Day 19: Neko Harbour

As it was our last night at Antarctica itself, I had the bright idea to see what it was like trying to sleep under the perpetual daylight. Our room

Was divided into two sections - a front lounge and the bed area, which could be divided by a blackout curtain. In the lounge were two small reclining couches, so Dan and I took one of these each. It was amazing, laying out under the light. I lasted until about 1:30am when I craved darkness - Dan until about 4.30am. 

 Today was our final landing day and we were going to get another continental landing at Neko Harbour. As explained yesterday this is not normally one the expedition get to go to very often, and the crew were very excited! It was another glorious day outside - absolute cracker. 2C, no wind. It turned out to be too hot!

Unfortunately over the announcement in the morning the polar plunge would not go ahead as the glacier was very active, probably due to the sunny warm weather.

 Dan and I were equal parts relieved and disappointed and we shared this sentiment with others at breakfast. “We would have done it if we could!”

As our expedition was right on lunch time we had as late a breakfast as possible. We hung out in our room, and were dressed and ready quite a bit earlier than our 12:10 time as we were going to go for a bit of a wander around the ship. 

An announcement came over:

“For those who wish to do the polar plunge, it had been deemed safe to do so now, so for the remaining groups today who wish to plunge, put on your swimsuits and those who have already been over, we will take you over after! Please be aware these conditions can still change. 

“Shit.”

Dan and I looked at other, hurriedly stripped, threw our bathers on, our all our cold weather clothes *back* on and packed extra socks in our backpacks. At level four we met many others, all wearing their togs and exclaiming “I  was hoping to get away with saying “I would have done it if I could!” -now I have to!”

We had a good chat with Heidi and Marianne who we had met earlier, and discussed the ways of using GoPros. 

Eventually the humpbacks were called and we descended to level 3. The Zodiac zoomed over quite fast actually! They’re normally quite sedate.

The rocky beach was literally covered in penguins. We had been told not to get distracted by them and go straight up the steps onto the snow in case the glacier carves and a wave inundates the beach. The Aussie expedition Lara got us to cheer on arrival, and then “you should know how to get out of the zodiac now. if you don’t get out right we are sending you back to the ship!”

Legs over the side, swing legs towards the driver and splash into the water, we waded up onto the beach and started to make our way to the snow bypassing the penguins. However another crew member told us to stop as a penguin was considering where it wanted to go. Tousten was shouting at us to get off the beach so the crew member directed us around the penguin and we alighted the stairs. 

Todays was a steep climb. If we wanted to do the polar plunge we needed to be back in one hour. Dan and I decided to sort of bypass the penguins on the way up as at the end was a delirious view of a beautiful glacier. It’s funny to say but we had seen many hundreds of penguins by now, so we were ok to move on past them a bit quicker! 

It was very hard work getting up the incline, and it was hot. I ended up ripping off my beanie and stuffing it in my pocket. Others around me were in tshirts. I only had my thermal layer underneath and it was dead sweaty by now, so I unzipped as much as I could and kept plodding! I ended up getting a little sunburnt on my forehead as I hadn’t put much sunscreen there, expecting to be wearing my beanie. Halfway up we met one of the crew (he was kinda the only jerky one) and he seemed to delight in telling us that the polar plunge was cancelled 

“Again?” We said, thinking maybe he hadn’t heard it had been reinstated a short while ago. 

Unfortunately yes. It was cancelled - and for good reason, as we found out shortly. Again Dan and I were conflicted - it would have been great to have done the plunge! But also scarily cold. 

We finally breached the crest and came down the other side to the top of the glacier. Dan and I had a photo taken by a crew member on the edge of the world - tiny ship in the background, glaciers to one side and penguins to the other. It was so bright Dan lamented not leaving his sunnies on. We took some photos of our own here, then back up a little to go back down again. I slipped a bit on the way down and we stopped at a vantage point. 

It’s hard to explain the sound, but all around us were thunders and cracks as bits of ice moved, broke off in neighbouring valleys or just started to shift. The sound was incredible. I also seemed to notice that the penguins knew something was going to happen, so I motioned to Dan to stop moving, trained my camera at the glacier and seconds later CRACK CRASH WOOOOOOOOOSH, a large chunk splintered from the body of the glacier and crashed into the water. Ice sediment scattered on the waters surface underneath a large ice cloud, and from our vantage point we could clearly see the waves beginning to form. 

The sound was indescribable. After the zodiacs sped the deeper water, no human sound for many minutes. All we could hear were the penguins, chattering away amongst themselves and those on the beach had rushed off the shore. The creaks and groans of other ice sheets, booming through the harbour. The wave, making icebergs and ice sheets crash against each other and jostle the rocks and stones on shore was never ending. 

After a number of minutes, people starting moving and breathing again, and a lady swished past me in her parachute pants, breaking the breathtaking serenity. 

Keeping cameras handy, we turned around and continued down. I slipped, and the jerky expedition leader said I’d have to be hosed down when I got back to the ship. I still don’t know if he was joking?

Once back to the penguins, and now we knew there was no polar plunge, we figured we’d just take our time a bit. There was another lower viewpoint of the glacier at the junction, so after a pause we went down. I wasn’t sure how well I’d make it back up again, but we spotted people from other groups being slow too so we gave it a go. Down here we spotted two more smaller carvings from the glacier. Again, it’s really impossible to describe the noise. 

We slowly made our way back up, still with cameras at the ready. At about this point our GoPros both died, and as we had extra batteries on us this time in case of the plunge we were able to change them. At Owens stop, he was called by helene on the walkie-talkie. 

“Are you by yourself?” she asked. 

“I have penguins to keep me company,” Owen feigned sadness. “I’m very happy to stay here.”

In reality Owen had missed each of the carvings by a split second and he wanted to finally catch one! We wished him luck and turning our back on the glacier, trekked downhill until it was out of sight. 

We ended up waiting at the launch point for about twenty minutes as groups were unloaded, but we were not collected. This was great penguin watching time, and they whizzed through the water or lay flat as a pancake on rocks, or failed when trying to jump up onto a piece of floating ice!

Finally it was time to get in a zodiac and we went down the snow stairs. At the bottom

I was stopped - a big penguin was just staring at us trying to decide which way to go. Turning his head this way and that, he just hung about, but as we were on the beach the crew were keen for us to keep moving, so I was instructed to go around him. This got him moving and he went the other day. Getting into the boat was a bit easier this time - Dan stayed outside and helped hoist me in and I had already taken my camera and bag off to make the jumping easier. 

Back on the boat we, like everyone else on the ship, went to the only restaurant open outside of normal lunch hours, Freidheim. It took forever to be seated, and we were asked if we minded sharing. Of course not, just let us eat! We were placed with our new friends Heidi and Marianne and got to know them well over lunch!

Today I had the Nansen burger with blue cheese sauce and coleslaw, and one of their famous chocolate milkshakes. While we were eating and chatting an announcement came over. For those wishing to do the polar plunge, our deck crew are on hand with water directly from the ocean and if you come to deck 10 they can hose you down. This made me laugh a lot, but We opted not to as for me half the fun was stripping on the beach and working yourself up to run into the water! I’ll just have to come back one day to get my certificate!. 

We wanted to join the group checking out some of the things under the microscope but technology wasn’t cooperating. Instead Helene had made a presentation and it was very interesting! She showed some of the organisms in the water up close, and some of her other findings including accidentally catching a sea butterfly  a sea snail that has adapted its foot into wings.

Before dinner Dan and I hit the deck with our cameras and my big lens, and tried getting some last photos. We watched some people do the adapted polar plunge, which looked rather uncomfortable! The boat started to pull away from

Neko bay. Dan and I stood on deck 11 and reflected for long while, watching the scenery go by.

Our standing Dinner at 7:45, and again we sit with Marianne and Heidi. “You’ll be sick of the sight of us!” I laughed. Dan and I really enjoyed talking and learning from these ladies, and we got some inspiration for future travels. As it was our last day on and around Antarctica, we did a big cheers to the amazing days we had just experienced and we’re still trying to take in. 

On the food front, I had steak tartare with a raw egg (risky, but delicious) and we were a sirloin appreciation society as all Four of us got this for our mains! I finished with an interesting beetroot and lingonberry based dessert. 

We all Missed the charity auction as we were having a great time talking, and I’m not actually sure what it was about! Dan and I intended to watxh it back but there wasn’t time (or inclination… as seasickness was to be rife over the coming days…)

As we were finishing dinner, the four of us watched a massive pod of whales out of the restaurant window. One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve spouts all in a row. Truly incredible. 

After dinner We donned our cold weather gear and made our way to deck 10 (back of the ship) to watch Antarctica disappear. A few people were in the hot tubs, and one daredevil in the pool as it wildly sloshed side to side. We had been told waves waves would be about 4m so the journey back not as bad as the journey there (this turned out to be an inaccurate measurement). 

Behind us, a cloud was beginning to shroud Antarctica like a curtain closing at the finale.