What marks the conclusion of an adventure? Was it our pile of well used survival suits or the final walk down the gangway?
This was an expedition, not a cruise. Those suits were doled out on our first day. The racks of lifeless red dolls looked like the drone pods from Star Wars. “The water is 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit. These suits will keep you alive for six hours if necessary.” Alrighty then.
The zodiacs left the ship twice a day, and so too, did the suits.
- Briefs, regular socks, and non-cotton t-shirt.
- Long underwear, top & bottom.
- Two more pair of wool boot socks.
- Sweat pants.
- Light insulated hooded jacket.
- Neck buff.
- Survival suit.
- Life vest.
- Stocking cap.
- Gloves.
- Mittens.
- Camera & safety cord.
- Binoculars.
- Handkerchief.
- Knee-high insulated rubber boots.
- Goggles
- And a smile.
Kristin and I would regale the process we repeated a dozen times, “Oh, there’s that sock.” Or “Shit, I forgot the long underwear.”
Timing was a consideration because if you had to stand around the warm ship dressed for a January Packer Game at Lambeau Field, you could overheat.
We recognized the others by the style of eyewear or perhaps their favorite hat, but we were the same penguins waddling around on the ice even though penguins live in the south.
If that pile of suits could share what we saw and learned, they’d say; Polar Bears have black skin. Their ‘fur’ is clear, hollow hair follicles which makes them translucent when you see them up close and helps them float. A polar bears can swim for three weeks without stopping. When they hunt at seal breathing holes, they cover their black noses with snow so the seals can’t see them. The cute Polar Bears are the poster child for Global Warming, but they’re very adaptive. It’s the walrus that are loosing habitat and are endangered.
Our suits took us to a huge cliff populated with thousands of Auks. We all found a place to settle-in and spent an afternoon just watching and listening to these little jet aircraft. Singing their beautiful song and bolting from their tiny perches, in mass, as we were reminded not to keep our mouths open as they flew over us. Their eggs are pear-shaped so they don’t roll off the minute ledges.
Some folks come up here and only see the gray wet landscape. We had sun six of the eight days. The ice sparkled, the blue sky sat on us, and the mountains shimmered, untouched by human activity. The exhilaration of wilderness lives here.
I came for the wilderness and the wonder, everything else was a bonus. This is a land where the indigenous people have 101 names for snow.
“Now, where’s the damn sock?”
The Adventures of Spaghetti Eddie 