Camping on the Antarctic Continent

Friday, January 22, 2016 - Travel Day 14, Expedition Day 6, Damoy Point in Darien Bay

Today if the weather clears, we will be camping tonight.  This morning however is not looking promising.  Our land exploration has been canceled because of the snow and wind.  Instead we are Zondiac cruising Damoy Point in Darien Bay where we have been enjoying beautiful icebergs, splitting, calving, and cracking.

With the mountain in front of us and large glacier shelf in front of that, we skirted across the flank gazing up at a wall of glacier ice 100 meters high creeping toward the sea.  Once again we enjoyed seeing crabeater seals, large icebergs, and Gentoo pengins, along with an abandonded  airfield high on a ridge (which we really couldn's see) and Argentine buildings and radar station.

This afternoon we are off to Port Lockroy, a rocky island adjacent to the continent. This is generally the last stop north of the circle for most cruise boats. The Port is the headquarters for the United Kingdom's Antarctic Trust.  Because of the number of guests that come through here, there is quite a well equipped gift shop, and a post office from which to mail Antarctic cards.  They also have a courtesy passport stamp to document your stop.  We sent some post cards off, but don't expect to receive them right away...they'll go via England.  Could be up to 8 months!

 As the boat left Port Lockroy, the clouds were closing in behind us to the south, but the vistas in front us were opening up with glimpses of  blue sky and sun light.  We traveled through an area called Neumayer Pass where glacers touch down on the sea, and soaring snow covered mountains reach up through the clouds.  We enjoyed the breath taking views as we headed to an area called Paradise Bay.  If the conditions are conducive, campers will disembark for a night on the ice.

As it turned out, the conditions were conducive, and we gathered up our bivy sack bedrolls.  It's windy so we are dressed for wet weather as we board the Zodiac, after dinner around 9:30 pm.  It is still light, and will remain dusky before the sun rises after midnight.  When we arrive on Paradise, we scamper up a slope with a a gentle knoll that slopes leeward.  The snow from the last snow fall (today), is about 1-2 feet thick.  It's light, dry, and easily packs down with some stomping.

Russ and I stomp down 6+ foot rectangles, build up some side/headwall wind barriers with packed snow, lay out our sleeping gear, make a pit stop in our Antarctic privy (bucket, behind a snow wall, not as cold as I thought and with a fabulous glacial view), hike back to our sleeping area, take some photos, and tug off our boots and outer wear, stow gear under or in the sleep sack with us.  By this time, it is almost 11:00 pm and it is still light.  We stand on top of our bivy bags in our socks, step into our fleece liner, jumping up and down and pulling it high over our heads, and then sitting down and worming our way into the narrow opening of our bivy sacks, pulling the sack over our heads, and and yes falling to sleep..

I had lots of layers on and also brought additional layers that were in a dry bag. Since this was a soft bag, it worked great as an additional pillow.  I also had with me my fleecy, blowup airline neck pillow, that I blew up part way.  Between these two cushy bundles,, I was able to get into some relatively comfortable positions, and slept until 4:30 when other campers started socializing.  Then I dozed for a another hour before mustering the courage to get out of the warmth of my sleeping bag and  repeat the process of worming out of the sack and putting on the outer gear in the reverse order in which I took them off.

We packed up our gear, boarded the Zodiacs, and were back aboard the Diamond by 6:30 am, just in time for a hot shower, change of clothes, and a cup of coffee before breakfast.

All is Well with the Worrall CAMP R's in Antarctica.

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