Cabin 208 blog

Waking in our bunk beds with the 40cm headroom has never seemed so luxurious as this morning –it feels like the upgrade that never came as we lie and imagine what our camping colleagues have been through over night. The shower and heater in the cabin suddenly seem so decadent.

A quick word about our landing last night – we went to Port Lockroy – a rocky outcrop with a couple of buildings and lots of penguins. This is an Antarctic historic site and provides a Royal Mail postal service during the Antarctic summer months (not now). The rules of the Antarctic are that you cannot approach any closer to a penguin than 5 metres – they don´t know this and soon wander all around you – something to note about penguins - you bring more than the memory of the penguins back with you as the smell is so pungent that it stays in your nostrils long after you have left the island.

Back to this morning - When the first campers came back on board we were looking for evidence of frostbite or at least shivering campers but everyone was far too cheerful (were they briefed to look this way?). The Norwegians apparently didn´t bother with the inconvenience of putting up a tent and slept outside – showing their true mountain men stamina (or did they miscalculate the number of tents???). The biggest issue reported was the snoring in the neighbouring tents. Earplugs in the Antarctic are mandatory as it seems. Isn`t this meant to be the quietest place on earth??? After breakfast the campers caught up on their sleep and Nicola and I went outside to view this beautiful channel as we glided through. Ines tried hard to capture the penguins in the water when suddenly a humpback whale breached completely out of the water. An announcement was made and everyone dashed out on deck to see a tremendous display of breaching and feeding with fin flapping and the photographers dream – the ´tail shot´. We all had to be dragged back in for the next instalment of the Leadership on the Edge programme and left the two whales quietly feeding.

The afternoon was spent cruising in the Zodiacs around the glacial icebergs in the channel and keeping eyes peeled for more whales. We saw Crabeater seals and Gentoo penguins but sadly there were no close encounters with whales. After spending more than hour in the Zodiacs in sub zero temperatures we returned to the ship to prepare for our camping expedition tonight. First job is to warm up and pack just about all the clothes you have with you to take out tonight. The special sleeping bags are reported to be very efficient at keeping you warm as long as you actually get in them properly (as demonstrated yesterday as apparently people have been reported to use them upside down in the past!!??). Looks as if Ines and I are on the same camping team so it will be just like our normal evening of banter and chaos – just in an even more confined space and without the three blankets each and the supplies of chocolate (no food allowed onshore). And knowing us, we would never ever break rules, right?