Swimming with leopard seals and other adventures

Unfortunately, despite having scoured the lexicon for appropriate descriptors of Antarctica, I find myself unable to properly and fully detail my experiences. So I will leave you with what is possibly my highest accolade - my just finished trip to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands was definately better than a kick in the arse and a handful of boiled lollies.

There were 10´s of thousand of pengiuns, swimming with the grace of a ballet dancer, waddling like a very posh waiter, crapping like a fire hose and screeching to wake the dead. There were seals, lolling about the place, looking fat and content, in particular the leopard seals who were enjoying very regular snacks of penguin (leopard seals are vicious and nasty looking creatures, second only to the killer whale in the Antarctic food chain). And there were whales, of all description, most looking quite pleased that certain Japanese ¨research ships¨ were on fire and over the other side of the world.

There was also great piles of ice, dwarfing the ship and vaulting off into the distance.

As Im sure everyone will be happy to know, I have taken hundreds of photos and am looking forward to putting together a slide show (or just using the one the ship staff put together).

I dont seem to be having much success adding pictures to this entry, the computer acts as if it were at the end of the world.

But here is a sample...

This is me just prior to jumping off the pictured ice flow (with the Antarctic Mainland in the background) into leopard seal infested waters at the bottom end of the Lemaire Passage. The water was quite cold.

Q. Why did Craig jump into sub zero temperature water infested with leopard seals?

A. Because he could.....