South Orkney Islands - Laurie

We wake up to a brilliant day in the Southern Ocean and Graham briefs us at breakfast to say we will be spending the morning at the Argentine Meteorological Station at Laurie Island.  It is the oldest, continuously run research station in Antarctica and our first visit to one. 

We are as excited as the men on the base who have not had much contact for months with anyone.  These researches stay on at the station for over a year and lead what must be a very isolated life.  We take fresh fruit and eggs from the ship for them, helping to relieve the monotony of their diet at least for a couple of days! I’ve read that on average, the sun shines less than 2 hours a day on the South Orkney Islands, and we realise talking to our expedition crew how lucky we are to have such glorious weather.  The islands are 85% glaciated and even in the summer, covered in snow and ice.  

Sealing and whaling was big in these parts and the industry destroyed both seals and whales from these waters.  However, the decline of the whales has resulted in the seals coming back in larger numbers that ever due to the availability of larger numbers of krill for their consumption. We are given a guided tour by the Argentinean park ranger, who speaks ‘Spanglish’!  We get by with his basic knowledge of English, our 2 words of Spanish and lots of sign language.  It is fun to get a tour of the station, have a hot cup of coffee and get a feel for what life must be like for the men (this one is a all male station) who live here, for months on end.   Shane and David, spend the morning stamping our passports!  One more stamp from this part of the world for us collectors! After our tour we sit on the pebble beach and enjoy the chin strap penguins.  They are completely fearless and come right up to us, playing with shoe laces and looking right down the high powered camera equipment on the beach!  All too soon it is time to go back to our ship.  The ocean is now starting to remind us we have headed quite far south.  The beautiful icebergs float by silently as we make our way back to the ship. Life will go on at the research station and we reflect on the kind of stress these guys face as they go about their daily lives!

Adventure is a path.
Real adventure- self-determined, self-motivated, often risky-forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world.The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it.  Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple
with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind-and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both.  This will change you.
Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.
-Mark Jenkins