Christmas and Boxing Day pass in a bit of a blur. We get our first chance to walk on water (oh, ok, it's fast sea ice - that mean's it's stuck to the land rather than floating freely in the ocean - but it's still water, even if it is frozen!) at Cape Washington, where we have an awesome day with Emperor Penguins and their chicks.
We get a chance to see round a couple of bases the following day - Mc Murdo and Scott Base - one America and one New Zealand. The contrast in many ways couldn't be greater - 1200 people spend summer at McMurdo compared to roughly a tenth of that at Scott. Hillary's hut is a fascinating museum piece which feels very modern compared to Scott's Discovery Hut at Hut Point by the American McMurdo base.
First of all a Ross Seal decides to interrupt our lunch - it's such a rare sighting that the captain very kindly and adeptly manoevers the boat for the best position at a really close range (for a 400mm lens that is!). To put the rareness of this sighting into perspective - Sue Flood, our expedition photographer, says that in 35 years of working in the Antarctic, her husband (film-maker Doug Allen) has never seen even one Ross Seal, and now we've seen two!
