Earth-Touch Expeditions

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Gerlache Strait - Antarctic continent in view! - 02:05 am

16 Dec 2008

It just gets better and better. I didn’t think anything could top the scenes we saw yesterday with the pack ice but we’re now on the other side of the Peninsula, nestled against the side of this massive, elusive continent and the views are mind blowing.

We’re on our way through the Gerlache Strait towards Paradise Bay, where we hope to land, step foot on the continent and spend some time with the penguins. The sea is split by massive, jagged mountains layered with exceptionally deep snow, wide, snaking glaciers carving between them.

The cloud cover only serves to magnify this extraordinary landscape

There are not many places in the world where land rises so suddenly and dramatically from the ocean. And this continent has been pushed back down into the earth’s crust by the weight of two-thirds of the world’s freshwater on its back. Yet the rock still towers far above the slate ocean beneath them.

Huge clunking sounds became more and more common as chunks of ice hit the bow and scraped underneath us.

A lonely Adelie penguin gives some scale to this ice

It’s snowing frequently but things are looking good for our landing this afternoon. Many people have a bit of cabin fever after 5 days at sea. Me? I want to land without a doubt but I’m also absolutely content to stand next to the railings on deck for hours, snow settling on me, and stare out at this alien landscape, which makes sense in theory, but is more different than anything I’ve ever seen.

The light is unlike anything I’ve seen. The icebergs glow from within