Landing to landing: boots are wet, gloves are wet. We camped on Antarctica last night. We set up those ready-made plastic tents but most of us ended up sleeping outside actually, underneath the Antarctic sky. Remember all that stuff I told you about how we have to wear layers in Antarctica? Well imagine what it takes to sleep outdoors in Antarctica… we use this super sleeping bag with a fleece liner and an outer cover as well. The weather wasn’t too bad either. Actually we’ve been really lucky with the weather so far; unusually calm, even some blue skies at times.

Like I was saying: we woke up this morning in our sleeping bags, tidied up the whole camp site then jumped on the Zodiac back to ship. Took off our gear, ate some breakfast, put on our gear and zodiac back to shore. At shore we saw some penguins, we saw some seals; we glided across the smoothest waters, we saw little birds dancing on its surface. Zodiac back to ship. Take off gear. Lunch. Put on gear, zodiac to shore, climb snowy mountain all the way up above the clouds; see the chinstrap penguins hiding in the clouds. Sit on a rock and look at the ship nuzzled in the bay. Look at the reflection of the mountains on the water. Feel the mist. Watch the soaring birds. Listen to the chirping of penguins. Climb down the mountain, zodiac to ship, dinner, write blog, go to sleep. Listen to the chirping of penguins.

Things have been hectic over the last few days with landings mixed in with talks, discussions and food. Looking at today’s schedule: 0630-2100. Let me just give you a brief recap on our route so far, you might want to try to follow us on Google map. We landed in Antarctica about three days ago at Pleneau Island which is the southernmost point of our trip. That was where we all first fell in love with penguins. We’ve been making our way up north since. Our first zodiac trip through the iceberg graveyard was around Pleneau Island. We made our first mainland touchdown at Almirante Brown Station at Paradise Bay… there are still some remnants of a station there and its actually interesting to see how the buildings fit in with the surroundings. We camped in a small wind shielded isle in Neko Bay.

As you can see we are slowly making our way north to our final Antarctic destination of E-Base, George Island. As we drive north and the excitement of penguin becomes less intoxicating (it never becomes dull though, never) we start to focus on what we’re really here to do. There’s a storm of sorts brewing. As the pieces of Antarctica become more clear we begin to wonder what the final picture will look like.

So like I said before, boots are wet, gloves are wet. Pants smell of penguin. Everyone’s exhausted; everyone’s sunburned and we’re off to land.