These last four days in the South Pole have been amazing. We have seen over a million penguins and large numbers of sea lions, elephant seals, and fur seals. I have also been threatened by a few. We were told to put your hiking sticks in front of you and stand your ground. It has worked so far but it is still scary. I make an effort to stay very close to an expedition staff member. Safety in numbers is my motto.
Each day we have a morning landing, then reposition the ship and have an afternoon landing. I usually do only one a day. These are all “wet landings”. That means getting off the Zodiacs in a sometimes rough surf. I will pick my excursion on the terrain we have to walk on and the roughness of the landing. One day I stayed on the Zodiac and just rode the beach. It is not as up close and personal but then I don’t have to worry about those seals.
We are also seeing a lot of ice-flows and bergs as we get closer to the South Pole. This will probably be my last post for a while. The next two days will be at sea and then I will probably have no internet at all.
I’m staying warm and so far we have had no rain or snow. The weather has been amazing. It is very cold, in the low 30’s, but beautiful blue sky and sunshine.
-Bebe