Port Lockroy – Trinity Island
On our 5th day, we landed at Port Lockroy. Port Lockroy is comprised of Jougla Point and Goudier Island, both of which are home to numerous nesting gentoo penguins. There is a fascinating museum inside the old British Antarctic Survey (BAS) hut on Goudier Island. One room within the hut is also a post office and gift shop, but mail sent from Port Lockroy can take from three weeks to three months to get to its final destination. But this didn’t prevent many, including myself, from trying.
The port lockroy museum was fascinating because they had kept many of the artifacts from the first expeditions to this place. One aspect that was impossible to miss were the numerous nude images painted on the walls. Apparently, when the Russians came by this station and looked inside of the windows, they first thought they had found a brothel. But once they realized this was just an old hut and no women were to be found anywhere, they destroyed part of the interior. By now, the hut is fully restored and you can marvel at the early equipment from the British explorers.
After our stop at Port Lockroy, we had a quiet afternoon. We were trying to cover some big distances, making our way back to the northern tip of the Antarctic continent. After dinner, we had one more excursion to Trinity Island. It is one of the north Islands of the Palmer Archipelago, and was named ‘Trinity Land’ in 1820 as it was mistakenly identified as an extension of the Antarctic Peninsula. Adrien de Gerlache re-named the feature during his 1973-74 expedition when he discovered it was a separate island. My plan was to go kayaking around trinity island and after much back and forth, the ship leaders finally authorized our kayaking tour. So we all jumped into the boats and got ready, but it turned out the weather was absolutely freezing. We all tried to keep our good spirits, but it was obvious that we were really cold. One person was already in the kayak while the others were still looking for a calmer and less windy place to board. In the end, after we spent 15min driving around in the cold, we decided to cancel the kayaking. It was just way too cold. On the way back, Becs once again pulled out her warm thermos of hot coco. Amazing! Another person started choreographing a silly dance just to keep us moving and warm. Despite the cold, we were all in high spirits.
Me and another person from the kayak group decided to make a quick stop on Trinity Island, joining all the other people who had decided to go on shore. It was really really cold and my small wetsuit booties didn’t add much warmth. I quickly took a short walk on the island, looked at some of the penguins and then jumped into the next boat back to the ship. Just as we were getting back to the ship, we got to witness another stunning sunset.
Eventually, we all met up again for drinks in the bar. That night, the boat was swaying quite a bit. As the boat moved around, all the people who were standing got simultaneously pushed in the same direction. So Lisa & Luke had the brilliant idea of making a choreographed dance out of our synchronized movements. What followed was the most epic dance party of the trip. As everyone was headed to bed between 2 and 3am, I stayed up a bit longer to see sunrise. With 24 hours of daylight, what happens in Antarctica is that sunset slowly becomes sunrise. I figured it was almost time for sunrise so it would be a shame to miss it. I had to wait another 45min to see it.
See more photos here.
