After two days of being stuck on the ship doing plan B and C (or was it plan D?) we awoke full of hope, but also trepidation because we were headed to Neko Harbor that we had already been blown out of previously. Nervously we listened to our morning wakeup announcement with bated breath, half afraid to listen. What is Katja going to say? Good Morning. Good Morning. The temperature is 4 degrees Celsius (great Antarctic temperature) and the wind speed is about 30 knots (not good). And all activities are proceeding as scheduled! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! thetwinsontour are going to land again to be one with the penguins!

To further complicate our emotions, we finally made it to the mountaineering list. Yippee! We get to do something! But, if we did the mountaineering, we wouldn’t be able to do the polar plunge wearing the crocs we bought for exactly that purpose. Noooooo! So many hard choices. Decisions are the worst! After much internal debate and anguish and discussion with the expedition leaders, we decided to go for the polar plunge instead of mountaineering. I mean we only spent 2 months shopping for the proper mountaineering boots versus the 5 minutes buying crocs at the grocery store. The choice is obvious, but very difficult nonetheless.

Once we were on land strapping on our snow shoes and looking up at the next mountain over, it was clear we made the right choice. There were penguins all around us, and the mountaineering group was so far up that mountain. We would have been miserable. And did I mention there were penguins? Gentoo penguins everywhere. Penguins are so much fun. I could watch them forever. Wait, who am I kidding? I could stand there and take pictures of them forever as they waddle, fall, and slide right past. It is all so surreal to be in Antarctica wearing snow shoes, surrounded by icebergs, standing in the middle of a penguin covered island watching avalanches. Nothing can really prepare you for this moment. Especially not standing at the Kansas City Zoo watching penguin numbers 87 and 212 swim around in circles through a dirty window while 6 people are trying to get sticky faced Parker (or Jacob, or Mackenzie) to stand still and look at them for a picture. Especially not that.

Anyways, they had marked a path for us to follow around hill. They want everyone to keep to the same path to minimize damage and for safety. There were 3 or 4 areas of heavy penguin concentration, so it was kind of like going from station to station. Needless to say it was amazing. I loved every minute of it. As a matter of fact, it seemed like we were only there a minute.

All too soon it was time to head down to shore for the Polar Plunge. Evidently they had started early because my sister came to get me and I had to stop taking penguin pictures and prepare for the polar plunge. Step one was to remove the snow shoes. As soon as I took them off I found out why we needed to wear them. As soon as I took my first step my foot just kept going and going and going. The next thing I know my right leg was buried in snow all the way up to my thigh. Needless to say, I had a few very graceful moves as I attempted to extricate myself from the frozen quicksand.

Anyways, I am going to skip over the boring yet traumatic story of my sister losing my Go Pro full of penguin videos. Don’t worry it was later found by a friend after we gave up hope of finding it. So at least we are not one of those people who litter electronics in Antarctica. thetwinsontour hate littering.

So we stripped off our clothes down to our swim suits, put on our grocery store crocs, handed our camera off and headed into the icy water. There were bits of icebergs floating behind us, and the water temperature was a balmy -2 degrees Celsius, so icy is a very accurate description. I dipped one croc covered toe into the frigid water, and my body froze instantly turning into an immobile statue. I didn’t think I could go any further, but I persevered and put in a second toe. I heard my mom say, “Girls! That’s just not safe.” But I knew she was wrong because the ship doctor was swimming laps with the penguins, waiting for everyone out in the water wearing her dry suit and the defibrillator was in the zodiac next to her. Always be prepared, that’s our motto!

So, one agonizing step after another, we made it all the way to our upper thighs, and decided that was far enough. We didn’t need to get our swimsuits or hair wet like some of the other people. Didn’t need that at all. Nope. Not at all.

 

Once we got out of the water and wiped the ice off our legs, we were shaking so violently with cold tremors that I didn’t think I’d ever be warm again. I couldn’t grab my clothes off the large chunk of iceberg where they were laying fast enough. I’ve never put on 17 layers of clothes so fast! Even sitting on an iceberg to put on my boots didn’t seem cold.

Then it was back to the boat for lunch where lunchtime conversations centered on penguins (of course) and the glories of snowshoes (which you can apparently can buy at Costco for only $50, and they come with trekking poles! All I can say it’s a good thing we have a Sam’s club card instead of a Costco card or we may find ourselves the owners of a couple pairs of snowshoes.)

Guess what! That is not the end of the day’s excitement! Not even close! We were headed to another area for a zodiac cruise, and a little mountaineering. And guess who got put back on the mountaineering list? Yep, thetwinsontour! Woo hoo! We got to wear harnesses, carry an ice axe (They trusted us with axes!), and we all got roped together. We got a late start, so we didn’t go far at all. I think it only took about 5 minutes to get to the top of our mountain (you can’t mountaineer on a hill, ergo it was a mountain). It took longer to get our snowshoes on and roped together than we spent mountaineering. While some people might see that as a negative, it was almost the perfect amount of time for thetwinsontour! I would have liked to do about 3 or 4 minutes more, but I’m good with what we did. Heck let’s be honest, all I really needed to be happy was to hold my own ice axe. Anyways, thetwinsontour are mountaineers now! Honest to goodness, real life mountaineers.

What a great way to end a great day! Penguins, snowshoeing, polar plunge, and mountaineering! And we got to go on land twice today. I don’t think there’s anything else I could write to top any of today’s excitement, so this is a good place to end.

Goodbye for now!

Love,

thetwinsontour (aka realmountaineers)