After about five hours cruising in the Gerlache Strait we turned east between Lemaire and Bryde Islands into the aptly named Paradise Harbour. At one to two knots boat speed the Captain manoeuvred us between huge bergs, past the Chilean Videla research station to the old Argentinean Almirante Brown base where we boated to the rocks and set foot on the Antarctic Peninsula for the first time. We scrambled up onto a ridge, Lisa carved “Antarctica” into the hard, frozen snow and we planted our footprints next to these letters and took a photograph. She had waited many years to achieve her ambition of visiting the most remote landmass in the world, and was very excited.

Above the abandoned base buildings we walked part of the way up a gently sloping snow-covered hill, just taking in our surroundings. The temperature was about 1°C, and with little or no wind it was not too cold. Although it had clouded over as we approached land, it was easy to see why Paradise Harbour was given its name by whalers a hundred years ago. Under blue skies it would be truly spectacular.

After about an hour ashore, Russ took us on a Zodiac cruise around a glacial cove at the eastern head of the bay where there were some interesting lichens, mineral-laden rock faces, huge glacial ice formations and glacial bergs. There was also a colony of nesting Antarctic Shags with their large fledgling chicks, and a very unperturbed Leopard Seal stretched out on some floating ice as if he had been hired by the crew to pose here for the passengers.