Nature shows us who’s boss

Just when I thought I’d had enough excitement for the day, I hear the cry of, “Orcas on port side!” It’s not even time for dinner and we’ve been fortunate to see a pod of killer whales near the bow of the boat, effortlessly swimming through the channel.

As dawn broke yesterday, the ‘expeditionary force’ was awoken by Peter’s voice over the tannoy advising us to put on, ‘layers, layers, layers’ and make our way to the ship’s bridge. We were more than 62 degrees south and the temperature with the wind chill was more than 30 degrees below. Quite a contrast to the warmth of our cabins, but there was no way I was missing this to stay cosy under the duvet. We were entering Antarctic Sound, a calm stretch of water that’s littered with icebergs and appropriately named, ‘Iceberg Alley’.
Sure enough, Jumper wasn’t lying when he told me that the lone iceberg we crept past earlier in the week was, ‘just a baby’. We watched in awe as the morning light cast haunting shadows on the icebergs’ surface. Some of them so close it seemed as if we could reach out and touch them. It was breathtaking. There was no doubt that we’d finally made it to the bottom of the planet.

We continued to dodge the icebergs throughout the morning - tentatively navigating and crunching through the frozen sea water. In the afternoon, we landed at Brown Bluff where we were greeted by penguins and fur seals who continued their business with little regard for the group of humans who’d come to pay a visit. Conditions in Antarctica don’t get much better than this – quite a contrast to the previous day’s angry seas when we landed at the Russian base, Bellinshausen. The intense polar sun illuminated the pristine ice and snow. It was a perfect opportunity to observe our surroundings and take some time to reflect on how privileged we are to be here.

Struggling to comprehend how we could witness anything more spectacular on our expedition, Antarctica played her trump card this morning. We landed at Charlotte Bay and climbed a small hill where we continued with the Leadership on the Edge program with the most incredible panoramic view from our classroom. As we sat listening to Nick the program leader, there was an almighty rumble that echoed throughout the otherwise hushed bay. From our vista point, we watched in amazement as part of a monstrous iceberg collapsed into the sea, reducing it to a fraction of its former self. The resulting waves rippled across the bay, leaving a series of powerful eddies and a litter of smaller fragments of ice. An incredible demonstration of the forces of nature and a subtle reminder of who’s boss.