Flying Over Drake ~ Antarctic Adventure Day 1

The flight took off at four in the morning. After a two-hour flight, it landed on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands. The airport was not a commercial airport and everything seemed very simple.

 

We have to walk for about 40 minutes to get to the beach. There are about 132 people in our boat. We arrive in two flights, and then we walk to the beach in batches and board the boat by Zodiac boats. This flight will also pick up tourists from the previous boat.

 

The landing place was a Chilean military base. When I first came down, I was very honest, just like Lin Daiyu when she first entered the Rongguo Mansion. She "didn't dare to say another word, didn't dare to take an extra step", and she didn't dare to take pictures. Later I asked As an expedition member, there are some places where you can take pictures, so until I came back and took this road again, I didn't find out where it belonged to the military base. It seemed that I couldn't be a spy. Anyway, I shouldn't be wrong if I took pictures of myself.

 

There was a road sign on the way, and we needed to wait here. Everyone gathered around this road sign to take pictures. The road signs marked the names of many cities and their distances from here. Beijing was also among them, with a distance of 17501km.

When we walked to the beach, we could already see penguins walking on the beach. For many years, people who came to the Antarctic continent have never harmed penguins, so they are not afraid of humans at all. Many people impatiently took out their cameras. Taking pictures with my phone, I think the penguin must be thinking, "Look, here comes another bunch of fools. They get so excited just by taking two steps in front of them."

 

The ship we are on is called "Sea Explorer", which is one of the most famous expedition ships in the Quark expedition fleet. Lloyd’s Register rated the Sea Explorer as a 1A ice class ship, which is the most powerful class of ice class ships. Just ahead.

 

After boarding the ship, the action immediately became intense. We put down our luggage and went to have breakfast first, and then did an escape drill. This is a necessary process for any ship.

 

 

We returned to the cabin and officially started our Antarctic expedition process. First was the welcome meeting. The first person to introduce was the expedition leader ABBEY. She also introduced the entire expedition team. If you don’t listen, you won’t know. At a glance, all the expedition members come from multiple countries. Almost everyone is a scientist, marine polar expert, marine biologist, bird expert, historian, etc. These people are not only expedition members but also scientific expedition members. The Zodiac pilot who led us ashore was definitely the highest level of service I have ever experienced in my life.

 

 

The captain then gave a welcome speech.

 

There is a line in the sketch that says "money is not wasted", but it's true. Quark probably doesn't remember that we stayed up almost all night to get here. Today's first day's activities are three lectures plus three landings and cruises. I I was so sleepy that I just wanted to sleep. Xiao Lu and his colleague, Director Jia, asked me how I could sleep after spending so much money.

 

The first landing site was Nick Harbor, which already belongs to the real Antarctic continent. Although I was tired and sleepy, I was still very excited. The preparations for the landing were also complicated. You had to put on waterproof clothing and landing boots, and go to an Antarctic travel agency. It was a gift of a waterproof down jacket, but I didn’t think it looked good. In fact, I really didn’t want to wear the same thing as everyone else, so I bought one for myself. Facts have proved that my decision was very wise. Among the "SF Express couriers", I am The most conspicuous thing, especially in group photos, I can immediately find myself.

 

The Antarctic Convention requires that no more than 100 people can land at each landing point at the same time, so we also need to divide it into batches, so we will do a cruise first. The pilots of the Zodiac, who are polar experts, will be on the cruise. During the process, we were introduced to the polar overview and landing requirements.

 

Today's assault boat driver is the proprietress of the gift shop, and she is also a very tough person.

 

It's summer in Antarctica now, and the temperature is about 0-5 degrees. The news two days ago said that the temperature in Antarctica this summer has reached a maximum of 20 degrees. Anyway, without us in advance I thought it was so cold, but I even felt a little warm after wearing so many clothes.

 

The glaciers in front of us are shocking, so white and pure. Antarctica is indeed the pure land of mankind, which can purify people's souls. This world of ice and snow at the end of the world seems to make us forget our own existence.

 

 

The sea ice has basically melted. What we see now are millennium glaciers. Everyone is excited to fish out a piece of millennium glacier ice from the water. This is ice that took thousands of years to form. The average annual precipitation here is, Of course, it falls in the form of snowflakes, which fall 20cm every year. The amount of fresh water contained in the ice covering the Antarctic continent is almost 3/4 of all the fresh water on the earth. On the way back, I picked up a small piece of glacier ice, asked for a glass of whiskey, and listened to the sound of the thousand-year-old ice exploding.

 

Landing in Nick Harbor shows that we have truly set foot on the Antarctic continent. Because there has been no human slaughter in the past hundred years, the animals here have no precautions against humans, but we are also required to stay no closer to the animals. 5 meters, the expedition team has marked the island first, and we cannot cross it. If a penguin approaches you, you have to stay still. If the penguin does not move, then you have to look at each other like this. , anyway, human beings cannot act rashly, this is the territory of penguins, and only they have the final say.

 

Seals sleep during the day, so what we see is basically them lying lazily on a relatively flat piece of ice and sleeping soundly. We don’t dare to say hello, we can only wait to see if they are interested in talking to us. A group of human fools said hello.

 

Due to the harsh climate in Antarctica, not to mention it is uninhabitable for humans, it is also not easy for animals to survive. Behind me is a huge whale bone.

 

There was originally a landing and cruise in Paradise Bay in the afternoon, but because there was a "Greenpeace" scientific research station here, we were unable to land. This is an Argentine scientific research station.

There are two lectures on the ship today. One is for ornithologist Paola to talk about animals in Antarctica. paola is petite but full of energy. The lectures are lively and interesting, and I don’t feel sleepy after listening to them.

 

The other session was by historian David, who mainly talked about the history of Antarctica. Because the ship was chartered by the Chinese, he also talked about a lot of information about China's scientific research in Antarctica.

 

There is simultaneous interpretation on the boat. Annie is from Beijing but currently lives in London. I chatted with my group friends on the island. Annie heard that I was an Aquarius and joined in. , the conversation became even more exciting. I actually had the same birthday as her mother, but I am a full 7 years older than her mother. This smart and capable girl suddenly reminded me that I am already so old. , although Annie repeatedly praised me for being young, thinking about it, if I had children, I would still be 7 years older than her. and I am really grateful that I don’t have children, so I don’t have to constantly remind me that time flies by so fast; On second thought, I think that today’s children are really amazing. As a parent, I can feel completely relieved. Although I am not a parent, I feel that I can feel relieved for the sake of the country.

 

There was a movie after dinner, but I was too tired and couldn't hold on anymore, so I didn't go to the movie. I went back to the cabin to take a shower and go to bed. At this time, I experienced "the sea breeze blows gently, and the waves blow gently." The ground shook, and the young sailor rested his head on the waves, smiling sweetly in his sleep."

Tomorrow we will arrive in Port Lockroy.