Finally, ANTARCTICA!

Well, it wasn’t really the Peninsula yet, but close enough. We stopped at Elephant Island, which is where Shackelton’s expedition group remained on a tiny spit of beach to await rescue (if it were to come at all).

It was a foggy, grey morning when we reached the island, thus the brooding mood in the pic above. Note the relatively small black rock above. That was where the 22 men waited for Shackelton to come back and rescue them, after he and 5 of his men set out for South Georgia (800 miles away) in a small lifeboat. They were there for 4 months, using 2 overturned lifeboats as their shelters.

I thought it was really neat that the closest rock/mountain had a hanging glacier -

As we continued cruising southward, the weather cleared nicely, and this was our view from the window at our lunch table –

After lunch, whales were spotted, and the entire ship emptied onto the prow to marvel at them. They were Fin Whales, which are second only to Blue whales in size – (be sure to open this post in your browser so you can see the video)

Continuing on south…

… we passed more and more beautiful landscapes –

We sailed on through the night, and arrived in Mikkelsen Harbour in the morning to go ashore on a small island and wander among penguins and seals. Do you see the island with the emergency shelter hut down in the left of this next picture?

From a distance, I thought the vertical blue stripes were ice, but in fact they were just cracks in snow -

There was a Gentoo Penguin colony to visit…

… and Weddell Seals to gawk at –

I loved watching them waddle (and this group was fairly synchronous) …

… but this video was even more fun –

When the sun came out, you could really see the spots on the Weddell Seal…

… and s/he really seemed to enjoy a nap in the sun –

This was such a formal welcoming party –

All right… enough with the penguins… I’ll close properly with a sunset. This is truly how the sky looked; I did nothing to the photograph whatsoever.