The world's last continent.

Day 7
Sunday, January 5th
Steps taken: 9,599

During the night we had finally reached land and we were set to step foot after breakfast; I did my typical pre-breakfast stuff: shower, brush teeth, stretch, work out, read. Breakfast, which was always a buffet was good.  I ate vigorously in order to have enough energy for what would be an extremely long day.

There were two expedition groups for each excursion in order to make sure that not too many people were on land at once.  I was in the Ross group, which was the first to go out to land.  We went to the mudroom, put on our boots and life jackets, and lined up to take the zodiacs to shore.  I thought we would be called up instead of free range so I waited an extra ten minutes and my friends were already en-route.

I finally get in a zodiac and the air is palpable.  Tension.  Excitement.  Awe.  The moment some have been waiting for a year and a half and for others their entire lives.  The day was perfect.  Sunny with very little wind.  It was almost hot.  I did get some sunburn.  Typical ginger that I am.

When I finally stepped foot on Paradise Bay I said out loud "Eucyon.  Number Six."  I trekked up some paths and up the mountain everyone else was climbing.  When I got there I found my friends and asked them how seven felt.  It is indescribable.  They said they felt great, but it's more than that.  You can't vocalize what your adventures and journey completely mean.  You can see it more on people's faces.

We stayed up on the 1,000+ foot mountain for a good ten minutes taking in the scenery as well as taking epic photos.  Then for those going back down we had two ways: walk down or slide down.  I hate heights and fast movements downwards, but after getting enough courage I slid down the mountain and I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the funnest things I've ever done.  It was so fun that I climbed up one more time to slide again.

Once I returned to the base I walked around some more.  Then I got back on the zodiac for a...ZODIAC CRUISE! (Not to be confused with the Zodiac Crews from my novel series "The Fangs of the Wolf".)  We cruised around the coastline seeing penguin rookeries, random birds nests, and a leopard seal.  It was chilly on the water, but it could have been much worse.  On each zodiac were eight passengers and one driver.  We had a good time with our driver Scott.  He was insightful, but humorous.  All the crew have unique senses of humor and a love of adventure.  After about forty five minutes to an hour of this, we went back to the boat.

Soon after we ate lunch, which was also always buffet style, we prepared for our afternoon excursion to Port Lockroy outpost.  Here we toured the museum, which was intact storages of rooms of the outpost from the 50s, and went to the gift shop.  I bought some souvenirs for people and sent a postcard home. [It took a month to arrive.]

We came back and partook in tea and beef broth.  I was a little leery of the broth at first, but I'm now a fan.  We formed a brotherhood of the broth.  It's like a sisterhood of traveling pants only with cups of broth...not really.  Since the campers had to leave after dinner, we got to have dinner early, which was a buffet for the occasion.  Best buffets I've had.  I ate until I was feeling like a beached (or iced) seal and of course that means I sneezed in rapid succession.  I should have known better, but I had to load up on food since it was going to be a long night without any outside food or drink at the campsite.

Melvin and I were on the first zodiac to the campsite so we went and set up the ground by stamping it in circles and then built our tent.  The tent was not really complicated, but we messed it up a little and Bismark had to come and correct us.  I'm sure my father was watching me and yelling to do it a certain way and to do it faster.  Aaaah camping memories.  Though I do have more fond memories of camping with him than I do negative.

Once our tent was up we helped others until there was almost thirty tents in the campsite.  After set up was complete, we hiked the area up to the penguin rookeries.  We spent about an hour there.  The view from the top was magnificent.  We could see the ship and the surrounding mountains and seas.

Unfortunately, the wind had picked up and what was tolerable weather became harsher.  After 11 p.m. despite the sun still being out, many of us returned to our tents.  I tried reading, but it was extremely uncomfortable and I decided to call it a day/night/whatever.