The wind grow stronger and its started to snow again but this is how it is here. One minute it can be really sunny and warm and suddenly it all change and it gets freezing cold. Today it was around -4 Celsius which doesn’t sound so bad but with the wind it is really freezing cold and not very fun to be outside.
That doesn’t stop us and we took a trip to Paradise Bay and visited an Argentinian “research station”. It was with purpose I put the quote mark around it because there were no researchers there, they are only here during summer and we are a bit to early right now. Also, there hasn’t been published any reports or data from this station which makes at least me think about how much research they really do here. Instead I think that they simply use this station to mark there interest and claim in the region but what do I know.
Paradise Bay was not a paradise today though, it was as I mentioned both cold, windy and snowy but its still fun to stroll around in the snow and stretch your legs and its even better to get back inside later on.
Close by there is Orne Island which was our last stop on Antarctica. The location is if possible even more inhospitable, super exposed with no protection from the wind at all and between the sea and the shore there was a huge ice wall which you had to climb over. Luckily for us our guides were pretty quick into digging some small steps which I think made sure that not any of the passengers fell into the water. Once on shore there wasn’t really much to see. The snow was blasted by the wind and in the horizon you can see icebergs and glaciers. There is however a colony of chinstrap penguins here and even if I seen them before this time we got really close to them and that alone made the whole landing worth it
On my way back to M/V Hondius the waves were rolling in, over the zodiac and once onboard I was both soaking wet and freezing cold, here a big, warm shower was waiting for me and that is more than the earlier polar explorers had.
Paradise Bay 
Paradise Bay 
Gentoo & Chinstrap penguin 
Chinstrap penguins 
Chinstrap penguin 
Iceberg on route 
Credits Bill Smith