Antarctica Cruise Day 5

Breakfast was the earliest it's been the whole cruise so far, and it was rough getting up this morning despite going to bed earlier than previous nights. During breakfast, unexpectedly, there was a call for kayakers to meet prior to the chance to go kayaking this morning. Allan and I had a choice to make, kayak around some ice (no wildlife expected), or hike to a viewpoint and visit a historical hut. The kayaking seemed pretty uninteresting compared to the land activity this morning, and with a strong possibility to kayak again this afternoon, we opted for land. It didn't stop me from getting huge FOMO watching all the kayaks go out on the water while I watched from my window still stuck on the boat.

When we finally got called down to the mudroom, we made our way out into Horseshoe Island. Our first stop was a hike up to a viewpoint. We zigzagged our way across the hill, sometimes sinking in the snow, but otherwise pretty stable up to the viewpoint. We had to remember to slow down and turn around to admire the view from above. After our hike, we had a short zodiac ride to Basecamp Y which was a research base for the British. Apparently when base W was abandoned, Steve the dog didn't go with the crew abandoning base W, and turned up at Y a few months later! Unfortunately we didn't have access to the inside of this one like we expected to, but we still got to walk around. There were some cool rocks with copper veins throughout as well as 7 weddell seals having a nap on the snow. We also saw some brown skuas that like to nest here. On our way back, Kevin, the driver, spotted a leopard seal so we stopped for a bit to see the seal. It was very big! Apparently it lingered because it likes the bubbles the wake makes. We also saw a baby seal on the ice just as we were getting back to the ship. This seal was white, but I didn't quite catch the name unfortunately.

Once back on the ship, we had time for a quick cup of coffee before lunch. We also headed off to our next location, Stonington Island. On our way, we saw lots of crab eater seals on the floating ice. Lunch today was really good, the peanut vegetable stew was a big hit.

The afternoon expedition was to Stonington Island. The conditions were good so we decided to go kayaking! There were a couple of old bases on the island, and no hiking so we took advantage of our kayak option. While we were kayaking, we saw some of the glacier break off and crash into the water. The sound is like a crash of thunder as it falls off. Unfortunately, we didn't really see any wildlife, but it was a good experience to kayak in and amongst the ice. It was our first time kayaking in cold water.

After the briefing and recap we had Italian buffet dinner. We loaded up on carbs of all kinds. It felt like a bear eating a lot before hibernation because we were headed back to Stonington Island after dinner to go camping!

Camping was a pretty wild experience. We arrived on the island and got our tent and dry bag of supplies (like the sleeping mats). It was snowing pretty heavily when we got there, and the snow on the ground was very deep, but loose. We sunk down past our knees every other step. It made it pretty challenging to carry everything and walk to a spot to try and pitch the tent. Once we managed to find a spot, we had to try and pack the snow down to put the tent on, which was also challenging because of the soft snow. We patted down as best we could before starting to pitch the tent, and it was still snowing. We did it as quickly as we could to prevent the tent and our belongings getting wet with snowfall and we were pretty successful. While we were setting up the tent, a penguin came through waddling and on his belly just past our tent. It was pretty special. Afterwards, Steve, the musician played a few songs (before his fingers were too numb). Allan then went for a walk around the perimeter while I walked around the (small) camp. I witnessed the tail end of a Chinese couple getting engaged. It was a pretty epic spot, but was quickly turned sad when she dropped the ring amongst the snow and rocks. We didn't know that straight away, but as we stood chatting with a few people, the story of the lost engagement ring and the search for it unfolded. I felt very sad for them. At around 2230 people began to disperse and make their way to tents. We got all set up inside the tent and hunkered down for a chilly night. The tiny sleeping mat didn't really do very much to keep the cold out of the sleeping bag and the snow was pretty hard. Fingers crossed for some sleep!Read more