Not a single footstep

Getting up very early has its perks, I sat on the observation desk sorting photo’s as we sailed through the Lemaire Channel again. We sailed to Port Lockroy, I sat at the back of the boat, all bundled up and watched my fellow passengers. I find it so intriguing that the big community has now divided into smaller groups. We have the big group of Chinese who were taking pictures of the monk, Buddha and their art work. We had the Norwegian ladies doing their knitting, our Australian friends who we sit with, the large American group and the British seem to migrate and chat to everyone.

Our first stop today was Port Lockroy, or Penguin Post Office. It wa featured recently on the TV and whereas last year they had 80 applications for the seasonal jobs, this year they had 1500! We had a member of staff come on board and answer questions. It’s a four month season, living on an island as big as a football pitch. Everyday they clear guano from the steps, they process the postcards and sell the shops goodies. As we were on a time limit, Ali and I seemed to think it was supermarket sweep and ended up with tshirts, fleece, hats, stamps…
As soon as we got off the boat, we had to be careful of our feet, the Gentoo penguins were everywhere and don’t care about tourists one bit! One pecked the boots of a passengers, then came over and just stood next to me for quite some time. We posted our postcards, ironically they are now on our ship to the Falklands because the mail goes on the next ship going to Falklands before flying to London. Inside Bransfield House (Base A) is a museum of the time men stayed for 2.5 years. They had painted pics of Liv Tyler, Doris Day and Marilyn Monroe. The foot cupboard had tins of steak and kidney pudding, butter and Branston pickle. On the way back we saw the chains on the dock used by the whalers.

The afternoon was spent whale watching, or in my case whale watching while sat in the Jacuzzi . The humpback whales were feeding so close to the ship. I was find whale watching in the jacquzzi until Ali came to find me as the bubble nets were visible at the front of the ship. I ran back and in haste forgot to take off my swimming costume, instead I put all my clothes on top and rushed to the front of the boat to see the whales feeding.

Dinner time, while everyone else went to dinner, I stood for an hour on the bow, just me and Antarctica. As nobody was around, no talking or noise of people taking pictures, my ears were on overdrive. I could finally hear the constant booming and crashing of the ice moving. The sea was so calm today, I gazed at my new love, icebergs. I looked at glaciers, at the crevasses, at the huge blocks of snow that have become dislodged under the weight of additional snow. I just had to pinch myself, my dream of being in Antarctica finally came true.