Antarctica at Last - Npv. 16, 2019

A little late posting today as we are quite a ways south and the Internet has been extremely slow. Course I also decided to post quite a few pictures but will also keep my verbiage to the minimum. Hopeful Bob.

The photos I selected are to give you an idea of what the day was like, beginning with a photo from our patio when we first got up and continuing through the day. We were on a small island called Half-Moon Island which I think is done on purpose to give us a small taste of what Antarctica is like.

We are definitely an iceberg water and while most of the burgs are white, every once in a while a beautiful blue one comes into view.

One minute the sun can be out in the next the fog descends.

The fog doesn't make it easy to take photos.

Then the fog burns off and you get a scene like this which is our landing area. The shore is rocky and the snow has a particular color complements of all the penguins.

Speaking of penguins, they are everywhere

Linda heading off up the trail. The red you see is not the ground, it is what comes out the back-end of the penguins.

The chinstrap penguin is aptly named and is the most common penguin in the Antarctic.

The expedition team goes a shore first and sets up flags to mark the pass. Crossed flags means don't cross beyond this spot, and in this case ensures that we stay the proper distance away from all the penguins on the rocks.

We stand and watch the penguins and take their photos while the penguins stand and watch us.

I'll try to keep the penguin photos to a minimum and show only the tiniest fraction of the ones we took. For a while I was thinking Linda never saw penguin she didn't want to take a photo of, then I realized that everyone, including myself, was doing the same thing. I'm sure in a few days you be thinking oh another hundred penguins, big deal.

It said that if someone describes Antarctica to you they have very likely never been there. I don't know how you could possibly describe a photo like this.

What covers the ground, that's the toe of my boot at the bottom to give an idea of the size.

Selfie of the day.

Linda sometimes has trouble walking on uneven ground, but with the hiking sticks they supply she got along just fine.

Glacier in the making.

The blue tent of the glacier ice is almost everywhere you look.

Research station on the island. It was off-limits to us.

Antarctica is such a beautiful place and seeing the huge smile on Linda's face makes it even better even if you can't see it in this photo.

Penguin Highway.

Antarctica is far more than just a place.

Ready to go back to the ship.

There is no graceful way to get aboard the zodiacs and it was fun watching the different people attempt to enter.

In one sense we didn't really want to go back to the ship, but knowing that the days ahead would bring more adventure, made it okay.

Our zodiac driver knew how to stay warm.

When you come back aboard you have to stand in this mechanism and press a button while brushes clean off your boots.

Then you step in to a tray of disinfectant.