December 28th. Overnight we had sailed to the South Shetland Islands, of which we made preparations to land on King George Island. It was a 20 minute walk around the bay where we reached the Chinese research base, Great Wall Station. Visiting Great Wall Station is extremely unique, and this was the crew’s first time ever landing there. The only reason we were allowed to tour Great Wall Station is because one of the passengers had connection to one of the original expedition leaders of the Chinese team.
Great Wall Station was completely different from Base Orcadas – it was big, and didn’t feel so isolated. This is because King George Island has one of the higher densities of the research bases in all of Antarctica. Great Wall Station even had a gym where they hold miniature Olympics between the other bases on King George Island. 
In the afternoon, we stopped at Yankee Harbour (62°32 S, 59°47 W) on Greenwich Island (also one of the South Shetland Islands) where there was a gentoo penguin colony. The interesting part of this site was seeing the pebble exchange. Part of the pair bonding behavior between penguins involves the male penguin adding pebbles to the nest (which is made of pebbles). Sometimes though, they will steal pebbles from other nests and the neighbouring penguins will begin to squawk and hit each other with their wings. So what is more valuable than gold, diamonds or anything in the world to a penguin? Pebbles. I have a video of this behavior, it’s rather cute.
We also saw a Waddell seal lazing on the cold beach until it wiggled (like a giant caterpillar) into the ice covered bay. The wind was picking up and it was quite cold. By the time it was time to leave Yankee Bay, I was just about ready, and had already abandoned photography for the sake of keeping my fingers warm.
On December 29th we sailed through Bransfield’s strait, which is filled with ice bergs, including tabular ice bergs that are not found in the Arctic because their creation comes from large ice shelves that only exist in the Antarctica. The lighting was amazing these several hours matched the amazing memory and experience of climbing dune 45 in Nambia to watch the sun rise and the orange-red sand like a fire in my heart. Through the shifting ice bergs, the Antarctic peninsula – the main land – came into view. Sadly, due to wind and weather we never made it ashore. Brown bluff on the Antarctica sound remains unconquered in our journey. Although a disappointment, there’s nothing we could have done that would not have compromised safety. At least, this is a great excuse to one day return to the Antarctica. Although we were unable to land, we still had a fairly good view of the penguin colony from the ship. Through the day we had observed Waddell seals, Leopard seals and penguins on ice bergs. Now, there were plenty all over the ice and land – more penguins that we had seen anywhere else. A few sheath bills also landed on our ship, which is the only non-aquatic bird that exists this far south.
The Antarctica sound is located at 63°32 S, 56°55 W). This is the furthest south our journey would take us. We sailed past Bransfield’s Strait into the Waddell sea, as far as we could go until it was time to turn around. On the way back we discovered a new island and landing site that the Fram had never stopped at before. In the end, it was not the peninsula, but we still had a great experience with the penguins. A lot of the non-snow country citizens decided to toboggan down the mountain, but we decided to enjoy the penguins instead since snow isn’t really that special to us Canadians.
The journey is coming to a close, and we made one more stop before braving the Drake’s Passage. On December 30th we made our last on Deception Island (62°57 S, 60°37 W)). This island is volcanic and the bay is the sunken volcano. Instead of being a rocky/pebble filled beach like the other locations, this beach was made of black volcanic sand that reminded me a lot of Oreo crumbs. Even the texture seemed to match. We did our second and final hike on this expedition, up onto the ridge. We also took the opportunity to do a bit of tobogganing. Due to the heat from the volcanic activity this area is often foggy. As we reached the top of the ridge, the fog became 
so thick that we could barely see in front of us. When the fog finally cleared, a bright green peak came into view with our final penguin rookery. As we approached, I realized that of course the green was not grass (as there is no grass this far south), but instead was a small moss ground cover plant. The hiking experience is always rewarding.
In the afternoon, we visited Half Moon Island, which is sheltered by glacier-covered Livingston Island. There is a large chin strap penguin colony and in the distance is the Teniente Camara Argentine research base, a red building. We also saw a lone macaroni penguin, which looks quite similar to the rock hopper penguins we saw back at the Falkland Islands. Down at the bay, we also saw Waddell seals up close and personal.
Then, it was sadly time to return back to the Fram for the last time.
For the next two days, new years eve and new years day, we were at sea on the infamous Drakes Passage – the roughest passage of water in the world. The currents are strong and water must squeeze through the small area between Antarctica and South America. We were lucky and the Drake was forgiving, although we still spent much of our time drugged up on Gravol. During one lunch, the dishes flew off the table top as we approached a 30 degree angle. As long as you’re not feeling too sick, it’s quite exciting.
We had our lectures as usual, this time about ice, cormorants, and fossils. That evening we celebrated the New Year with our special dinner of Mulligatawny soup, fish, chicken and panna cotta which follows the famous European comedy skit, Dinner For One. It was funny and we didn’t realize that they had arranged our whole dinner menu surrounding this skit. It was the theme of the evening and the crew re-enacted the skit that evening at the party. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
January 1, 2011. Our last day at sea – Drake Passage part II. Again we spent most our day at lectures, however they were quite infuriating as the topics were regarding Climate change, in which one of the members of the expedition proceed to offend anyone who did not share his opinion calling them “stupid”. Now normally I don’t mind a good debate, but I do not overly appreciate being called stupid by a biologist working on a luxury cruise line. But nonetheless I ignored his comments and we carried on with the day and had our last dinner, the Captain’s Dinner.
The next morning we left the Fram on the shore of Ushuaia, where the whole trip had began. After a short walk, my sister and I caught the bus to the airport for the several day trip home while my parents checked-in to their hotel in Ushuaia where they would spend a few extra days exploring South America. About 2 days later, we arrived in Calgary. The next day I drove back to Lloydminster. One of the longest journeys of my life.
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