We are ready to get off!

Approaching King George island, on the bridge of the Sir David Attenborough

We're making the most of our last hot breakfast on board the Sir David Attenborough before being dropped off on King George Island to camp for a month.

King George Island, home for the next month

We are approaching King George Island and the first big icebergs have appeared!

We're headed towards the Antarctic Peninsula and it has just started snowing!!

The wonderful crew of the Sir David Attenborough are helping us with our kit and filling up our water bottles.

Andy our field guide is making sure all our camping equipment is in the right place and Saurav and I are checking we have all the geological equipment

Today we are in the cargo hold of the Sir David Attenborough, checking our equipment and preparing it for offloading

Following our safety drill on the ship this morning, we carried out the essential field preparation of checking our satellite communications equipment on the ship's deck.

We are currently sailing through Drake's Passage to King George Island, to collect 26 million year old fossils. This will help us understand how Antarctic sea floor ecosystems evolved. Our team of me, Saurav Dutta (geochemist) and Andy Moles (field guide) will be camping for a month on the island.

PhD Opportunity:

'Eocene sea-floor ecosystem structure in response to environmental change'.

Student will be based at British Antarctic Survey (Cambridge), with Bristol University.

Project and contact details: www.bas.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

Deadline 13th January
www.nercgw4plus.ac.uk/apply

Hi I am Dr Rowan Whittle. My research is currently focused on protecting Antarctic sea floor ecosystems from environmental change by studying their evolution, their structure, and how they function, as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey.