I woke up this morning needing food, and lots of it, the healthy kind, so we jumped out of bed and headed for breakfast, fresh fruit, granola, and yogurt, then back to bed for 90 minutes before our final days of landings on the continent. Our hangovers had improved slightly but it wouldn’t be till after lunch that we felt 100% better. We’ll it’s not everyday you get engaged, and we’ve both said there’s no way we’ll drink like that on the day! I’m sure John the bar manager was giving me free drinks all night, I guess I‘ll find out later on when we get out bill in Ushuaia.

Deception Island is where we were going to hangout for our final day in Antarctica, we ended up doing a total of three landings here throughout the day. We’d now left all the icebergs behind us and Deception Island was rather a menacing looking place, We spent quite a bit of time exploring the old whaling station here, which was finally destroyed in 1967 by a huge volcanic eruption, which is probably adds to it’s menacing look, lots of old lava rock all over the place and in some places you could be forgiven for thinking you were on another planet. Even the sea looking very strange with steam rising off it, as the water warmed up on the hot earth of this volcanic island.

We were seeing another side to Antarctica, and the only living things sharing this desolate island with us were 1 or 2 lost looking penguins. We went on a hike to a few volcano craters and some good lookout points over the island. Later on in the day we disembarked for our third landing of the day, and final landing of this trip to Antarctica. This was ours and our fellow passengers chance to swim in Antarctic waters, yes, you heard correctly SWIM. As we arrived at the beach the crew had shovels and had began making a small pool which was being filled with natural volcanic hot water from the middle of the island, this was of course right next to the freezing Southern Ocean. So the idea was you jump in the sea, and then jump in the hot pool. Dolly managed to half strip down and got her legs out, and I went the whole hog and lept into the icy waters. With only marginal intent on actually swimming and getting my head under, although that was decided for me as the ground gave way very quickly, I lost my footing and before I new it my head felt like it was in a freezer, this moment was caught on video and you can see the expression of “mild peril� on my face as I emerge from the water (video coming soon!).

After our dip in the ocean it was back to the boat for a hot shower, and, we thought a hot chocolate, like we had got used to every time we returned from a landing, although this time the crew must have thought we didn’t deserve it! Anyway, the hot shower was more than welcome and I must have spent about 30 minutes in there before dinner. It wasn’t long after dinner that we heard the news that we were heading out of the calm waters of the South Shetland Islands and would be visiting Sir Francis once again, on our 48 hour voyage back to the world. Click here for Day 9-10

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