Jan. 21, 2009 Neko Bay, Antarctica!!

We arrived at this beautiful bay early this morning to the brighest sunlight I have ever seen. It bounced off the glaciers and was like a light show sent from God. We loaded up in our gear and went by zodiacs over to "LAND". This is the real deal. The real Antarctic continent, not just an island! The ice glaciers are higher than the mountains in Aspen! Amazing really. We were fortunate enough to be able to "hike" up the glacier near where we off loaded and what a hike it was. It took about 20-25 minutes to get to the top of the first level of the glacier and that is as far as the guides would let us go. Almost a mile up. Wearing all the gear, we were all steaming hot by the time we reached our summit! We peeled off some layers and started snapping shots of what could be the most breathtaking views of a lifetime. The sheer impact of nothing but water and ice, a few hundred penguins, a couple of seals and the most amzing thing happened. A glacier across the bay from us gave way and went crashing down into the water. The sound it made was like a bass drum orchestra all sounding off together and then silence. Beautiful. We took many a photo and I hope to show them to you. We wore some Auburn gear (of course) and I had my picture made with a fellow alumnus on top of that glacier! War Eagle!!
Kathleen and Nicky had snowball fights at the top and Kathleen tasted the snow! If she gets the Antarctica shuffle, we will know why! I can say that sno at the top of that glacier was not pink, green and yellow. It was pure driven snow. Beautiful. We will get to go on zodiacs this afternoon at 3:00p.m. for another nature tour, looking for whales, seals, penguins and hopefully some more melting glaciers. That was fantastic!