Antarctica (scanned from slides)

This is the evening view back towards Tierra del Fuego from the ship Akademik Shokalskiy along the Beagle Channel (named after the exploration ship, HMS Beagle, that brought Charles Darwin to the area on its second voyage in the 1830s). 20 December 2004

This line of floating ice had formed in the channel as we were leaving Neko Harbour. Christmas Day 2004

Another mind-blowingly beautiful view of sea, icebergs and mountains. Christmas Day 2004

Stunning colours - no retouching - this is exactly how they look! This is one of my favourite pictures from our trip. It shows four penguins walking on an iceberg. It is the colours that are special, with the dark threatening sky, ink-blue sea, white snow and glowing blue of the ice under the water. All of these colours really do look exactly like this - hard to believe? 23 December 2004

This is the view we woke up to see on Christmas Day!!! It still brings tears of joy to my eyes, and I will never forget it, with the snow and ice-covered Antarctic mountains forming a backdrop to the clear blue sea. All bathed in warm sunshine (well, warm for the area). Christmas Day 2004

This iceberg is over 60 feet (20 metres) high and its image was reflected in the still, clear water. Christmas Day 2004

Behind us the reflections became ever more beautiful. Christmas Day 2004

More than any other picture, this really gives some idea of the grand scale of everything in the Antarctic. Our ship, looking like a toy, surrounded by lumps of ice that have fallen off a nearby glacier. Christmas Day 2004