Arctowski

Arctowski Station, on King George Island, is named after the Polish explorer, meteorologist, and inventor of the wind chill factor, Henryk Arctowski. It’s very Polish:

At the landing site, we found 100% of the flowering plants of Antarctica, though neither was yet in bloom: Antarctic hair grass, with (bottom left)  Antarctic pearlwort:

Apart from that, lichens are the most visible signs of life among the rocks:

Animal life is more plentiful. Penguins, of course, and here we found two new species; the Adélie:

And the Chinstrap:

One Weddell Seal (named after a seal hunter) was at peace:

These spend most of their “land” time on ice rather than actual land, so we didn’t see very many.

And there were several reminders of the bad old days: