Neko Harbour & Port Lockroy
Our first landing today at Neko Harbour in Andvord Bay (arguably one of Antarctica’s most scenic fjords) afforded many among us an opportunity to set foot for the first time on their seventh continent. Upon our arrival ashore by Zodiac, Expedition Leader Tim Soper warned us that should there be the unlikely event of a major calving by the adjacent glacier, it would be prudent to move quickly up the beach to avoid the chance of being swept off our feet by the resulting tsunami. We found this to be excellent advice for, within the hour, those of us ashore and in nearby Zodiacs had the great good fortune to witness exactly that. While half of us were ashore among the gentoo penguins or climbing the hill behind for a spectacular view of the bay, the rest explored about by Zodiac.
During lunch the National Geographic Explorer carried us across the Gerlache Strait and southward down the narrow Neumeyer Channel to Port Lockroy, a protected little bay on Wiencke Island. Here the Antarctic Heritage Trust has brought an abandoned British Base from the 1940’s and 50’s back to life as a kind of living museum and post office. Each austral summer the base is opened for several months for the benefit of expedition ship visitors. Profits from their tiny shop help fund the Trust which maintains various historic sites around Antarctica. We also visited nearby Jougla Point where an assortment of whale bones are all that remain of an early twentieth century whaling station.
After recap of the day’s adventures and a delicious Argentine style asado dinner we sailed through the Antarctic Peninsula’s most dramatic physical feature, the Lemaire Channel.
