Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Position at 2230 hours: Lat. 64 ̊57’S, Long. 63° 42’W Speed: 9.8 knots Course: 44 ̊ Barometer: 979.9 hPa falling WIND: Calm Air temperature: 2°C Sea temperature: 0°C
There is only one short link in the food chain between a diatom and a one-hundred-ton blue whale – between one cell and the largest of all animals – and that link is the Antarctic krill. —David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert (1992)
A different visit for us today - a shop! Yes, Port Lockroy is an old British Base that today serves as a little research station, a museum, a souvenir shop and the southern most post office in the world. I posted heaps of postcards to friends and family but apparently they won't arrive for at least three months.
We went ashore at another penguin colony where the massive skeleton of a blue whale lies mingled with the snow and nests of Gentoos.
We slipped silently along a narrow Lemaire channel filled with mist and an eerie light as the sun tried its best to break through. The kayakers appeared in the distance and it looked like such a wonderful experience for them to have had, alone and islolated in those tiny craft.
A zodiac cruise through icebergs of every shape and colour in the snow was capped off by an incredible sunset on a nameless snow covered mountain.
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