So, I woke up this morning and it's quite foggy, and there's ice everywhere with icebergs. And that
could affect today because ice can be a real enemy because
it affects where the ship can go, it can block passage into the bays that we need to go to.
So, it's very beautiful but it could be a disaster for today!
I have no idea how today is going to pan out. That's one of the things you learn really really
quickly on an expedition cruise, is that no matter what the plans are, they will probably change.
The reason I'm taking you on today's trip is we're supposed to do two
of the big things that would normally happen on an expedition cruise: a zodiac cruise and a landing.
We were briefed on that last night, but who knows! So, let's find out how it all plays out!
Right so about 15 minutes before I'm due to be downstairs
because it looks like we're running to schedule. So, it's time to get dressed.
This is one of the things that I get asked so many times, which is about packing, and what to wear.
So, it's really pretty simple.
It gets cold, it's like minus seven outside today (minus seven celsius) but if you wear layers you
don't really feel the cold. In fact it's my face that feels it the most which is the exposed part.
It's all about layers. You have a base layer, you then have an insulating layer, you then have an
outside layer which is waterproof which includes things like waterproof trousers and a Parka.
You need to bring most of that with you. Depending on the line you're with you can
get various parts on the ship. You'll normally get a Parka, which all the lines give you,
because it's the same colour and it means when you're out they can spot you very easily.
Some will rent you boots. I have my own boots because all with all the hiking I want to
wear my own boots. So, don't panic too much about it! Just follow the rules: base layer,
insulating layer and an outside waterproof layer.
Welcome to Nico Harbour. There's a lot of ice
After picking our way through the ice to get to land, we have a briefing
and they tell us where we can go and where you can't go, and it's marked up with
little red flags and then we're off exploring.
We're now here in Nico harbour. It's very snowy, so that's why I'm kind of walking rather
tentatively. You can probably hear the penguins. It's Gentoo penguins, and there's a huge big
glacier over there which has carved a couple of times, so I hope to be able to show you that.
One of the things I would say with an expedition cruise is you do need to be pretty fit. Because
you have to climb on and off the zodiacs. yess you have to be quite nimble because
the sea can be moving up and down, and then you have to do things like
the landings and climb up and down, and be comfortable on your feet on ice and snow.
It's absolutely remarkable. I mean these scenes are absolutely incredible,
and you're learning so much about the wildlife and the birds and history.
Over there behind is the ship, and then we've
been exploring and you can get to see penguins over there. And now to climb down there.
As I mentioned, a lot of people get worried about being overly
cold. If anything you get almost too hot with all these different layers
when hiking up this big hill and hiking back down again, you get really hot.
I'm quite sweaty! I've been taking my hat off even to try and cool down a little bit.
Just so beautiful. These landings are fantastic. You get to explore incredible
places, you can everyone jabbering away excited there, and get some exercise in.
The biggest mistake I think people make on an expedition trip is to take too many pictures!
They just don't stop and listen and just take in what they're seeing. I
think it's a temptation to just take so many pictures or videos and miss what's going on.
That then was an example of a wet landing, although it wasn't that wet because we didn't
actually step into the water which we do on many of the other landings.
There's three things that normally happen on an expedition
cruise. You'll have wet landings, zodiac tours and scenic touring.
Scenic touring, for example, we did last night where we went looking for
whales. We basically cruised on the ship and we went looking for whales.
We saw orca whales and we saw humpback whales. That was very exciting
and this afternoon we're going to be doing zodiac touring in a place called
Paradise Bay, but now it's time for some hot chocolate and then off to lunch.
I've had my lunch just over there in the buffet restaurant which is over there. I tend to have
most of my meals in the buffet restaurant, and I don't spend a lot of time
in the main restaurant because it's such incredible scenery, you know you've got
glaciers and mountains and just so much going on.
I don't want to spend time eating. The food is great,
it's fine, it's very typical. People have asked me what the food
is like on expedition cruises. Basically the same as any cruise to be honest with you!
Being French, it serves amazing bread and cheese and whatever. Anyway
I had lunch, and it's more changes because we're picking our way through Neko Harbour
where there's a lot of ice, a lot of icebergs and it's going to take us
much longer to get to Paradise Bay than we had thought or planned or whatever.
So, instead we're going to have the briefing now. Normally have the briefing at the end of the day
when they recap what you've seen, you get told what's happening the next day.
We're having that at two o'clock and then at 4 30 we're going to be going out to Paradise Bay. So,
we can enjoy all this incredibles incredible scenery meantime and then have our briefing.
I'll tell you more about the briefings and what they said. They spoke about a bay named after
Charcot, a famous French explorer, where we were yesterday. One of the things I would say
is one of the real highlights of an expedition cruise is the whole area of the briefings.
On this cruise we have 14 naturalists. There's historians, geologists, whale experts,
all sorts and every single cruise is very unique. After every outing, after every day of outings,
they put together a series of talks which are exactly about what we've seen.
For example, we just learned a little bit more about orcas and humpback whales that we'd seen,
a little bit more about Charcot where we've been yesterday,
and of course we got briefed on what we're doing tomorrow.
I would say one of the absolute highlights
of an exhibition cruise, without a shadow of a doubt, is those briefings.
We're now heading into the bay and we will hopefully be going on our zodiac cruise shortly.
I'm back from the zodiac tour, which was amazing, heading to Paradise Bay.
I've actually been to Paradise bay before, but I've been at the end of the season. So amazing
going at the beginning of the season, because it's just chock full of ice, loads of icebergs.
The glaciers are huge. The place is covered in snow. It looks amazing. We had a look, or went
past anyway, an Argentinian Research Centre which isn't open yet they only move in in December time.
Then we headed out into a place called Scontorp Bay
and had a look around there. We had a great little surprise because they had got a little
box in the zodiac with champagne. That was very nice little surprise that we had out there.
Then we weaved our way around looking at all the incredible sights, birds on the rocks,
and what people most enjoyed looking at probably is the icebergs. All the
coloured ice and then headed back and had my traditional hot chocolate.
You can probably hear them, they're putting the zodiacs back and then we're going to set sail
for our next destination tomorrow which will be the South Shetlands.
But, of course, there's still the whole night to go and I will explain what's happening
a little bit later during the course of the evening.
Today seems to have been a really good day to have chosen to talk about the unpredictability of going
on an expedition cruise, and how you need to be adaptable.
I was going to talk about the things to do in the evening on board the ship,
which is pretty laid back because most people go to bed early because you're pretty tired
at the end of the day after all of these excursions and activities you've seen.
However, during dinner today the captain came on over the loud speaker system to say
that he was going to try something very special, very unique and that's to push
the ship right into the ice shelf - and if successful we're going to
be able to step out of the ship and go exploring and walk around on the ice.
The ice shelf is a really big thick sheet of ice that extends past the land out over the sea.
Underneath the ice shelf is ocean basically and not land. Most of Antarctica is land.
The idea is to push the ship, because it's got a strengthened hull,
into the ice shelf and have a look and see if that's possible - and
if it is we're going to be out exploring on the ice shelf tonight. The plan is to
start doing that at about 10 p.m tonight and hopefully we'll be out on the ice shelf about 11.
We're having a pretty unusual experience! We're actually in the shelf ice. There's the sea,
there's the beginning of the ice, there's the ice shelf
and we're pushed into the ice shelf and we're now walking through and on the ice.
Absolutely and utterly incredible! The ship just pushing into the ice!
And it's just really totally amazing, everybody out on deck having a look. What was even more
amazing is once we were in the ice shelf and got out and explored, we were able to walk around.
There was a perimeter set up to explore. There was
a really great excitement because there was actually an emperor penguin in the
distance! We couldn't get to it because it was too far away, which is really unusual.
They set up a little stand where you could have caviar and explore.
The Filipino crew went crazy. They all came out
because many of them have not been able to get out at all when we've been touring the islands.
They went crazy with their flag. Really fun when they they put a rope down from the front
of the ship and people were pretending to pull the ship. Absolutely incredible experience. It
doesn't happen very often it's very rare it's very unusual and it was just mind-blowing!