This morning we landed at Cuverville Island and visited the Gentoo penguin rookery there. Hundreds of moulting birds colonized the beach, and those of us sitting quietly on a rock were approached closely by the curious chicks! As we had lunch, we sailed on through the ice-filled and very scenic Errera Channel. On our afternoon landing at Neko Harbour, we set foot on the Antarctic continent itself, not on one of its offshore islands. In bright sunlight and no wind at all, we climbed up on the hill behind the penguin colony. What a splendid view from up there over all the nearby glaciers!
Wind and waves of the previous days have calmed down and we spent a clear and sunny day at sea observing sea birds. In our lecture halls, the expedition staff presented interesting talks on the history, geology and biology of Antarctica. In the evening, we were invited by our fellow passenger Antoine Braastad, who's family owns the Cognac destillery Braastad to a tasting of his fantastic Cognac!
In the early morning, we waved good-bye to our last group of guests. For a change, we were not the biggest ship at the pier, the 'Carnival Splendor' was docked next to us. This ship has 3000 passengers and 1150 crew and made the FRAM look like a small tender boat! Streams of people were pouring onto the pier and into the streets of Ushuaia. Many of these guests came up to the FRAM and asked where we were going. Our answer was that we are heading to Antarctica. Many of these guests immediately wanted to book on the FRAM. But sorry guys, it is fully booked for this trip! Under their envious looks, our own guests arrived and we set sail south. Our trip to Antarctica has begun!
As we woke up, we had already passed the South Shetland Islands and we were heading out into the Drake Passage. Large flocks of Cape petrels followed the ship throughout the whole day, interspersed with some Giant petrels and every now and then, a majestic Wandering albatross soared by.
Again, our day started early, with the passage of the pittoresque Lemaire Channel before breakfast. Right after breakfast, we landed at Petermann Island, where the famous French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot overwintered with his ship 'Pourquoi pas?' in winter 1909. The island is colonized by Adelie and Gentoo penguins. The Gentoo chicks wer just about to fledge and approached us curiously!
southernmost post office in the world. Many postcards were sent to all our dears back home, and of course we enjoyed the Gentoo penguins that are literally everywhere around this station! And nobody has told them about the 5m distance rules!
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harem. The day finished with a memorable sunset!
Also this day at sea was a very busy day: For the last time on this voyage, our university on sea opened their doors. Captain Steinar Hansen welcomed us on the bridge and everybody got all his or her questions about navigation answered. And this was the day to enjoy our sauna, Jacuzzi or gym for the last time!
statue at the southernmost tip of the South American continent! Welcome back to South America!
The pictures of the day were taken by Margaret Byford and Helgard and Oliver Gimm.
This morning we landed at Whalers Bay inside the crater of Deception Island, an active volcano. Landings at Deception Island always have a unique atmosphere, as steam rises from the beaches, and the water that accumulates in footprints close to the shoreline is so hot that you can hardly put your hand into it. We continued towards Greenwich Island where we arranged our afternoon landing at Yankee Harbour. Hundreds of newly fledged gentoo penguin chicks populated the beach, approaching us curiously. There is no other place in the world where you can have these intimate 
encounters with wild animals!
Olympus,…you name the brands) gap. Many gigabytes of pictures were taken of the steep walls on both sides of the narrow sound lit in the warm evening light!
After lunch we landed at Detaille Island and visited Base W of the British Antarctic Survey, which has been in use from 1956 to 1959. We topped this landing off with a Polar Circle Boat cruise in between the spectacular icebergs of all shapes and colours that filled the waters around the island.
good fun to slide down the hill on the bottom!
hungry, and so the parents were busy shuttling between the sea and the colony to provide their offspring with food. The whole scenery was bathed in the warm light of the late afternoon sun and the crests of Livingstone Island in the background shed long shadows on the glaciers surrounding them. What a marvelous day!
Smooth sailing- and therefore we made such a good speed that we could make a detour to Kap Hoorn! Even though we could not land, it was very visible from the vessel. From the distance we even saw the monument of the albatross.
What a luck again- and we make good speed over the Drake passage! The lecture halls are full and people have a chance to see the birds around the vessel. Finally there is some time to sort all the pictures taken during this incredible voyage. What did one do before digital pictures??
For many staff members, Neko harbor is a favourite spot! It is situated in beautiful Andvord Bay, there are many active glaciars around so there is always plenty of ice and at least one of these huge icebergs you dream about. And finally we had the real Antarctic weather with snow fall! Otherwise nobody would have believed that we were in Antarctica for the last days! You can not come back home and only show pictures with sunshine! On the way north we passed Wilhelmina Bay and there are quite a few whales around us here in the Gerlache strait right now.
Petermann Island was named after a german geographer and is situated south of the Lemaire Channel. Two great walks bring you either to iceberg alley or closer to the cormorants, gentoos and adelie penguins. The weather was beautiful once again- it is actually quite amazing how lucky we are on this trip! And now we are still at Port Lockroy where we have a former british base that is today a museum- and the southernmost post office! A double landing was possible and we could also see the whale bones at Jougla Point. In addition there was a chinese fashion shooting ashore- quite a sight to have Miss China 2006 wearing a red evening gown accompanied with rubber boots...
