Paradise Bay & Port Lockroy, Antarctica
A day that begins in Paradise and ends with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can’t be all bad. Just after breakfast we entered the aptly named Paradise Bay in stunning conditions. A recent snowfall left a dusting like powdered sugar on nearby 4,000-foot high peaks. The water was studded with spectacular icebergs and mirror-reflections, and the sky was an endless blue from horizon to horizon.
Have you ever seen a travel brochure and thought to yourself, ‘It won’t look like that when I get there.’ Nobody is that lucky. Only a professional photographer can get a shot like that, and only on the most perfect day. Well, today is that day. Come mid-morning in Paradise Bay we launched a zodiac with two professional photographers: Ralph Lee Hopkins, the photo team leader, and Kevin Freeny, our video chronicler, who aimed their cameras at the National Geographic Endeavour as we glided through glorious, ice-filled, sun-sparkled waters. And shipmates, this was our once-in-a-lifetime moment. We were the lucky ones, preserving the experience in our cameras, but also in the best memory of all, our hearts and minds. All before 11:00 am.
After a gorgeous run through the Neumayer Channel, we arrived at Port Lockroy, with a lovely view of towering Mount Luigi and the seven adjacent smaller peaks, whimsically known as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There was much to do and we took advantage of it all. We visited the small station, part of a secret military operation during WWII, later used for science and recently renovated into a museum. Many of us kayaked amid blue bergs, young penguins and shags. Others visited a nearby cache of whale bones before returning to the ship to lounge on deck chairs and catch the sun. The day was ideal and brought to mind a saying: “Life in not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
A day that begins in Paradise and ends with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can’t be all bad. Just after breakfast we entered the aptly named Paradise Bay in stunning conditions. A recent snowfall left a dusting like powdered sugar on nearby 4,000-foot high peaks. The water was studded with spectacular icebergs and mirror-reflections, and the sky was an endless blue from horizon to horizon.
Have you ever seen a travel brochure and thought to yourself, ‘It won’t look like that when I get there.’ Nobody is that lucky. Only a professional photographer can get a shot like that, and only on the most perfect day. Well, today is that day. Come mid-morning in Paradise Bay we launched a zodiac with two professional photographers: Ralph Lee Hopkins, the photo team leader, and Kevin Freeny, our video chronicler, who aimed their cameras at the National Geographic Endeavour as we glided through glorious, ice-filled, sun-sparkled waters. And shipmates, this was our once-in-a-lifetime moment. We were the lucky ones, preserving the experience in our cameras, but also in the best memory of all, our hearts and minds. All before 11:00 am.
After a gorgeous run through the Neumayer Channel, we arrived at Port Lockroy, with a lovely view of towering Mount Luigi and the seven adjacent smaller peaks, whimsically known as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There was much to do and we took advantage of it all. We visited the small station, part of a secret military operation during WWII, later used for science and recently renovated into a museum. Many of us kayaked amid blue bergs, young penguins and shags. Others visited a nearby cache of whale bones before returning to the ship to lounge on deck chairs and catch the sun. The day was ideal and brought to mind a saying: “Life in not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
