No Snickers eating during the night. He ate a banana instead.

Still up earlier than I would have liked but went for breakfast, packed the last of our things, put our luggage out ready for collection at 8 (but Glen ended up wheeling it to reception anyway) then we were on the bus for our 9am departure.

Only two people hadn’t got the memo (thinking we were leaving at 11 as originally discussed) but they showed up not long after.

Then we were out of there.

We were put into two vans, our van having fewer people and more space than the other, which was wonderful.

We left the national park on the morning of 29 February and headed south-west towards Punta Arenas. 

I read Where’d you go, Bernadette? on the journey, almost finishing the whole thing by the time we arrived.

A friend recommended it as a good portion of it is about Antarctica which allowed me to share with Glen some fun snippets about the severity of the seas in Drake Passage. Even I felt a bit green after it.

We stopped in Puerto Natales for a toilet break and look in a souvenir shop (I wonder what kind of commission the drivers get). [Edit: we bought postcards and never got the chance to post them. Will hand them out when we get back to Perth.]

Despite having my head buried in my Kindle most of the way, I did look up occasionally to see a few wandering guanaco, a distant dust storm…AND A RHEA!

That makes four of the five, and from what we’ve heard, the huemel is incredibly rare, endangered, and elusive. 

Four out of five ain’t bad!

MS Roald Amundsen

We arrived at the port at 2:30pm, having made very good time on the journey. (We were told to arrive no later than 4pm.)

We started to be processed at 3pm, caught a bus up the jetty, then boarded the ship. It’s a big ship but not too big. And the Roald Amundsen is brand new.

We checked-in and had been assigned a cabin on the eighth floor with a balcony. The room is compact but comfortable, and I was ecstatic about the balcony. The views over the side are spectacular.

We’d handed in our medical forms early, which was just as well as when we went exploring later, the queue to hand them in was long.

We unpacked everything (nice to be in one place for 16 days…I think that’s a first) and went exploring.

Deck 11 had an outdoor gym (bars mostly) and a running track. It’s also completely open to the elements and it was nice to get some fresh air.

Deck 10 has the lounge/bar and the outdoor pool and spa, as well as the sauna with floor to ceiling glass looking out the side of the ship. There are also plenty of comfy chairs in the lounge to sit at and watch the scenery (it’s where I’m writing this now).

Deck 9 and 8 are for rooms.

Deck 7 has the gym and the wellness centre, as well as an outdoor viewing deck which you can only access from deck 6.

Deck 6 has the science centre, the briefing/lecture rooms, outdoor and indoor viewing decks, a shop, and two restaurants.

Deck 5 and 4 are for rooms.

Deck 3 is where we get off the ship to go on excursions.

Deck 2 and 1…I dunno.

We went to a safety briefing at some point (mandatory for everyone or else the boat doesn’t leave) and found Ravinder and Narelle.

We sorted out our excursions afterwards, changing the one we’d booked for Falkland Islands from the tour of Stanley to a nature trek.

It was here we learned that camping on the ice had been cancelled (as well as a couple of other things) due to bad weather and not enough snow.

That was quite disappointing as I’d really hoped to sleep on the ice but alas, can’t have everything and will just have to make the most of the rest of it.

Similarly, slightly disappointing was learning our kayaking expeditions had not been booked as we’d been informed and we’d have to put our names down after the mandatory briefing. It would then operate on a lottery system.

Dinner started at 6 and I was starving. I either thought it was from hunger or nausea from the boat slightly moving. Luckily it was just hunger.

Dinner was a really good buffet, plenty of selection, all very tasty. After dinner we went up to the observation deck on 7 and looked out over the ocean as the boat departed.

It was still light out so we could see plenty…which meant we could clearly see the pod of three dolphins shooting through the water in front of the boat. Awesome!

Another briefing in the evening, this time from the conference people. Glen and I then went up to level 10, had an expensive hot Nesquik and sat on the comfy couches while reading our books for a while.

It’s really quite magical.

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