We set sail from Paradise Bay during the night and were woken at 5am for the dramatic trip through the Lemaire channel. The Captain was a bit worried the passage may be blocked by Icebergs but in the end the way was quite clear. Our final trip on land was at Peterman Island, home of more Penguins, this time Adeli and Gentoo ones. We did a couple of short walks up to some glorious vantage points. The Penguins didn’t seem to be admiring the view, they were to worried about stealing rocks from their neighbours nests, provoking some noisy squawking. After breakfast we moved down to the Yalour Islands, our lowest point on the journey at 65 degrees 13 minutes south, as far south as I am every likely to go in my life. Our luck ran out at the very end as a Force 9 gale blew up and we were unable to get of the boat for our final Zodiac cruise. It was blowing a blizzard outside so I think most passengers were relieved. As we had lunch we turned North and headed out to the open sea towards the infamous Drake passage. It’s already getting bumpy and there were several rapid exits at lunch.

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.

Overnight we moved to the south part of the South Shetlands archipelago. Another glorious day with bright sunshine illuminating the cloud sheathed mountains towering over the crystal clear waters. First stop today was at Half moon Island. The island stands in the shadow of the magnificent Livingston Island, It’s the home to a wonderful colony of Chinstrap Penguins. Getting to them was quite a challenge as the snow was quite deep. You could walk on it for a while but would find you leg suddenly disappearing as the snow gave way. The Penguins were worth it though as were the fantastic views down the channel. In the afternoon we steamed into the large Caldera of Deception Island. The entrance is a narrow channel named Neptune’s Bellows, which leads to a massive bay inside a collapsed Volcano. The area is still active as indicated by the steam drifting up from the water. It’s all a bit spooky. There was a British Antarctic base on the Island until it was wiped out by a mudslide a few years ago. The buildings are still there, albeit a bit worse for wear. Some of the group did a swim in the hot springs emanating from the ground around the base. I declined as a biting wind was blowing down over the bay.

This morning spent at Elephant Island, a wild and desolate rock in the northern part of the South Shetlands. It was snowing a blizzard when we got here and you could just about make out the glacier through the fog and the snow. The landing spot is a tiny piece of bare rock just below the cliffs. It’s hard to believe that 22 men spent 4 months here when they lost their ship, but that is what happened to Ernest Shackleton’s crew in 1916. How they didn’t go out of their minds is a miracle. We went for a Zodiac cruise and saw some chinstrap penguins clustered on the rocks. This afternoon we moved onto Gibbs Island, further down the chain of islands. The rocks and cliffs around the bay were covered with thousands of chinstraps. Saw a couple of leopard seals, although our boat didn’t see one catch and eat a penguin unlike some of the other zodiacs