It’s the third day of the New Year, and the National Geographic Orion is headed farther south on our continuing exploration of the Antarctic Peninsula. During the night we navigated down the Gerlache Strait, and turned into Andvord Bay, a long inlet that led us back to Neko Harbor, the site for our morning landing. This particular landing is our second chance to step onto the Antarctic Peninsula proper, and one of the few places where we can stretch our legs on a longer climb to a magnificent overview of the surrounding area. Most of Andvord Bay is ringed with large, and active, tidewater glaciers dropping large chunks of ice into its frigid waters. We can often hear the thundering as these large calvings erupt from different directions, and from water level or the hanging glaciers high on the mountainsides! We were not disappointed this morning, even as we were still landing guests on shore the thunder happened several times, which got everyone’s attention!
Most everyone made it either to the top of the walk, or at least to the other special surprise along the way, a chance to slide down a steep snow field on our bottoms. What an exciting opportunity for the young, and the young-at-heart! Those of us who made it all the way to the top had a great opportunity for fabulous photos of this impressive landscape, and a chance to have your photo taken with a beautiful glacier in the background below.
After lunch the bridge crew repositioned the National Geographic Orion into another waterway near the entrance to Andvord Bay, called Paradise Harbor, another one of the gems along the Danco Coast of the Peninsula. This afternoon the plan was to do a Zodiac cruise near the icebergs and glaciers of this protected harbor. The first round of cruises went off without a hitch, but in the middle of the second round the weather turned for the worse, with driving snow and wind, so it was a race to get everyone back onboard before it got any worse. It was all safely accomplished, even though there was a few rather exciting moments for the staff and guests! Just another day of with the many faces of Antarctica!
