The White Continent

Sailing towards the ice

Humpback in still waters

My colleagues at BBQ on the bow

Incoming Blue-eyed Shag

Adelie Penguins with downy chicks

Black-browed Albatross

Macaroni Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin with chicks

Fuzzy babies

Gentoo Penguin going for a swim

Porpoising Gentoo

Iceberg hues

Elephant Seals in Gentoo rookery

Ship anchored in Whaler's Bay, a volcanic caldera

Lunch time for baby

Kayakers in Paradise Harbour

Pancake ice in Wilhelmina Bay

Zodiac cruising

Gentoo 

Penguin highway

Sasha and Pasha, Russian crew

Iceberg and "bergy bits"

El Capitan

Argentine Research Station - Almirante Brown

Hard at work

Curious Gentoo chick

Chinstrap Penguins

...or "Polish Policemen"

Leopard Seal

Scale of iceberg next to zodiac on left

Chad, master of the zodiac

Derek, our naturalist, going up the hook after morning excursion

Chinstraps considering a swim

The Professor Multonovskiy

Neco Harbour with ship behind me

Andrew and Chad, expedition leader and kayak guide

Entering Lemaire Channel (0.8 miles wide)

Gentoo with freshly-hatched chick and egg

I have arrived back in Ushuaia after two incredible back-to-back voyages to the continent of Antarctica with One Ocean Expeditions.  Each voyage involved two days crossing the infamous Drake Passage, five days on the continent with two three-hour zodiac excursions each day and return through the Drake around Cape Horn.   Our Dutch-owned ship, the Professor Multinovskiy, ran with a Russian crew of 21, three chefs, six expedition staff and 44 passengers from 12 countries.  We had gorgeous weather, a night camping on the ice and many close encounters with the natives.  All told, a life-changing experience.

What photographs cannot describe however, is the rolling of the ship, the stench downwind of a penguin colony, the snort of a leopard seal, the grumbling growl of a humpback taking a breath, the gunshot crash of a calving glacier, the rhythmic waves lapping the beach, the gargling display of a chinstrap, the cawing from a cape petrel nest, the comical waddle of a penguin chick chasing it's parent for a meal, the clink of glacier ice in a glass of scotch, the staff jokes across the radios, the sun shining on the deck, the dryness in the air, the acrobatic dives of a feeding Antarctic Tern, the racket from a penguin colony 5000 strong, planing out in a zodiac or the happy exhaustion when falling into a bunk after a full and amazing day on the 7th continent.