24 Feb 2017

SHOKALSKIY: First Landing on the Antarctic Continent.

It's not every morning you get a wakeup call at 4:30am to make a 5:00am landing at Inexpressible Island. This morning we Zodiaced from the ship to a small bay for a dry landing. A short 1.2km walk from the bay, over a boulder strewn landscape, took us to the site of Campbell's Igloo where Scott's Northern Expedition party were forced to live in a snow cave for 220 days after the Terra Nova failed to collect them. They ended up walking to McMurdo Sound, roughly 450 km away, for pick up the following summer. After returning to the ship for a warm and hearty breakfast, the ship relocated, passing by the Italian Base which was closed, ready for winter, to the location where we undertook our second landing of the morning at Gondwana, the German Base. This was our first landing on the Antarctic continent. From here we could also see the Korean Base, many dive bombing Skuas, Weddell Seals, Adelie Penguins and a juvenile Emperor Penguin on shore.

We were all back on board by lunch and enjoyed a few hours in in the bay soaking up the beautiful blue sky, glistening icebergs and reflective water. We are now en-route to Cape Evans and Cape Royds for the next step of our adventure further south.

Guest Blogger, Leanne Dunhill