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Deception Island… in 19^th century this island has been center of whale industry in the world. Here, in the beautiful bay hundreds of whales are killed, butchered and transported in pieces to the different countries around the world aiming to satisfy human demand for oil, whales meat, skin, etc. In those times whale’s oil was the main source of lightning… yeah, luckily one the best scientist in

history, originally Serbian, Nikola Tesla invented electricity, among all other inventions…

Walking through the island there is still historic pieces of old buildings and huge oil containers from these times, standing there to remind all of us about the importance of environmental protection and that we don’t have luxury to repeat the same mistake again.

Deception Island is special because of one specific natural characteristic as well. It’s an active volcano island with geothermal activities under its ground, so when you dig a small hole at the beach and touch the water, you can feel how hot it is. Besides, high mountain pick above the island is called Nipple… I am sure it does not need further explanation We climbed this mountain, reached the pick, and experienced wind power of over 50 knots! It feels like wind will blow you over the mountain pick straight to the sea.

In the afternoon we continued sailing north, to the Bellingshausen Islands and on the way we stopped in the area of thick ice above the water, and went out. If you want to know what’s the feeling of walking over the sea, you should try this for sure! Incredible is just to think about the fact that under my feet, there is whole world of big and gigantic creatures swimming around. We took our time for taking photos, playing football and enjoying with small group of Gentoo penguins all around.

On the top of mind-blowing day, in the evening Robert told us a story about Hermes, young guy he met in U.S. on one of his speeches. When you take a look on Hermes, you will see very beautiful and strong young man, someone who is ready to walk North and South Pole. Unfortunately, Hermes was smacked by drunk driver couple of years ago, and since then he can not walk… doctors said there is no chance for Hermes to walk again… In life stories of all great people there is always one big BUT!

Thanks to Robert Swan and “2041” organization, Hermes became a part of the Antarctica Expedition last year, and as all the other team members he have experienced his Antarctica story, got inspired, motivated and guess what Hermes is doing now?!

At the end of the expedition he made a commitment that he will walk again, and actually he is making very big progress, and for sure he will achieve his goal! Honestly I can not describe how incredible is Hermes’ story, I hope I will have chance to show you all the video when I come back home.

Hermes made me thinking about well-known thought: Healthy man has endless number of wishes, and ill man only one – to be healthy again! Sometimes we forget to appreciate unique value of life, and sometimes we’re just wasting our life, waiting for things to happen and making really small significance out of it. Besides, most of the time we are scarred to explore, to challenge ourselves… The easiest but at the same time the poorest way to live life is staying in a comfort zone all the time.

If you want to experience what happiness is, feeling of fulfillment and constant excitement – step out from your comfort zone and start exploring the limits!… If there is any limits at all!

Is it possible in today’s world to gather people, nations, and politicians together under the common objective? Majority of the people will immediately tell you NO. They will find this effort impossible following the arguments such as: too much corruption, everybody fights for its one interests, too much differences between the nations, etc… list of the arguments is endless. But, there is only one argument on the ‘pro’ side of the analysis which defeats the ‘con’ side, one very realistic and live example which shows that IT IS POSSIBLE!

If you did not know about this before, than it’s time to know it! The Antarctica Treaty Convention signed in 1961 aims to protect Antarctica continent and its nature and species from human’s exploitation in the future and it encourages scientific research of the continent under very strict rules and procedures. And in the reality this Convention is followed, so there is no mining, drilling or any other kind of the activity which can make negative effect on the environment.

As you can notice it’s being over 40 years since the Convention is signed and it’s one of the best proofs that humans, nations, politicians CAN find common understanding and objectives. Asking why, you will find the answer in very simple approach of focusing on the future instead on the current problem. So, all the problems are left behind and the time is used to look into the future towards new, innovative solutions.

Looking on this example, I believe humans are able to find sustainable solutions towards environmental conservation, because believe it or not, environment is the future of the Earth and world’s economy…. Nature was always at the first place, because it represents the basic factor of our survival on this planet… but we forgot about this over last decades, led by economic power, money, greed and social status…

Moving forward from global to the national level of our country, probably a lot of people from Serbia would say something like this: “Ah, it’s not our problem to solve, it’s a problem of big, rich countries… we are too small country and have bunch of other problems on our back” But this is NOT TRUE!

Environmental protection is a matter of every single individual on this planet, so it is an issue for Serbia and its people as well. Since that Serbia is in the process of transition and development, the questions of environmental protection will become even more important in near future… and it does not matter how many people country has, how big it is…

From my point of view, in small country such as Serbia, environmental conservation will become one of the main economy drivers, source of new business ideas, jobs and something which will have enormous impact on our place among all other countries around the world.

So, moving into ACTION, starting from small, simple steps, these are some of the things that each of us can start doing as of today:

-          Switch off your lights in the house, when you don’t need them

-          Unplug your power cables for different house appliances, computers, etc. when you don’t use them

-          Share your car with your friends, colleagues, family members

-          Change your lighting bulbs with energy-saving bulbs

-          Place your garbage in garbage cans, don’t throw it all around, because you’re polluting the environment around you

Feel free to add any additional ideas from your side how we can make small but significant effort in protecting the environment of our country and ensuring the future of new generations.

Come on! Get excited!

Three days before the end of the expedition and start of our return to Ushuaia, straight North, through Drake Passage. When something is getting to its end (and new beginning) usually feeling is like you want to catch every single breath of that day, every single moment. That’s my feeling today…

Usually we wake up every day around 6.30-7 o’clock, put our gear on and go to the deck to catch first breath of fresh morning air and feel the power of the wind, which make you awake in a second. It looks like a military life in some moments… Then nice breakfast, first morning chat with the gang where suddenly I found out that the iceberg hit the ship twice last night, iceberg half of the ship’s size… huge! But luckily everything was fine… I did not even hear it! I had nice dreams obviously

After the breakfast we got onshore to visit Argentinean base “Admiral Brown” at one of the islands in the Peninsula. This base got a name by the famous (originally Irish) Argentinean commander Mr. William Brown. The base has several small wood houses, colored in red with clear and big sign of Argentinean flag on the roof. Since the base is currently closed, we could go onshore exploring the surroundings of the island. Otherwise, if there were people in the base, we should ask for the permission to step on the island. This is one of the regulations defined by Antarctica Treaty Protocol from 1961.

Looking at the base I can’t stop asking myself how would it be to spend couple of months here, surrounded with penguins, seals, ice and sea? Having limited resources in mind, it must be very challenging from one side, but I am sure that being in Antarctica and exploring the continent, researching the species and the nature is unbelievable and worthwhile. And believe me when I say that this continent is one of the most beautiful places on the Earth.

There is big population of Gentoo penguins on the islands just near the base… Going further we climbed hill just above the island with quite steep upfront side which goes straight down to the sea. It looks very scary standing on the top while wind is blowing you towards the ocean.

In the afternoon we continue our exploration of the Antarctica by visiting the population of Chinstrap Penguins. This kind of penguins have a white throat, chest, and under parts, and black body and head. Their bill is black, and a distinctive thin black line runs from ear to ear through the white of their throat. It is this band that gives them their main common name, Chinstrap. But these penguins were frequently seen by early Antarctic explorers, and were also named for their habits –”Stone Cracker” . They make their nests quite high on the rocks and have their breeding season in the same time as Gentoo or Adelié penguins.

Visiting the Chinstrap Penguins and being exposed to the real storm up on a hill were one of memorable experiences from the Antarctica Expedition… out of many, many other amazing experiences and memories from the end of the world…

Still missing the right experience with the whales…

Antarctica is cold, unpleasant, unfriendly, and wild… and it wants you dead! Being here, living here, enjoying in unique beauties of this incredible continent – it’s a matter of surviving every single minute.

I am not sure how many degrees is bellow °0, wind is about 35 knots, and by the forecast we can expect storm during the night. Expedition team, about 60 people from all over the world got together on one of the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula, with one common goal – to explore and survive.

I have to share with you marvelous experience of exploring the Antarctica. If you thought that Antarctica is only about icebergs and snow, you’re wrong. It’s a continent with diverse and unique species all around, fantastic landscapes and the most incredible silence I have ever “heard”. Here I can sit down for hours, watching penguins, seals, birds and trying to catch the whales at the horizon. Beauty and uniqueness of the Antarctica is not describable by any words, you just have to live the experience. Main feelings that are following me during the whole expedition are being grateful to the nature and respect its rules.

Following the experiences of historic polar explorers such as Scott and Amundsen, we challenged ourselves in making camp base and proper snow shelters that can keep us worm and alive during the night. Limited resources, feeling of 24-hours day light, storm followed with snow and strong wind, low temperature, surviving together with over 50 people in the camp made me thinking how grateful I have to be for living in nice and comfortable conditions and gave me profound picture of my strengths and weaknesses.

It is incredible experience to observe people’s behavior in the situations when we’re limited with resources and time. Natural instinct for surviving mixed with rational thinking, skills and strengths of every single member of the team gives extraordinary force and motivation to reach final results and come up with sustainable solutions.

Every single day of life requires from us to make decisions, choices, but more then everything else to stay committed what we promised first to ourselves and then to the others… It’s a matter of living on the edge and leading by example.