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Friday, February 12, 2010-Journey's End |
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Friday, 12 February 2010 08:30 |
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Greetings from Antarctica.
We awoke this morning at 4:30am. to witness the ship's navigation into Neptunes Bellows, the entrance to the caldera of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands. It was truly an amazing sight to sail into an active volcano! All around us were mountains of volcanic ash covered in a light dusting on snow from a few hours earlier. The monochromatic landscape was both eerie and majestic. Many of us were on the bridge for this event careful not to break the concentration of the captain and his engineers as they navigated the narrow passage.
We had an opportunity to take an early hike to the top of a small volcanic island and walk along its rim to another breathtaking view. We were thrilled to be walking on different terrain today - no rocks and no penguins! We saw a small sail boat in the harbour below - who was there and what was their journey all about?
Our first shore landing after breakfast was at Whalers Bay, Deception Island where the Herktor whaling station operated in the early 1900s. Most of the old buildings and massive oil containers are still on the island although now in ruin. Old whale bones littered the beach and one could easily imagine the whalers processing their catch over a century ago.
We walked along the beach to Neptunes Window - a "bite" out of the caldera that afforded us a magnificent view of the cliffs and waters below.
Quite a few of the passengers choose this island to have a "polar plunge".
Four of our group of six took a dip in the freezing cold waters and then immediately plunged into the geothermally heated waters of a "hot tub" that had been basically dug out of the volcanic pebbles on the beach by ship's doctor's husband - all who "plunged" were very happy for this special treat.
The afternoon took us to our final landing at Half Moon Island - a beautiful snow and glacier covered island where we studied the chinstrap penguins and several different groups of Weddell and fur seals. The weather was absolutely glorious. It was the first time I was able to forgo my gloves and hat. It is hard to believe that we are in the Antarctic!!
Sadly our journey is coming to an end. We will begin our voyage back across the Drake Passage later this evening. We hope to arrive in Ushuaia on Monday, make a brief stop over in Buenos Aires and then head back to the USA by Wednesday, February 17.
"Happy he, who like Ulysses has made a great journey."
Joachim du Bellay
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