Curious thing happened last night. I was watching the horizon for a bit from the warmth of the library which is right under the bridge when I saw a ship on the horizon. We haven't seen any ships at sea since leaving Ushuaia. Flipper claimed it was the Expedition, the GAP ship that I was considering booking with. This was also the ship parked behind us at dock in Ushuaia. Big ocean, small world.
Yesterday was a super-fantastic day. It was evenly overcast about 2C, lightly snowing, next to no wind - perfect for a landing. We dropped anchor at Half Moon Island in the South Shetlands home to some nesting Chinstrap penguins and the odd gentoo penguin. The tone of the landing was set while in the loading line up. It had been snowing steadily through the night and parts of the decks and all the railings had a nice light coating of snow. As the guides made their way down to their zodiac, we passengers waited in line two decks above hanging impatiently over the railing. One timid little snowball, compliments of a Chinese guest, landed on it's deck. Within 10 seconds the guides were pelted. Shane and David my two least favorite lecturers were the most targeted, and not only by me.
We landed on a small patch of beach with a very snow covered hill rising up behind it. It became quickly apparent that most of the passengers had never experienced deep snow before. I waited on the beach for a bit, thoroughly enjoying the chinstraps who were tobogganing on their bellies, only to find a traffic jamb of people just beyond the top of the hill, fallen, floundering and stuck. I made my way around the tangle and down the hill without too much difficulty to sit down to quietly watch the Weddell seals lolling about in the snow. About 20 people joined me having followed in my footsteps.
Giving up on the wildlife I decided to watch the humans for a change. The rest of the traffic jam, mostly Chinese, remained at the top of the hill throwing snowballs, making snow angels and generally being silly. It was the CEO of a telecommunications company, I believe, who was shirtless and inviting others to throw snowballs at him. The lot of them ended up tumbling down the hill which allowed me to make my escape up the hill and back to the landing beach.
From the far end of the beach I, along with some chinstraps, watched with great amusement as one by one the Chinese tumbled down the other side of the hill for their polar swim. I opted out as there were no geothermal pools to be found. (Sorry Heather!) Many Chinese, a couple of Brits, an Aussie and an American braved the -2C water, some in their altogethers. The highlite was when a perturbed gentoo penguin chased one naked swimmer into the water - I think it was the CEO dude. A good time was had by all.
For our afternoon landing I was determined to get some solitude. This time at Barrientos island just a few miles from Half Moon. I was on the first zodiac, first out of the boat and first on the flagged trail. It was about a kilometer hike partly through snow (so I had an edge) ans partly through muck. I had another advantage by not stopping to photograph the penguins! My reward was to be the first person out on a long gravely spit littered with whale bones lying in virgin snow. A fabuluous yet short lived photo opt but I made the most of it.
As my fellow travellers caught up I moved off to a side spit, got out my macro lense and shot lots of closeups of various colourful beach detrius. The clouds lifted and the sun came out as the afternoon progressed. The guides had a hard time rounding up people for the return after such a lovely afternoon. Everyone agreed that it was a perfect farewell to Antarctica.
Now we are heading back to Ushuaia. It takes two days to cross the Drake which is rumoured to be the roughest open sea in the world. Last night was fairly rough but not too bad. Today it's no where living up to it's reputation - no white caps and fairly gentle swells. Fine by me. Last night after dinner there were a few broken bottles and glasses during our "Great Antarctica Quiz." And I don't think it was the sore losers.
We still have lectures to fill up our "At Sea" days. David did a knot tying workshop which was interesting. I am hopeless at knots, apart from my shoelaces but I think that I will remember how to do the figure 8. Laurie and Michael with have something interesting later this afternoon.
Time to check in with the petrels and albatrosses on deck.
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