything else under the sun.

Darrell and James concoct a story about us being penguin hunters working for the Antarctic government conducting a penguin cull which allows us to take a certain amount of penguin trophy’s and together they convince many of the other passengers this is the truth. It’s funny at first but as I talk to some nice American guys from Tennessee I find myself wishing I could tell them the truth, but I know the lie has been worked too hard on to dare break it.  Oh well, I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually.

As the rest of the boats leave we stay, the night getting crazier and crazier with musical performances, dances, a move to the scientific offices and matt shaving his head into a mohawk and eventually falling asleep on the ozone detector.  Perhaps not an expected Danger of Antarctica, but having too much fun partying can also be dangerous, I mean how can you beat dancing the night away with Ukrainians in Antarctica.  After that all the other parties of life risk becoming dull affairs.

Around 3 am my energy is flagging and Josh offers to take me back to the boat, I take him up on the offer and leave the others to there revelry knowing we have a long day of sailing tomorrow.  We’re heading north again, this time our hopeful destination being the British outpost of Port Lockroy, home to a post office, impressive mountains, countless penguins and much much more.