Day 20 Roald amundsen

Today is a ship day. We are heading towards Elephant island and point wild.

The plan is to arrive approx 10am. 

We have spent the morning roaming the deck continuing our whale watching, again successfully too I might add. 

It is -2 and snowing on deck but as we are intrepid explorers, we put up with these conditions to find more wildlife.

Not long after arrival at Elephant island, they announce that they will put 4 zodiacs out to allow us to cruise into point wild.

This is a big surprise, normally the conditions don’t allow this as it’s too bumpy but again we are lucky. 

Of course all you historians will know the story of Shackleton, and how his Antarctic expedition failed after his boat was caught and subsequently sunk by ice. 

This is where most of his crew waited for over 4 winter months for him to return. The bust of the Argentinian  captain: Luis Pardo, who rescued them is on display for any passers by. 

We cruised around admiring the bust of caprain Pardo, the hundreds of “ chinstrap “ penguins and a couple of fighting juvenile seals on the rocks.

We were also fortunate enough to see a small carving fall from the iceberg.

Back to boat for some warmth and a lecture or two.

( conference remember!)

Instead of napping this afternoon, I attended a clay modelling class. Hoping to display my artist talent...

We were all to create a penguin of choice.

Sadly once painted, mine resembled a dodo.

Starting to get a bit bumpy again as we have now entered Drakes passage again.

 Ship lecture this afternoon by a fellow ( one of the expedition crew) who replicated the small boat trip from elephant island to South Georgia islands in 2001.

Tomorrow is another ship day as we head to the Falkland Islands, so I plan to hold on tight!!