The expedition begins…finally!
We woke up to Allie’s “Good Morning Everyone, Good Morning”, which would become a daily ritual.
After breakfast, we geared up and got aboard our Zodiacs, and headed to shore to Culverville Island. Once there we were greeted by the smell and sights of penguins…lots of them.
The girls did their mountaineering, so it was just me, Brandon, and Erin. But it was super cool hiking around, sitting in the snow, taking pics, and enjoying nature.
After coming back onbaord the Plancius and having lunch, we ventured out in the afternoon to Neko Harbor with the girls this time. Charlie with a camera, a ton of snow, and a flock of penguins is something to watch. It was fun watching her play in the snow, smile, and have a blast just being out in nature. Outside of more penguins, we were also able to catch pieces of glacier breaking loose and crashing into the sea.
At dinner we found out from Amy that the adventure got extreme during their mountaineering. With everyone roped up, pick axes in hand and snowshoes under foot, they set out to hike along a ridge on Culverville Island. The gusts get more intense at the peak, and one gust literally picked Charlie up and blew her 5 ft before landing. Amy was the most worried, as it seemed fun to Charlie. After that, Mal the guide stuck close to Charlie and their friendship grew. After dinner, Amy and Charlie stayed behind and the rest of us got geared up for camping on the shelf.
Another important part of our day that we were reminded of that night during the lecture time was we officially made our Antarctic landing today. During the course of our trip, some of our days were spent in Bays trolling for Whales, many were spent on barrier islands Penguin watching, but the crew of the Plancius made sure that we officially touched down on the Antarctic continental shelf.
