Wednesday, January 25th
Few areas are as distinct as Terra Nova Bay and the Victoria Land coast. This powerful landscape is home to dramatic mountain ranges, towering volcanoes, massive glaciers and ice tongues. This location is one of the most beautiful in the Antarctic, and is therefor sometimes referred to as ‘The Riviera’. It looks out over ice-free waters (polynya) surrounded by ice from ice tongues, glaciers and pack ice. What better area to go for a hike than there in Terra Nova on a beautifully sunny Antarctic summer day? The captain repositioned the ship a few miles in order to be within easy zodiac range of a suitable landing place.
We got into the zodiacs around noon, passed some icebergs, landed and set off for about a 1hour 45 min hike in the snow and on rocks. We had an absolutely fabulous time walking and taking in the immensity and beauty of this piece of our Earth.
It was the plan to do landings at Inexpressible Island and/or Cape Russell later that same day, but strong katabatic winds prevented any activity at both locations. Katabatic winds: also called downslope or gravity winds, are winds flowing down slopes because of difference in air temperature and density.
