Our final Antarctic touchdown: King George Island (KGI). KGI is a strange place; it’s basically a collection of research bases from all over the world. Everyone’s there: the Russians, the Chinese, the Chileans, the Argentineans, the Uruguayans the Koreans, the Brazilians and more. It was a little reminder of civilization, and the funny quirks of people. There are two churches in this remote island staring at each other across a valley. The Chinese and the Russian bases operate on two different time zones.

KGI is also the site of 2041’s famous beach clean up. I’m sure you can find out more about this on the website, but 2041 basically spent 8 years cleaning up the island from human debris.

There is something very strange about the island… it’s strange to see all of the metal against the Antarctic background. A few people don’t like this, I’m not sure I mind too much. There’s this issue that I kind of talked about before: conservation versus development. Conservationists want nature to stay as it is, sustainable development is about figuring out how to make human’s interact with the environment in a way that makes sense for both. Now given our track record developing the rest of the world, I can easily see why conservationists are concerned about human developments in Antarctica. I can imagine the head-aching noise of a troop of jetskis cruising through the icebergs, leaking oil all over the place, crashing into humpback whales. I think we have plenty of that all over the world; it’s probably worth having a place without.

At the same time Antarctica has a lot to offer, in terms of its ability to inspire people to think differently about the world. In a sense what we are doing, our trip to Antarctica and all trips to Antarctica are a form of development. Our ships churn the Antarctic waters; our boots trample its snow, right? I mean sure we take care to disinfect our boots, keep our distance from the wildlife, make sure not to walk on plants. In a sense these trips are an example of how to manage human activity in Antarctica. The bases at King George Island are another.

I’ll leave you with the pictures in our bonus logs.

We had a ceremony where we raised the last anchor in Antarctica. I was pretty sad to see the white continent drift away. We’re on the Drake Passage again now, actually ran into a storm last night. Two days away from Ushuaia and Cape Horn. Then onward to Buenos Aires. Might have some trouble there with my flight; I’ll hopefully make the connection. Buenos Aires to Paris, then back home.