Antarctic Peninsula! Finally!!!

Yeah, I took a bit of a break from writing. I would appologize, but I bet you were glad to have the break too.

Picking up where I left off, we sailed to the Peninsula from the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. Mother Nature again smiled on us with wonderful weather.

The sun does not set in Antarctica in December and January. It also never really gets very high that far from the equator. This gives the ice a special glisten and the sky a different hue.

One of the special things we did on The Peninsula was to camp one night. Yes, we spent the night sleeping on the ice. Well, not really sleeping. It doesn’t get dark and ice is not terribly comfortable. I am very glad I experienced this but would not go out of my way to do it twice.

This picture was taken about 11pm.

Our penguin had a great time on the campout and I am still not quite sure what kind of mischief he got up to while I hunkered down in my bag.

Of course, we saw penguins on the pensinsula. The Adelie only lives on the Antarctic continent and is not fairing well with the rising temperatures. We were fortunate to see one (although we joked that our guides put it there earlier in the morning).

We saw more Gentoos here too. This time we saw them jumping and swimming.

And of course, we saw more seals…

The real highlight, however, was the day we saw the Orcas. They were doing what is called “spy-hopping” which is when they bob up and down looking at seals on ice. Kind of like opening and closing the fridge door…

So, we come to the end of the Antarctic story. I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and some of the stories from this journey and all the other stops along the globe-trott.

The travels and the blog will continue, but with less frequent trips and posts. For 2019, I will be exploring a new place to live in the Emerald Isle and making a trip to Africa. Stay tuned and stay in touch.