Day 21-22: This Email Sponsored by Max Chamard the Bartender, who has had WAY too much of my busines
Merry Christmas
We started our day with no wake-up call. That was exceptionally nice. We attempted to land on Cape Hallet but were unable to due to ice conditions. Instead we were taken out for a flight-seeing tour of the ship breaking ice. I managed to get a co-pilot seat and think I have some good shots of the event. We had a lovely dinner in which I was gifted a nice bottle of red wine (a heroes thank you), which I shared with the table. Even better, I was gifted a small portion of a magnificent Tokaji (dessert wine) that was described as baby Jesus's velvet trousers, though I'm not sure I follow the corollary.
My boxing day (even if my laptop said it was X-mas) started out about as bad as can be. Headache. Exhausted. Morose. A few phone calls to family and friends helped turn that around. Then we landed on Cape Adare, our last excursion here in Antarctica, and saw the 250,000 breeding pair of Adelie penguins. At our final and smallest hut, I saw an Adelie sitting on both a chick an egg. The chick was very young and the egg had a small crack with a beak sticking out. Unfortunately it takes a day or two to fully hatch and I only had a few hours. Still, those are probably the best photos of my entire trip.
Then we heard the ships horn. It was a long continous blast telling all passengers to get back immediately because of worsening ice conditions. I was on the second to last boat off and it was a slalom getting through the ice pack. After everyone was on board, they moved the ship around the corner into the multi-year ice. After staff tested to make sure it was safe, they allowed us to walk back to the colony and we were able to enjoy another 3-4 hours. Using the 'quantity' rules for determining the quality of the day, I'd have to say that at just over 65 GB (2.5k+), it was my best day yet.
Speaking of photo numbers. I'm through all 10422 photos from the Emps & Kings trip. Fear not, I've distilled that down to 44 of my best shots. I'll have plenty of time to go through my Epic images as we've the next 3-4 days at sea, and I likely won't be leaving my cabin.
Cheers,
-C
We started our day with no wake-up call. That was exceptionally nice. We attempted to land on Cape Hallet but were unable to due to ice conditions. Instead we were taken out for a flight-seeing tour of the ship breaking ice. I managed to get a co-pilot seat and think I have some good shots of the event. We had a lovely dinner in which I was gifted a nice bottle of red wine (a heroes thank you), which I shared with the table. Even better, I was gifted a small portion of a magnificent Tokaji (dessert wine) that was described as baby Jesus's velvet trousers, though I'm not sure I follow the corollary.
My boxing day (even if my laptop said it was X-mas) started out about as bad as can be. Headache. Exhausted. Morose. A few phone calls to family and friends helped turn that around. Then we landed on Cape Adare, our last excursion here in Antarctica, and saw the 250,000 breeding pair of Adelie penguins. At our final and smallest hut, I saw an Adelie sitting on both a chick an egg. The chick was very young and the egg had a small crack with a beak sticking out. Unfortunately it takes a day or two to fully hatch and I only had a few hours. Still, those are probably the best photos of my entire trip.
Then we heard the ships horn. It was a long continous blast telling all passengers to get back immediately because of worsening ice conditions. I was on the second to last boat off and it was a slalom getting through the ice pack. After everyone was on board, they moved the ship around the corner into the multi-year ice. After staff tested to make sure it was safe, they allowed us to walk back to the colony and we were able to enjoy another 3-4 hours. Using the 'quantity' rules for determining the quality of the day, I'd have to say that at just over 65 GB (2.5k+), it was my best day yet.
Speaking of photo numbers. I'm through all 10422 photos from the Emps & Kings trip. Fear not, I've distilled that down to 44 of my best shots. I'll have plenty of time to go through my Epic images as we've the next 3-4 days at sea, and I likely won't be leaving my cabin.
Cheers,
-C