Saturday, 15 December “Overwhelming!” — yes, that is the best way do describe it. Today was by far the most overwhelming day of our journey, as we went to Neumayer station. I knew that the first helicopter shuttle flights were scheduled for 9 o’clock and that probably everybody wanted to take off at the same time. There are only 4 seats on a helicopter, so I planned to fly around 11 o’clock, thinking that the first rush would be over and surely nobody wanted to go right before lunch, right? However, by 10 o’clock there was nothing that could have held me on the ship, I just wanted to go. During breakfast I had read the brochures on “Neumayer” and the “Library in the Ice”, then filled my water bottle, made a sandwich for lunch, put sun screen on, inserted ...

On 14 of December 1911, Roald Amundsen and his four men reached the South Pole. Thus, Amundsen, Bjaaland, Hanssen, Hassel and Wisting became the first persons to set their feet on the geographical South Pole. Written 14 Dec 2007 3619 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: -20 to -37 °C In 1911, it was a race to be first reaching the South Pole. Amundsen’s strategy with using dogs to pull the sledges turned out to be superior to ponies and motor sledges used by Scott. Amundsen used 99 days back and forth from his station Framheim at the ice edge in the Ross Sea. The station was named after the polar vessel Fram owned by Fridtjof Nansen and used during the famous drift across the Arctic Ocean in 1893-1896. ...

Written Friday, 14 December What an unreal day. In the morning probably nobody would have thought that the day might have such a spectacular end. Since yesterday we were just going back and forth in the same spot and not going anywhere all day long. It was not clear at all when we would reach the shelf ice edge to supply Neumayer station with vegetables, fruit and other things. Until 2 o’clock in the afternoon I was minding my own business, working away, and then looking out the window just by chance: lots of white, but there were a few little black dots. Penguins? Yes! Not just one but lots of them!!! In...

On 23 November, 2007, the M/S Explorer, a well-tested, ice-strengthened Antarctic cruise ship sank in Bransfield Strait near the Antarctic Peninsula. The 154 people onboard were all safely evacuated and rescued. The ship sank in waters 1100 – 1500 m deep, bringing down with it approximately 185000 L of diesel, 24000 L of lubricants, 1200 L of gasoline and all the machinery, equipment and furniture that was onboard. Its environmental impacts are still unknown and are being closely monitored. There are not many options available to clean up oil spills in icy seas. Some of them, such as burning or using chem...