AmyHuang
The Antarctica Diaries - Part 2
(Continued from previous post...)
7th March 2010
We woke up feeling a little sick and also a little grumpy from lack of sleep as the ship rolled a lot throughout the night. But the negative feelings quickly disappeared over breakfast as we prepared for our one and only Antarctic continental landing. (Most of our landings were done on different islands along the Peninsula as it was difficult to find a suitable shore to land on the actually continent – most of it were steep cliffs or glaciers)
Shortly after breakfast, we were assembled in the Mud Room once again to hop on the zodiacs which ferried us ashore onto Prospect Point where we got to enjoy the magnificent views of icebergs, ice cliffs and snow covered mountains. It was a beautiful example of Antarctica in close-up.
There were also colonies of moulting Adelie penguins and they all looked so fat and fluffy! We sat near them and just watched them waddling around us… it was very entertaining.
We also got to experience what they meant by ‘weather in Antarctica changes by the minute’… when we first got to Prospect point, it was cloudy and windy with a light drizzle, and within 5 minutes time, the clouds cleared up and the sun came out! (And it actually felt a tiny bit hot in the sun) The reflection of sunlight on the snow and ice was very pretty, we wouldn’t stop taking photos.
8th March 2010
Today we got to visit Vernadski Research Station, which is a Ukrainian based science research station which was sold to Ukraine from United Kingdom for 1 pound only in 1996.
One of the scientists based in that station showed us around the place; we walked through their rooms, offices, gym, medical room, kitchens etc. They also had their own bar and souvenir shop inside the station (they are one of the very few research stations open for tourist to visit). Apparently they also brew their own special vodka which we didn’t try because we forgot to bring money with us… but those who tried told us it made them very warm.
We also got to send postcards (we had to borrow money to do this) from the station, we sent 3 altogether (one to family, one to work and one to ourselves) and we are yet to see any of them… I wonder whatever happened to our postcards…
After lunch we got to do another zodiac cruise around the narrow strait between Pléneau and Booth Islands. It was NOT good. The rain was pouring and it was very windy as we cruised around. Most of the time we had to keep our heads down, looking down at our own feet as the rain was hitting our faces and it was very painful. We didn’t get to see much as the place was very foggy, we only saw a few penguins swimming past us. We were so glad when we got back into the ship and fought over who would get to have nice hot shower first… I won of course!
Once everyone was back on board, the ship sailed through the Lemaire Channel. It is a very narrow channel, at its narrowest the channel is barely 500m wide with the mountains on each side over 3000 feet height which created a perfect ‘wind channel’… and yes windy it was as we all stepped out onto the decks to experience its windiness. I really thought I was getting blown away, I found it very difficult to stand still. But the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. By the time I got back inside my face was almost frozen!
9th March 2010
Today we were meant to have a landing excursion at 6:30 in the morning, but due to bad weather and high waves, it had to be cancelled (we were told everything we ‘planned’ to do were subject to weather conditions as it is unpredictable in Antarctica).
We spent the morning relaxing around the ship, we just stayed in our room, I tried to catch up on some sleep while Richard played the computer.
In the afternoon, we arrived at Danco Island. The weather wasn’t the best when we got there, but it was good/safe enough for us to be cruised ashore in zodiacs.
It was snowing quite heavily while we were there walking around the ‘beach’. I had fun watching masses of Gentoo penguins (my favourite type of penguins during this trip) waddling around us. If we stood still long enough, some penguins would even come right up close to us just to check what kind of strange creatures we were. So cute!
This was also the first time I felt snow falling on me (previous days I saw/touched/walked on snow but never had snow falling on me), and it felt really nice… just very cold!
(to be continued...)
7th March 2010
We woke up feeling a little sick and also a little grumpy from lack of sleep as the ship rolled a lot throughout the night. But the negative feelings quickly disappeared over breakfast as we prepared for our one and only Antarctic continental landing. (Most of our landings were done on different islands along the Peninsula as it was difficult to find a suitable shore to land on the actually continent – most of it were steep cliffs or glaciers)
Shortly after breakfast, we were assembled in the Mud Room once again to hop on the zodiacs which ferried us ashore onto Prospect Point where we got to enjoy the magnificent views of icebergs, ice cliffs and snow covered mountains. It was a beautiful example of Antarctica in close-up.
There were also colonies of moulting Adelie penguins and they all looked so fat and fluffy! We sat near them and just watched them waddling around us… it was very entertaining.
We also got to experience what they meant by ‘weather in Antarctica changes by the minute’… when we first got to Prospect point, it was cloudy and windy with a light drizzle, and within 5 minutes time, the clouds cleared up and the sun came out! (And it actually felt a tiny bit hot in the sun) The reflection of sunlight on the snow and ice was very pretty, we wouldn’t stop taking photos.
8th March 2010
Today we got to visit Vernadski Research Station, which is a Ukrainian based science research station which was sold to Ukraine from United Kingdom for 1 pound only in 1996.
One of the scientists based in that station showed us around the place; we walked through their rooms, offices, gym, medical room, kitchens etc. They also had their own bar and souvenir shop inside the station (they are one of the very few research stations open for tourist to visit). Apparently they also brew their own special vodka which we didn’t try because we forgot to bring money with us… but those who tried told us it made them very warm.
We also got to send postcards (we had to borrow money to do this) from the station, we sent 3 altogether (one to family, one to work and one to ourselves) and we are yet to see any of them… I wonder whatever happened to our postcards…
After lunch we got to do another zodiac cruise around the narrow strait between Pléneau and Booth Islands. It was NOT good. The rain was pouring and it was very windy as we cruised around. Most of the time we had to keep our heads down, looking down at our own feet as the rain was hitting our faces and it was very painful. We didn’t get to see much as the place was very foggy, we only saw a few penguins swimming past us. We were so glad when we got back into the ship and fought over who would get to have nice hot shower first… I won of course!
Once everyone was back on board, the ship sailed through the Lemaire Channel. It is a very narrow channel, at its narrowest the channel is barely 500m wide with the mountains on each side over 3000 feet height which created a perfect ‘wind channel’… and yes windy it was as we all stepped out onto the decks to experience its windiness. I really thought I was getting blown away, I found it very difficult to stand still. But the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. By the time I got back inside my face was almost frozen!
9th March 2010
Today we were meant to have a landing excursion at 6:30 in the morning, but due to bad weather and high waves, it had to be cancelled (we were told everything we ‘planned’ to do were subject to weather conditions as it is unpredictable in Antarctica).
We spent the morning relaxing around the ship, we just stayed in our room, I tried to catch up on some sleep while Richard played the computer.
In the afternoon, we arrived at Danco Island. The weather wasn’t the best when we got there, but it was good/safe enough for us to be cruised ashore in zodiacs.
It was snowing quite heavily while we were there walking around the ‘beach’. I had fun watching masses of Gentoo penguins (my favourite type of penguins during this trip) waddling around us. If we stood still long enough, some penguins would even come right up close to us just to check what kind of strange creatures we were. So cute!
This was also the first time I felt snow falling on me (previous days I saw/touched/walked on snow but never had snow falling on me), and it felt really nice… just very cold!
(to be continued...)
