Orne Harbour

Our second stop of the day was Orne Harbour. Some people do not consider the Antarctica Peninsula to actually be Antarctica and really wanted to be able to say they stepped on the "real" continent. The landing at Orne Harbour is on the continent not the peninsula. We were on one of the first Zodiacs that went to this site.  The site was very small and the intent was to let people get out of the Zodiac, take a picture, and then get back in the Zodiac for a cruise around the bay.  It was basically some rocks and a little bit of snow that we could stand on.  We were scheduled for two Zodiac rides - one before lunch and one later in the day. 

 

While we were eating lunch lots of ice drifted in and ended up blocking the landing site so people with later Zodiac rides were not able to get to to the landing site.  Our scientist guide on our 2nd zodiac outing said that they had a difficult time getting the staff cleaning up the site back to the ship because the ice built up quickly and the Zodiacs were having difficulty getting through.  There were many unhappy people but the weather conditions were too dangerous to attempt the landing.  We were okay not having the landing a 2nd time because, as mentioned, it wasn't a very exciting landing and it was difficult to get in and out of the Zodiac without falling in the water!