of winning and losing....

This photo that I took during our ice-camping night in Jougla, Antarctica, is one of my favourite photos.
I literally froze my legs and chest to take it. We were ice-camping in one of the most beautiful spots in the world, Jougla, in front of Port Lockroy, Antarctic Peninsula. We were blessed by luck, since only a few hundred people can camp in Antarctica, for one the permits are issued by the IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) to a very few tour operators and they are never exceeding a group of a dozen people per trip, but even if you eventually manage to be in that lucky group, it's not guaranteed that you are going to make it, since ultimately it all depends on the weather. Our first attempt was not successful, even though it wasn't snowing, the wind was way too fierce and the zodiacs couldn't even make it to the shores. Our second attempt didn't look too good at first, but with our surprise we were called by the camping master and prepped to go. We were exhausted, just after dinner, warm and cosy thanks to the nice meal, and some of us had had a few drinks too much and if I have to be honest I was less than thrilled about the prospect of spending what was to be the coldest night of my life on the Blue Continent. But then I thought, if you don't go you'll always regret this. Ok, then, we boarded the zodiacs with our sleeping bags, a bit frisky, excited in the end and a bit nervous, after all if the insurance for that activity costs more that the insurance to climb Mt Everest there must be a reason.....
I remember one very funny american guy in our zodiac was waving goodbye to his girlfriend (who wisely decided to stay behind) and then he turned to us and said with a very nervous grin, "here I am, waving goodbye to my future ex-girlfriend...".
We landed on what could only be described as, well, a mountain of snow, and I turned to our camping master thinking that he was probably joking, you've got to be joking right? who could possibly camp in there? there's not even a square foot not completely inundated by snow, what are we supposed to do, pitch our tents on a floating ground? nope, no joke, that was were we pitched our tents, after stamping the ground to make it flat for what felt like hours, but it was good since that certainly warmed us up. When our tents were ready we were told by the camp master to do whatever we wanted to do, no supervision, provided obviously that we respected the IAATO rules that we all knew by heart.
Steve and I started hiking around a rock formation just behind our tent and I saw this group of penguins chatting happily and you know, being cute and cuddly.
I thought that instead of wandering about it would have been a good idea to just crouch and wait and see. It was the first time that I was observing the penguins without taking 3000 shots with my camera. I just felt like connecting with them in their own environment and forgetting for a moment that I even had a camera with me. After a while they came close to me and since by then I was lying down on the ice, they kept me company, looking at me with curious stares, not frightened at all, not annoyed or bothered by my presence, but rather comfortable. I like to think that we actually connected, even though I know nothing about penguins and I could be totally out of the line. When I couldn't stand the cold anymore I also realised that it was past midnight and that the light was a fantastic shade of pink. I got out of my trance and reached for the camera. I took a few shots, and this one is one of them, my favourite :)

We obviously couldn't sleep, it was waaaaaay too cold, and the penguins are not exactly silent creatures, but it was memorable, something we will always remember!!!