Greg's trip to Antarctica
WWF-Australia's CEO Greg Bourne travelled to Antarctica to see for himself how one of the Earth's most beautiful environments is adapting to the changing climate.
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Post one - Antarctic arrival
It was late at night, still light, and a snow storm was blowing over the massive icy heads when we arrived.
I sat on the deck of our sailing boat wearing ski-goggles and searching for icebergs as we motored carefully into the cove on Melchior Island.
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Post two - Christmas with the Penguins
The west Antarctic peninsular has a beautiful spot called Waterboat Point, where a Chilean research centre is sited close to a very busy, noisy penguin metropolis.
Hundreds of Gentoo penguins make their nests out of little pebbles; many of them try to nest on rocky outcrops because the rocks attract more heat than the bare ice.
Post three - Sunbaking with Seals and dodging Icebergs
In the La Mer channel - about seven kilometres long and kilometre wide - we pass by 1000 metre high mountains on each side; behind those are mountains twice their size again. The bangs and crashes of glacial avalanches are enormous, waves from huge chunks of ice hitting the water near us wash towards us. Minke and humpback whales drift near the boat.
Post four - Melting fast
Just off Anvers Island, a massive piece of ice-covered land as big as Tasmania, we found a little island with a nice safe cove. We couldn't understand why it wasn't on the map. The map showed that, in 1992, the spot we had sailed into was covered with 80 metres of ice. The same chart showed how much of the ice had retreated since 1963.
Post five - Heading home
We left at midnight. My last glimpse of Antarctica was of the pink light from the setting sun peaking over ice-covered sails.
Whales blew waterspouts beside the boat as we turned and headed for Cape Horn.
