Greetings from beautiful Antarctica! Well after a short stop in the Falkland Islands, HMS ENDURANCE has finally reached the ice - it’s spectacular! We’ve attached a few pictures of icebergs for you to take a look. Everywhere you look there are rugged landscapes covered in ice. We’ve even seen a few glaciers. There’s lots of wildlife to see too, including whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, albatrosses and, not forgetting penguins!!! Of all the wildlife we’ve seen though, penguins are definitely the most popular photo opportunity.
Tabular
icebeg, Photo: HMS Endurance
Calving icebergs split from the edge of Ross Ice Shelf - Australian Antarctic Division
Yesterday the ship anchored at PORT LOCKROY, a tiny British Antarctic Survey Base, which was founded in the 1940s. In and around the Building there lives a large colony of penguins of all different sizes. Unlike most Antarctic creatures these penguins aren’t overally timid and some of them actually wander up to visitors to take a good look at them. I suppose it is strange for the penguins to see human beings walking around, wearing different colours of clothes. Unbelievably there is a Post Office at Port Lockroy and some members of the Ship’s Company took the opportunity to send postcards to family and friends. What a strange place to send a post card from! The Antarctica stamps may be of special interest to Stamp Collectors out there. Do you have a Stamp Collectors Club at your school?
Our ship’s helicopters have also been up and around, taking photographs and dropping people off in various places. One of our main tasks down here is to take an International Inspection team, led by British Government Inspectors, to the Antarctic Bases on the various Peninsulas. Many countries carry out scientific research in Antarctica. Some of these countries are the UK itself, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Bulgaria and Russia? Have you visited any of these countries? The Inspectors need to make regular visits to the Bases to ensure that they are being run correctly and that such things as hazardous waste and other rubbish are being disposed of properly. It is very important that pollution is controlled tightly in Antarctica as it is a protected area. Countries which operate down here have agreed to follow these environmental rules in order to preserve Antarctica and its wildlife. Is there an Environmental Protection Programme in your school? Do you separate your rubbish into bins for paper and others for metal and glass?
We’ve also got a team from the BBC with us. They intend to use footage from our visit in a television programme. Our helicopters have been taking them up most days for filming. Maybe we will see HMS ENDURANCE or even Reckless on TV in the near future!
Our runner bean continues to grow and has now reached the grand height of 19cm although at present it is neither growing clockwise or anti-clockwise up the pole. How are your Runner Beans getting on? I am sure they are growing a lot faster than ours.
So all in all, we’re rather busy here. Not long now though before we start heading north. Our next Port visit is in Punta Arenas, Chile (15-18 March), which is the southernmost city in the world. See if you can look it up in an Encyclopaedia! We’ll write again when we get there and tell you all about what we’ve seen in Chile.
In the meantime, take care, keep smiling and think of your friends on HMS ENDURANCE, braving the cold weather in Antarctica. Until the next time, best wishes.
PS Reckless says hello! He’s very cold, but thoroughly enjoying himself. We think he’s the first teddy bear to reach Antarctica, so we’ve knitted him some new warm clothing to celebrate!
|
