Another Great Sunday

This Sunday may rival last week’s as best Sunday so far. I had a lot of plans at the beginning of the day and they were all dropped in order to join a trip out to Cape Evans, which is 15 miles outside of town. Despite the fact I was there only a few hours before with our shuttles crew this was a chance to go back out to walk / run back. We had some skiers, runners and walkers on this trip so it was easy for me to join in at the very last minute. One minute we’re eating brunch and the next we’re running back to our rooms gathering ECW gear and exercise clothes. The we are Lindsay, her husband, Travis, and myself. They are the real troopers as they’d not ever skate skied before and decided their first try should be 15 miles from town with no instruction. I got them set up in the skis and poles, and then I didn’t see them again until the Delta picked us up.
So, one of the highlights of this trip was spending lots of time at the seal hole watching them surface to breathe. We saw one the night before but there were 20 of us gathered around not being as quiet as we could have been, so the seal only barely stuck his nose out of the water. The next day was much quieter with just me and another person so I got some good shots, and a video even.

There were seals everywhere on the ice. From afar they look like giant black slugs.
The weather was perfect, not a breath of wind – which is highly unusual. I made it walking/running a lot further down the trail than I had expected.
The other highlight was just being away from town. I stopped a couple of times just to listen to the quiet. I’ve never been in a place as quiet. My ears were ringing with silence. It was incredible.
At one point I just realized, this is Antarctica and I am actually here. Those realizations are so fun to have. You can’t help but smile.


For the history buffs – our Shuttles trip the day before was a trip all the way to Scott’s Hut. It is open to visitors so it was neat to walk inside a structure that is perfectly preserved. Because it is so cold and dry things are just as they were left 100 years ago, including a penguin and a massive store of seal blubber. 19 men lived in this “hut” for 18 months. I was surprised at the size, high ceilings and separated spaces. I suppose when you put 19 men in there it may seem smaller.


last photo to sign off with – on top of the hill above the hut there is a cross, I thought this picture

came out pretty well. Note the closest land mass to the left on the sea ice – that’s actually an ice

burg. I had it cropped nicely, but have to upload it from my camera, so this is the original version.

Ben came back last night and it's nice to have him back in town.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Gretchen