At last a day of rest! Well, not quite.
Perhaps a rest for the body, but not for the mind, for there was a series of stimulating lectures all throughout this day at sea. The morning kicked off with a sighting of a humpback whale from the observation lounge. Not as exciting as previous breaches, but an interesting sighting as it was a long way from the breeding grounds around the western Australian coast, and a very long way from their feeding grounds in Southern Ocean waters.
The first talk today was held by the dynamic photographic duo of CT and Mike, who dazzled us with images of their bi-polar travels, as they whisked us from the high Arctic to the low Antarctica, with long days of bright sunshine and incredible wildlife. Later that morning there was a lecture by Damon Ramsey, this time on more of the land building processes, but also on the land destroying processes, including the cyclones that ravage the Kimberley and ‘top end’ in the summer monsoon season.
This afternoon after lunch expedition leader Adam Cropp slapped his lecturing hat on to give us a talk on the evolution of humankind, from the original genetic ‘Adam and Eve,’ including the effect of people on megafauna around the world, and the diversity of our homonid brothers. After a short break, National Geographic photographer Ira explained the fun and sometimes not-so-fun of putting together an article for the magazine with the yellow border on the cover.
This evening our videographer gave us a ten minute preview of his roving camera interpretation of the voyage. And it wasn’t over yet - after dinner Dr. ‘Jungle’ Jim gave an account of his travels in the Himalayas. And with a gentle rolling, it wasn’t hard to resist slipping into a warm sleep.
