We were awoken each morning around 6am by the mellow tones of Juan the expedition leader’s announcement about the morning’s activities. When I first heard of this I was horrified at the thought of a ship announcement blaring intrusively into the cabin in the early hours. But it turned out to be a welcome harbinger for the day, made acceptable nay desirable by our eagerness to hear whether we were on Plan A, B or Z. Juan’s calm smooth voice, devoid of drama regardless of the news, made for a gradual awakening with the dreamy ‘coming-to’ awareness of being on holiday. I’ll take that over my iPhone Marimba alarm rudely announcing another working day, thank you very much.
Overnight, we’d sailed south down the west coast of the Antarctic peninsula to the Palmer Archipelago. The location of our day’s activities was Mikkelsen Harbor, a small bay offering somewhat sheltered anchorage between Borge Point and Skottsberg Point.
The zodiac ride to nearby D’Hainault island was a mere five minutes. Maneuvering the boat around the rocks and ice to get close enough to shallow water to exit the boat was the taxing piece. This was what is known as a wet landing – stepping out of the boat into the icy water, which looked at least knee deep, although it didn’t spill over and down my wellies so I guess not quite that.
So there we were. On land. In Antarctica. Our very first time stepping foot on the seventh continent. A momentous occasion indeed. Meanwhile, the Weddell seals assigned as hosts to greet us lounged lazily as only seals do. Less of a greeting, more an indifferent, relaxed, yawning “don’t step on my flipper as you walk past, thanks”.
I’d reduced layers slightly after yesterday’s shenanigans and step two of being able to access my iPhone more easily for photos involved putting it in a clear waterproof case in a lanyard around my neck. Level up!
Having negotiated the snowy path up and around the hill, we became more accustomed to our surroundings and realized we’d been whisked away to the World of Penguins. Gentoos to be more precise. Hundreds of them in separate clusters doing their gentoo thing. Whilst we were ignored by the seals, we were practically welcomed by the penguins. With no natural land predators, they really didn’t seem to mind us being there, and merrily went about their daily social interactions.
With more days and more penguins to come, I’ll leave the penguins there for now. After a leisurely lunch onboard, our afternoon’s activity was a zodiac boat ride around Mikkelsen Harbor.
During the ride, our skipper Brent, leaned way over the side of the boat (“someone grab my feet and make sure I don’t fall in”) and scooped out a hefty block of highly compressed glacial ice.
With all the bravado of a tribal warrior jubilantly tearing into a hunk of freshly killed meat, Brent bit into the ice, his first of the season. He obligingly passed around his bounty for anyone else to have a go, or merely to marvel at its thousand year old clarity and beauty.
The sauna on Seabourn Venture has floor to ceiling windows. I don’t think I can imagine a better view out of those windows than the pristine snow covered slopes of the Antarctic peninsula. Apparently they’ve had way more snow than average in the region this year, which is no doubt indicative of climate change. For us, it meant the mountains were draped in a velvet cloak of white, the odd patch of blue belying more recent calving activity. Looking out at the great white continent while my body came back to life through the penetrating dry heat of the sauna: priceless.
The chef’s special tasting menu in the dining room completed our day. Possibly rounded off with an espresso martini in the Constellation Lounge, but I don’t have any photos of that.
