Pure Antarctic Magic

I’ve started writing down single words each day that summarize how I feel about each stop we make. I can’t wait to put them into a word cloud and see how it all shakes out. This place is awe-inspiring, and just the thought of walking where there are no footprints ahead of you is such an unbelievable experience. Then I like to think about how quickly our footprints will disappear with the wind and snow- like we were never there.

Today we had my favorite landing so far (although if you asked me about the previous landings, I probably would say the same thing!). We cruised through an area called the Lemaire Channel, which was unbelievable. The mountains on either side of the ship made a person feel so tiny and insignificant. The icebergs we saw were bigger than houses and the truest glacier blue yet. They have been carved into incredible pieces of artwork by wind and the ocean. After cruising through this magical dream land, we got to our landing spot. There were choices as far as what we could do, and I chose the long hike. We hiked up the side of a hill (I’d call it a mountain, but it was pretty flat compared to the mountains all around us). At the top of the hill was a cairn. Sailors in the past would leave messages in the cairn in order to let others know that they had made it to this spot and where they were headed next, in case anyone was looking for them. The view from the top of this point took my breath away. It was a 360 degree panorama of pure, raw Antarctic beauty. I have incredible pictures, but I can guarantee that none of them do the view justice.

After this amazing excursion, it was off to our next site. For this landing, I chose to do a guided photo walk. Most of my pictures are on my camera, but I did do some with my phone as well. In Antarctica, the only thing that can touch the ground are your feet and your hiking pole tips. You may never crouch, sit, or say anything down on the ground, so changing camera lenses is very cumbersome. To get around this, I bring my telephoto lens on my camera, and use my iPhone for the other pictures. This stop was particularly beautiful due to the fact it was snowing. Since we were on a photo walk with National Geographic photographers, they taught us how to play around with our camera shutter speeds to capture the snow in the pictures. It was fun, and I look forward to analyzing what I shot on that walk!

Now we turned the ship around and went through the Lemaire Channel again. Our ship is one of the few that can go through this tight channel, and I spent some time on the bridge watching the officers navigate it by hand. It is not done with autopilot! We got treated to seeing many humpbacks on our return trek.

My roommate and I were invited to the special dinner tonight (all guests get this experience, but we are divided into small groups for each night). The menu was a culinary tour of explorer Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica. It was so delicious and such a fun event.

While we were at dinner, our ship arrived at Palmer Station, an American research base. I was geeking out about being able to see this! One of our naturalists is working on a project at Palmer, so the ship stopped here so he could check on his project.

Tomorrow is our last day in Antarctica before we start the long journey north. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us tomorrow!