Catching Up

21:00 on Wednesday the 22nd November, 2006

We were not done with South Georgia yet. It still had more to show us. We had a zodiac cruise around Cooper Bay where we saw our first Leopard Seal. He was swimming just offshore of a Penguin Rookery, obviously hoping to have a spot of lunch, then we came along and he did a few turns for us under the boat. The water is so clear we could see him down to a good depth. Before we left South Georgia, the Captain treated us to a tour of Djygalski Fiord, and the Risting Glacier. Mindblowing . Steamed for a day and a half to South Orkneys, arriving at Shingle Cove on 19th. On the way here we got a taste of sea ice and saw some spectacular Icebergs. Photographs just don't convey the scale and majesty of them, the colours or the shapes. We had been told to expect some sea ice, then at lunch time we heard the clunk of ice against the hull so the lunch was abandoned while we went to investigate. I know now why Frank Hurley had himself lowered on a rope in front of Endurance to record her icebreaking. We just crept through it - one doesn't mess with this stuff, iron ship or not. I leaned over the bow to see what was going on underneath . If I thought the lumps of ice were large on the surface, I saw something different when the prow lifted out of the water bringing with it a piece of ice as big as a car and as hard as concrete. It was mesmeric looking into the crystal water at the ice swirling before the hull. In South Orkneys we visited Signey Station, a U.K. research facility. It is very small with few staff many of whom were out in the field that day, so we were shown around by just two of them. This stop held a very special significance for two members of the Expedition. They had spent two years down here forty years ago and had not been back since. Neville Jones was delighted to find that a hut he had constructed in the 1960's , some way from the station, was still standing. Fergus O Gorman showed us the rock he used to sit on when conducting his studies in the field. It was an emotional visit for them both. Neville had previously given a lecture on Overwintering In Antarctica which gave us some idea of the privations and the lifestyle in isolation at the end of the world . I