The days are getting more and more packed, hardly time to sit still. Landing followed by landing. Typical day is wake up to a soaring mountain. Throw on all of those layers I was telling you about. Actually the weather is much much better then any one's expected. Usually I'll only wear three layers on top, a neck-warmer, hat, one pair of gloves and my water-proofs.

So we get dressed then rush down and grab some breakfast, maybe coffee and toast. We make our way down the gangway to the zodiak waiting at the bottom. Then we zip to the shore where we're usually greeted by some troop of young penguins waiting for their feathers to molt. We move from penguin colony to penguin colony, climb up rocks and slide down cliffs. I've told you about penguins. The fun with them never stops actually. Even people that have been coming to see them for decades don't get bored. The only issue with penguin, though, is the smell.

Everything's starting to smell like penguin. Wake up in the morning and its penguin, afternoon penguin.

Lunch tastes like penguin, coffee tastes like penguin. With all this zipping in the cold air here and there, perched on top of a cliff staring at this gigantic snowy mountain, you even started to feel like a penguin.

As we go out more and more on the ice, as we climb different snowy peaks and meditate on those crystal clear waters, as we watch the birds soar and dive and ice bergs crack and crash into the sea, you start to get a different feeling for what this whole thing is about, what Antarctica is about. 

The picture of Antarctica we had coming here, the picture of polar explorers facing the fiercest winds and barren deserts…well that's still partly true. But it's like our own deserts; on the one hand there's the wind the dust the screeching and the inhospitality. On the other there's the swaying palms, the flowing sands and the warmth. Just like we have our coffee and the smell of wool, Antarctica has its penguins and dancing ice.

Unfortunately I have to run now to another landing.  I have a feeling that Antarctica still has a few more surprises in store.

Editor’s note: Photos on this page from David Hone, Shell’s chief scientist on climate change, came from his trip with the 2041 expedition in 2009.