Landfall on the Antarctic mainland

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GOOD morning, I'm coming to you from quite a bit further south now at around 67.5 degrees south. It is quite a bit further south than the Antarctic Circle having come down past Adelaide Island overnight. This is the Antarctic mainland in all its glory. So far we have been exploring quite a few offshore islands but until now we've never seen the mainland.

I'm heading onshore probably within an hour or two. That will be very very momentous because once I set foot on the shore I can honestly say I have been to every single continent. What a beautiful place to do this, I'll see you either on the Zodiac or onshore very soon.

I've finally made it, so here I am on Antarctic landmass. I am touching the land so I've now made it to all eight continents. It is absolutely spectacular here. There is no wind at all. Red Point is rising very dramatically and over in that direction is an Adelie penguin colony at this far south at 68 degrees where most cruises wouldn't go, so very few people ever see them. I'm going to take a few pictures of them. Anyway I've made it, made it to the continent of Antarctica. It is absolutely spectacular here.

I'm nearly at the top of the rise. It is quite a challenge walking up the ice. Fortunately it is fairly fresh and very stable, not slippery at all. It's a spectacular view out to the bay.

I've made it up here, up one of the hills overlooking the vast bay out here. It is absolutely spectacular unlike anything I've ever seen before seeing ice down to sea level and bergs from a huge glacier just around the corner. Down the bottom there's some penguins and you can probably see the ship way way out there. It looks really tiny, but it's quite big. We've got this dramatic mountain up here at red point. It's very spectacular and a wonderful introduction to this vast continent.

I'm just on my way down again to have another look at the penguins and there's a seal down there as well. It's amazing hiking here on this extremely remote continent. Not many people get to hike this far south here on the peninsula and not many expeditions go this far south.

OK the first landing comes to and end and the sun is just about to rise over the mountain. We're now heading back to the ship, so I've now made landfall on the Antarctic mainland and I'm sure there's many more landings to come.

Well I'm back on board the ship now and look how stunning the scenery is. So now I've landed on all eight continents, obviously saving the best until last. So now I can look at the next goal, to travel from here all the way up to the Arctic Circle in Alaska. So obviously on this trip I'm doing the first part of it going as far as Santiago and maybe sometime next year I'll come back to Santiago and do the next bit.

Anyway, a major goal now achieved in this absolutely stunningly beautiful place.