Gerlache Strait, Antarctica, Antarctica

Today was a huge day for us! We had our first excursion this morning where we went out on the zodiac boats and got to walk on land. This was really exciting to finally step foot on my last continent. We got the zodiac over to shore and were created by Boris with a sign taped to his chest that said “Welcome to Antarctica”. Right next to him was a big colony of Gentoo penguins just chilling on their nests or walking up from the beach. The beach had no sand, it was all pebbles, but that’s what the penguins love anyway.

We got to spend about two hours on land on the first excursion and took tons of pictures of the penguins, and were able to hike up a path to the top of a hill for a nice panoramic view. Ryan and I couldn’t believe how hot it was down there. The temperature was hovering right around freezing, so with all the gear we had put on, we were roasting. Half way up the hill we decided to ditch some of our jackets on the side of path for the rest of our walk. It was a good idea, because it was plenty warm enough for the rest of the walk without them.

The clothes that they gave us on the ship was pretty good. They gave us some rubber wellington boots, waterproof trousers and a waterproof jacket. Nothing was particularly warming, but luckily we didn’t really need it to be today. This morning we met a nice American girl named Missy who lives in LA. She’s traveling down here with a friend of a friend who has also always wanted to come to Antarctica. It’s pretty impressive she was able to find someone else who wanted to go and who had the means to make it happen.

We got back to the ship after a really enjoyable morning on the continent, and they were setting up lunch for us on the outer deck so we could have a barbecue. This is the first time we’ve eaten outside of the dining room, but it worked out really nicely. They had hamburgers and hotdogs, salad, pasta salad, potato salad, and mulled wine to keep us warm. It was a beautiful setting for lunch while we moved on to our next stopping point.

Our next stop came a couple hours later at an abandoned Argentinian Research station called Brown Station. There was another penguin colony here, and another hill we could hike up for a good view. This was a steeper hill than the one this morning, but it had a much better decent where we could slide down the snowy hill on our butts. There were a couple speed bumps on the way down, which made it a little more fun, they were like mini jumps.

After looking around on land for a while, a bunch of hopped in the zodiacs and went around the corner to get to a pebble beach. We stripped down to our bathing suits and ran into the freezing cold water. Ryan and I agreed that it wouldn’t count as a proper polar plunge unless we got all the way in, so we both ran in about 15ft and then dove into the water. It was exactly as cold as you think it would be. It was quite a shock to the system. It felt like I was being stabbed with little needles all over my body. The worst part was getting to shore and trying to dry off and get dressed on the beach. It was freezing cold on the beach and at this point I couldn’t feel my feet at all. It was awesome and funny, but I’m not sure I’d be in a hurry to do it again.

We went back to the ship to get a warm shower, and some dry clothes on before dinner. We had dinner on the ship and then found out that we would be camping on land tonight. This was very exciting information! We had our briefing yesterday about what the camping would entail, so we were all ready for it, but we were told that unless the weather is perfect, we might not get to go. So the fact that we are able to go so early in the trip is great news.

Ryan and I were pretty psyched about it, so we went back to our rooms, got our stuff together for the night and we got on the first zodiac going over to the island. It started to snow very lightly on the way over, but we were told it wasn’t going to last, so we didn’t really care. We got off the boat, got our sleeping mat, sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, and bivvy bag. We walked up to the top of the hill on the island and had to stomp out a sleeping place for ourselves. I set up my bivvy bag with everything inside of it, and then just chilled with the rest of the people around us. We were set up next to Reuben, Ainsley, Missy, Jen, and Daniel.

We stood around talking for a while, and the snow was getting heavier by the hour. The One Ocean guys brought over a temporary bathroom which consisted of a small tent and a bucket called Mr. Yum Yum. It was disgusting in there. And to make it worse, there was a 15 minute line for the bathroom. The good thing was that it never gets dark here, so there was no trouble finding Mr. Yum Yum at night. I tried to go to sleep at around midnight. The rest of the night was absolutely horrendous, but I’ll leave that for tomorrow’s blog…