Charcot Island was discovered by an expedition led and funded by Jean-Baptiste Charcot, a french doctor and an passionate Antarctic explorer. He and his crew overwintered here 9 long months in their ship, the Pourquoi-Pas. All crew survived except for the pet-pig. It is somewhere buried on the island — maybe in many years from now some scientists dig out its bones, and conclude that the Antarctic was once warm enough for pigs to live there 🙂
After set ashore, we hiked up to the highest point of the island. We then went to the bay where the Pourquoi-Pas overwintered. All that is left is a ruin of a stone hut that was used to measure the earth’s magnetic field. In addition, there supposedly is a “F” for France carved in a stone. We did not find it however.
On the way back to the MS Ortelius, the weather had cleared up, and Dimitri took us on a scenic zodiac ride. We went close to some icebergs, and actually landed on one of them. It was inhabited by a leopard seal that did not mind sharing it with us however.
