February 20 - we are the most southern ship in the world!

Satellite image of Ross Island (L) showing the two hut locations we visited. 

Having passed Cape Royds on Ross Island with a promise to return, we headed to Cape Evans where an expedition hut from the 1900s still stands. This is the site from which Scott and a small party of his expedition team set out for the South Pole tragically never to return. It was a dark and bleak promontory. Towering behind those two capes, is the infamous Mt Erebus. It was to loom quietly in the background for a number of days.  Awesome.

We headed off for an ice-encrusted black sand beach and shucked our life jackets.

Weird and fanciful mushroom-like formations carved by wind and water lined the beach at Cape Evans.

Scott's hut in the distance

Lean-to stables adjoined the hut. Against them is propped one of the original wooden sledges 

The hut had stables where the poor expedition ponies were housed. How Scott ever thought that ponies could survive in the bitter conditions of the Antarctic I can’t imagine. Animals were brought along on these expeditions as transport and food! What madness. The ponies died of course. The shell of the hut has been rebuilt but what remained inside is as it was left, including the meteorology station built 100 odd years ago on the hill behind the hut.  We felt like intruders picking our way through the remnants inside and out of the Cape Evans hut. I found myself almost in a whisper as we wandered around the hut and surrounds. Behind the hut and stretching up the hill was the detritus of those early expeditions.  

Of course we lined up for the obligatory photo.

Before creeping into the dark interior of this ill fated hut, we got a couple of snaps taken for posterity.  Then after cleaning our boots we ducked our heads and entered this staggering museum, a perfect tribute to the brave explorers of yesteryear. It was just as they had left it.

It was just how they left it. In the centre are strips of seal blubber, below that is one of their sleeping bags made from reindeer hide with the soft hair inside.

It was an Aladdin's cave that swept you back to a bitter difficult time. Here and at other huts there were piles of blubber dating from the early 1900s completely preserved in the intense dry cold. They used the blubber for various things including cooking and light. It had been a fascinating morning which held us engaged for hours which meant a late lunch.

Shackleton's hut is that pale structure in centre of the image. To right of the hut and closer to the shore is the protected penguin colony.

It was a glorious albeit icy scene with Mt Erebus in the background.

Later that day we returned to Cape Royds in order to visit Shackleton’s hut.  A landing was possible but it promised to be rather rough followed by an even rougher climb over a rocky ridge to reach the hut; access to the hut was limited because it was adjacent to a protected penguin colony. Access was via a long clamber over the rocky hill to the left of the hut.  Although I was very interested in Shackleton, I didn’t go ashore because the climb to the hut looked a bit too challenging for me.  Turns out it was very precarious. A number of passengers sustained minor injuries and poor guy fell down the rocky hill amongst the rocks and had to be rescued by our wonderful Russian sailors. Lindsay came back to the ship rather shattered after having raced ahead of the group to get help and in the process strained his already compromised rib muscles - and that’s another story. From all reports it was a pretty rough trek to the hut; I was glad I hadn't gone! By the time everyone was back on board it was after 9PM so we ended up having a late dinner that night. Such is the nature of these kinds of expeditions - weather, sea and terrain determine the pace.