Field Trip to Cape Evans, Part I

Here's a picture story with a few words to show you all how fantastic our field trip to Cape Evans was on Friday. Cape Evans is about 10 miles from McMurdo station (10 minutes by helicopter). We spent the full day there, exploring and touring the inside of Scott's hut. I have a bunch of photos of the inside of Scott's hut, but I will save them for their own post. We were told by our instructor the night before we left that the going price for an Antarctic cruise that includes a stop in Cape Evans & tour of Scott's hut starts at $38 000!!!! I'm one lucky girl....


Arrival at Cape Evans by helicopter. Scott's Hut is the building in the centre. I have more photos of the inside but I think I'll post them on another day. The Barne Glacier runs along the top of the photo.

Dafne & Scott exploring the cape.

A lone emperor (I think this penguin may have beat the record for most photos taken in one day!)

Obligatory "penguin and me" shot. Notice I am observing the Antarctic Treaty: if the animal reacts you are too close. I'm pretending to ignore him and he's pretending to ignore me.

Emperor and Mt. Erebus

Zoom lens...broke the bank account before I left. Close up of emperor penguin... priceless.

Lunch overlooking the edge of the sea ice. There were minke whales cruising around out there but no sign of the orcas yet.

Another shot of Mt. Erebus

"Hey guys, there are seals and icebergs out here" (Sound travels FAR on the ice)

Seals love sunbathing just as much as the cats do!

WARNING: The following pictures will contain extreme cuteness and will cause obsessions with Adelie penguins. The pictures are in a series. I saw the little guys coming down the hill by the skua pond, so I sat down on a rock and let them do their thing... guess they weren't too bothered by me because they walked within arms reach! Now I'm wondering what a group of penguins are called??? Any suggestions?

Here they come!

Single file please

Penguins have the cutest shadows

Off they go! These guys totally reminded me of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date"

This was my view as we chilled out on the beach waiting for our helicopter to arrive.

Six short hours later it's time to go home in our snazzy helicopter from the Scott Base (they had to bring in the Kiwis to help ferry us all to and fro that day!). The orange bags in the foreground are our ECW bags with all the gear we aren't wearing. The bags lined up by the helicopter are the survival bags (contain tent, sleeping bags, food, gas stove etc for two people). They are left with us in case we have to overnight due to bad weather.

Thankfully, our day was a beautiful one and definitely one I'll never forget. Do you think I could train the cats to waddle like Adelies? :)

j