some of the photos I posted earlier will help. Again, I appologise
for the poor quality of the photos; higher resolution copies will be
posted at some point when I'm back. This trip just continues to get
better and better, beating last years voyage hands down! I really
don't want the science to start in a few days, I'm enjoying the free
time way too much!
After the dissapointment of this morning and being told that us
marine scientists won't be going to the continent, the day
immediately got better when the captain opened the door, lowered the
gang way, and gave us access to the fast ice that's preventing us
from reaching Mawsons Hut by ship (weather permitting, the VIPs will
still be helicoptering in). Now technically, this fast ice is
attached to the continent, so perhaps I can get away with saying I've
been on Antarctica...? Either way, being able to walk around on ~1.5m
thick sea ice, with ~600m of water beneath you is pretty damn
amazing, and something a sea-ice scientist should cetainly do!
The ice is the home to many a wandering penguin, mostly Adelies, but
an Emperor (the first I have seen this trip) also wandered by, and a
Chinstrap was also pleasant enough to grace us with its presence (the
first I have seen ever). The penguins are just ridiculously
inquisitive, and mostly unafraid. They weren't in the least bit
phased when I army-crawled across the soft snow to be within 1m of
them - they just continued to snooze away whilst the snow fell around
us. I was so close to some of the penguins that I heard them sneeze,
and I swear when one yawned, I could smell fish! It was just
craziness, and something I will never ever forget. How many people
can really say they have been within 1m of tens of wild penguins!?
Not many!
I don't really have much else to report. All I have done is sit on
the sea-ice, and watch the pneguins come and go (with a bit of work
mixed in but you don't really care about that). There are rumours
that we may get trips in the zodiacs - I will keep you posted on
that, but I certainly hope these rumours come to light. Playing with
penguins, walking around on sea-ice, and cruising around in zodiacs
will definitely make up for not walking on the continent.
Enjoy the photos!
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