Feb 19th

The morning came earlier than I'd expected. The bridge called down to our room at 4:30 a.m. (this is a vacation?!) to let Geoff, the expedition leader, know that we would see a lot of icebergs today. Seriously. As a Newfoundlander who enjoys his sleep, this couldn't have been more anticlimactic or more irritating.

But everything is bigger in Antarctica -- and through my cabin window at 7 a.m., I could see that this applied to 'bergs, too. I bolted out of bed, threw on my 14 layers, grabbed a camera, and made it the deck. Massive tabular icebergs, like none I'd ever seen. With the benefit of having iceberg experts on board (on an Antarctic research vessel -- fancy that!), I discovered that these ones may have broken off from an ice shelf south of us that's larger than France.

Our first stop would be at Danger Islands. They certainly didn't look threatening, let alone dangerous, but Geoff led an advance team in a Zodiac to determine whether we could land. We couldn't -- the winds were high and there was too much ice along the shore. So, without wasting a breath, we made way for Paulet Island -- a dormant volcano with some terrific penguin colonies.

Interesting Antarctic fact: As the advance team set off, I couldn't understand why it was taking them so long to reach the Danger Island. It seemed so close to the boat, but, obviously, the land was far larger than it appeared. It was our Expedition Manager, Belinda Sawyer (she happens to be the world's most accomplished female submersible diver, working with James Cameron on the Titanic and other docs), who told me that the air in Antarctica is so pure that it wrecks your depth perception. Everything appears so much clearer, so you assume its closer, because the air's clarity allows you to see that much further.

We spotted a crystal-blue iceberg ahead of us, and changed course slightly. All hands moved to the port side to catch a glimpse. Ulle, one of our on-board intrepid explorers, explained that the blue ice is comes from the very centre of an ice sheet or ice shelf. After tens of thousands of years, the air bubbles caught in the middle in the ice are compressed by years of accumulation, and the bubbles are squeezed out. They can no longer reflect light that our eyes interpret as white. Instead, they reflect the blue, true to their nature as frozen water. But they are very old -- some between 750,000 to one million years old -- and very rare. We are tremendously lucky, he said, to find this "diamond in the sea".

The volcanic shape of Paulet Island appeared on the horizon and, as we approached, the weather changed. The wind died, and the sun came out. The timing could not have been more perfect. We realized that large, brown rocks dotting the shore were moving -- a healthy population of fur seals was waiting to greet us.

We refreshed ourselves on the Rules for Visiting Antarctica:

- All boots must be disinfected before we reach the island, so we don't bring anything foreign over

- All boots must be disinfected when we return from the island, so we don't bring any penguin "guano" back! (More on that later -- it's wicked stuff).

- Going to the bathroom is forbidden. That's right -- nothing!

- No tissues or gum -- even the slightest, smallest foreign object could fly away accidentally and contaminate the area.

- When walking, penguins have the right of way, always!

- You must give all life a 15-foot berth, HOWEVER

- If they approach you, that's okay. Just don't touch them.

- But if a fur seal charges, clap your hands. Hard. 9 times out of 10, it works. (No one asks about the tenth time...)

Seals are like young, untamed dogs -- they bark, they whine, and they let you know that you're in their space -- except a fur seal's bite can be deadly. Penicillin is useless because of the nature of bacteria in their mouths.

And they smell. Oh, do they smell. I asked Ulle about the red mud that covered the beach area everywhere we walked. He said that there was only rock on this island. The red mud was something else -- a lovely mixture of snow, seal ca-ca and penguin "guano." (That is actually the official name for their ca-ca -- a useful, practical fact!). Lovely stuff.

Interestingly, only 17 days ago there were some 100,000 penguins there, with a handful of fur seals. Today, it was almost the inverse - a handful of penguins amongst a large herd of fur seals. "That's Antarctica," we were told. "Anything can happen." We're all learning the ways of this magnificent place.

What an extraordinary day this has been for all the students attending. We were surrounded by four species of seals, two species of penguins, and four species of seabirds. And none of them acted frightened by us in any way. They haven't known humans long enough to appreciate the harm we know we could do to them. It's like being unprotected in an open-air zoo. To walk amongst animals without fear...how many can say they did that?

It's overwhelming. And very emotional. It's simply not what we're conditioned to expect from our encounters in the wild. Antarctica is so pure in many ways, so innocent. It certainly causes some reflection on our place in the world -- what we've done before, and how we can conduct ourselves in the future.

We cruised through a field of icebergs in our Zodiacs and had some fun watching the fur seals inquisitively pop their heads from the water, and the predatory leopard seals, with their dinosaur-like heads and massive teeth, sun themselves on small icebergs.

We got a treat as we made our way to the ACTIVE volcano island of Deception Island (Danger to Deception -- they really need more optimistic brand management down here!)

Hundreds of icebergs had been blown by a storm into a narrow passage on our route. Not enough to hinder our course too much, but enough that everyone with a camera (which is everyone) scrambled to the deck to capture the floating ice in perfect light. I had never known icebergs to be on such still waters, and the bright pink and red sunset just added to the effect. It was a gorgeous end to a day none of us here will ever, ever forget.

Seamus on Ice: Week One: Click here to read earlier blog entries