Charlotte Bay was our first landing on mainland Antarctica, if you count fast ice connected to the mainland as a landing. Fast ice is sea ice that has frozen and is connected to land. Although it would be possible to journey onto the continent from this location, we simply disembarked from the ship and walked about on the ice for the morning.

We repositioned a few miles away in the afternoon to Portal Point, where we went ashore for hikes in the snow on a beautiful sunny day amongst towering mountains, massive glaciers, and innumerable icebergs. A few gentoo glaciers shared the bay with us, as we made our way through this Antarctic wonderland.