Saturday 22nd November
Up early this morning to be up on deck to watch the sail into Deception Island. It is an active volcano where the crater has collapsed forming a caldera. There is a pretty small opening for the ship to get in and impressive volcanic mountains caused by previous eruptions.
The ship stopped at Whalers Bay inside the crater. I was on very first landing at 7.15 am.
This felt a very different landing site. It was volcanic beach, but also buildings left behind from an industry that was in the no so distant past and a site that would've witnessed so much horror.
As well as a Whaler station, it also had a small British base here which has been used as a landing and restocking point, until the last volcanic eruption which occurred in 1972 and magma flowed straight through the buildings.
The horrors these shores must have seen do not bear thinking about.
I walked as far to the left as allowed to the old aircraft hanger to see where small planes used to land. Penguins along the beach on the way. I felt a bit conflicted about all of the stuff left behind. Spoke with the onboard historian later who said the British Antarctica Society (that's the wrong title, but can't think correct one right now) were in two minds, but decided to leave the buildings as a monument to the past. They apparently removed all the harmful materials so all that's left will rust down to iron oxide, which is found in the volcanic soil anyway.
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