I have a lot to tell you today but I’m a bit hesitant as I think I might be starting to sound a little bit smug… sorry!  If it helps to soften the blow,  remember that sometimes we go for days on end without showers and we have very smelly penguin neighbours!!!

Anyway, so yesterday morning after a few very busy days, we had a small gap in our schedule so we awarded ourselves with a very small lie-in followed by scrambled eggs on bread (see: no toaster!), then we cracked on with a few jobs around the base before the National Geographic Explorer sailed into the bay.  We had a lovely lunch on board and a brisk visit by their guests in the afternoon.  During the visit we were also offered the opportunity to visit Jougla Point for the very first time.  To explain, Jougla is a landing site which is almost within spitting distance of Goudier Island and is home to nesting Blue Eyed Shags (with chicks) and lots more Gentoo penguins, but sadly it’s too cold to swim, we don’t have a boat (!), and when the guests are here we’re needed in the gift shop and museum!  Having heard our plight, Matt, the very kind NG Explorer Expedition Leader, offered to take us over one at a time during the course of their visit – what a star!  It was blowing a gale with heavy snow and each of us got absolutely soaked, but there was a little treat in store when we arrived.  I wasn’t planning to even take out my camera as it was so wet, but as I followed the path through the deep snow to some of the old whale bones, one of the expedition team pointed out a special visitor: a juvenile elephant seal.  It was sooo sweet.  I have to confess at this point that I still have a lot to learn. Personally, I could have sworn it was a Weddell seal pup, given the colouring and the markings, but I stand corrected !  It wasn’t exactly what you would call tiny, but it was much skinnier than seals I’ve seen before and it had such a cute little face. We managed to get a few snaps as it played on it’s back in the snow, before it flipped onto it’s tummy, made snuffly noises and started coming to investigate us.  At that point we moved back to respect the usual 5m rule.  So between our lovely lunch on board the Explorer, our little wildlife visit to Jougla and having all of our clothes washed and dried during the course of the NG Explorer visit, we were an exceptionally happy team!!

The day just kept getting better and better with a visit from the Aleksey Maryshev scheduled for the evening.  All of the expedition ships have had a tough time recently with weather making landings difficult, however the Maryshev has battled her way down from the Falklands and South Georgia with three bags of inbound mail on board for us!  The team and guests arrived at about 8.30pm and we had a great visit with the tilly lamps lit in the shop, Christmas tunes playing and the passengers were on great form and really pleased to make a visit to Port Lockroy. The group was a special South African charter with bird watchers on board, so they were loving the resident gentoos, snowy sheathbills and skuas  and couldn’t get enough of our penguin stamps!  We knew there was more post office stock coming from Stanley so we didn’t want to get ‘too’ over-excited by the quantity of mail bags, but when we investigated we all had lots of Christmas parcels and letters!  I was fortunate enough to receive lots of parcels, cards and letters (thank you so much everyone!) which Laura wrestled off me before I could scour the customs labels!  I’m not quite so bad as you Elissa (!) but everyone’s getting to know me here and the rest of my Christmas presents have also been hidden in the boatshed!!!!  Tsssk.  Just so everyone knows, some of the post was postmarked in the UK as recently as 27th November, so post is getting through this way quickly – thank you!  Rest assured, I’m also getting mail out and there are lots of letters and postcards on the way if you haven’t received them already!  I’ve also sent a DVD of photos home so hopefully they will arrive and be posted to the blog soon!

This morning we got off to a brisk start. We woke up and turned on the radio at 7.00 and by 7.05 Prince Albert II informed us they had a zodiac in the water and would be at the Whaler’s Chains landing to collect us for breakfast in 5 minutes  – argh!  We made it though and a full English breakfast awaited us on board. It was great to see Captain Peter and the lovely expedition team and crew.  We were once again asked for our polar ID by the security man and Nikki had to break the news to him that sadly we were never going to have one!  They had approximately 120 passengers on board and they seemed to really enjoy their visit to the island and asked us all the usual questions including how they could apply for a job!!  We also had another celeb visit from a member of the band, ‘Blink 182’.  It was completely lost on me as I have to confess I’d never heard of them :-/!  On the plus side, hopefully he appreciated the fact that I wasn’t star-struck and he could enjoy the anonymity!  Prince Albert II also spoiled us with a lovely gift of lots of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as frozen cauliflower florets, diced sweet red pepper and a box of sausages, which we’re rapidly working our way through!  Lunch was sausage sandwiches followed by fresh fruit salad – it’s really not a bad life!  This afternoon we had a visit from Ocean Nova, the expedition ship I travelled down on last year.  It’s very strange being on board and being on the other side of the microphone!  They are currently running an adventure programme, so many of the passengers had already departed for skiing or had been dropped off in kayaks to paddle down the Peltier Channel before Rick and I jumped aboard to participate in a pre-landing briefing.  They were a lively group and all seemed to enjoy their visit, including the kayakers who arrived at the base late in the afternoon.  As always, the Ocean Nova team very kindly offered up their cabins so we could have a nice warm shower before joining a BBQ on deck.  We’re now back at the base and ready to hit the hay.  We have a small ship in tomorrow morning then hope to see our friends from Ushuaia in the sailing yacht, Northanger in the afternoon .

Bye for now but more soon!