Finally arrived on the Antarctic peninsular today with some wonderful views and experiences. Started by cruising down the Neumayer Channel. The scenery was staggering with fantastic mountains, covered in snow and bathed in sunlight on every side. During breakfast we arrived at Port Lockroy, home of a British Antarctic base from 1943-1962 and now restored as a museum, gift shop and the world’s most southerly Post Office. It’s not exactly big. The island the base sits on is about 300 meters in diameter, and the base consists of a few huts lovingly restored. The staff stay for the four months the base is open each year and live in one of the restored huts. They arrived 10 days ago and had to dig the base out of the snow. They get plenty of expedition boats through, but the rest of the time they are totally isolated, with nothing for company but the colony of Gentoo Penguins. This afternoon we moved onto Paradise Bay, dodging massive icebergs as we did. Paradise Bay is so named because of its protection from winds of every direction. We finally set foot on the continent of Antarctica at a disused Argentinean base. The snow was about four feet high but we climbed up to the top of the hill for one of the most stunning views of my life. The vast expanse of the bay was spread before us, the huge mountains towering over massive glaciers inching their way down to the crystal clear waters of the ice cold bay. We were so lucky with the weather. The expedition staff all have tales of gale force winds and blizzards, but we had beautiful sunshine. To celebrate the ship had a bar-b-que in the evening. It’s now 11pm and I’m writing this looking at the bay in the twilight of the Antarctic evening and it is all quite magical.