24.11. On the way to the Shetlands and Elephant Islands

Yesterday evening Drygalski Fjord was another highlight! Light conditions were great! There were seals on some icebergs and many hanging glaciers! Before the fjord there was a huge flat iceberg! The size was that big that there might have been a football field on top!

Here some other interesting thoughts of today:

We are heading for another famous Island, but usually it is impossible to land there! It is called Elephant Island! I think we will need two more days to reach it!

Jonathan Shackleton lost his camera 2 days ago at the cemetary of Grykviken! Maybe it was too much Whiskey for him! He had more than one as he held his speech several times for different groups! ;-) But they found it already and in a few weeks Jonathan will get it back in Ushuaia.

Today there is a special offer for 25USD: you can drink as much alcoholic drinks as you like the whole day! But though a great offer I guess that only few passengers go for it! Prices for drinks are anyway quite cheap: 3USD for soft drinks, 5USD for wine/beer and 7USD for coctails! But for Scandinavians this offer looks, to say the least, very tempting! My room-mate Jan however didn't go for it! ;-) Rough see is ahead and possible on each day, ha,ha..

The Chinese group produced excellent pictures! I just saw a slide-show on their laptop! Nice frames and he nearly got everything sharp! They are very active photographers! Whenever I go on deck I see at least one of them and usually that one has 3-4 different cameras and using them continously. Yesterday I asked him questions, but he dont speak a single word of English! So I gave him my card and hope he will write a mail to exchange photos!

I am currently in poor shape and didn't go for the gym the last days! My throat is not so well as I still have a severe cold and the air on the ship is very dry! But I have the idea to go for sports in the next year, not only running Stockholm but also NY and Boston marathons again! I hope to finish at least one of them below 3h! ;-) I love all these 3 marathons so much! They all have a great atmosphere and these 3 cities belong to my favorite cities! Places where I like to be! ;-)

Today we had a full program with many interesting lectures. I just grasped some ideas and put here some notes! I recommend you to google some of the interesting keywords!

Tom Hart and Caitlin Black from the University of Oxford presented their current penguin studies. Cameras are installed and deliver hourly a picture. Finally penguins, chicks and eggs are counted. Other topics of interest are: Winter behaviour! Guard change while nesting! Success rate for eggs! Effects of fishing industry. Some pictures from the cameras are even sent back via satellite!

Interesting website on this topic: www.penguinwatch.org

South Sandwich Islands must be amazing! Millions of penguins there! Google it!!! I saw a few pictures during that presentation and the place is great!

Then there was a very interesting presentation of Falcon Scott, the grandson of the great explorer Robert Falcon Scott. In literature he always got compared to the great norwegian explorer Amundson and you would think of Scott as a big looser! Of course he did many mistakes, but he also was a great person! I know many persons that would not even go for a tougher one-day hike! ;-)

Here some notes from the presentation: Discovery expedition: Ship SS Discovery, built in Dundee, Ross Island, 400 mile hike! Terra Nova expedition from 1910-1913, they were in competition with the norwegian Amundson, their tractor machines failed one after another, they then had horses and dogs, finally the ponies were eaten for getting fresh meat, they managed to reach the South Pole, extremely poor conditions with headwind of -40 degrees! Last entry of Scotts diary was shown to us (British library London), quite emotional! Scott and his crew finally died in severe weather conditions on the way back! Amundson was more lucky and seems to have the better expedition plan with better equipment (more dogs!!!) on a different route and reached the north pole 1 month ago and even survived and returned alive! That was one of the biggest achievements with respect to exploring the world!

Then some words on his own travels in the Arctic, "on the footsteps of his grandfather"

Scott Base on Ross Island, biggest base in Antarctica, nearby is the most southern volcano in the world! Project of Falcon Scott for the Antarctica Heritage Trust, Christchurch, got a job to repair an old hut and old sledges, very difficult restoration on cold days, Cape Evans, Falcon even painted some pictures and offers them for sale

Wolfgang, the german geologist, talks on Antarctica

Will be interesting, maybe I give a short update tomorrow! Anyone interested? :-)

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