Meaghan and Lesley in the mudroom

The food was fabulous. Caroline had the best fried squid she had ever eaten. About three meals were a little strange. Murray's standard eating consisted of; breakfast, 2 or 3 courses; lunch 2-3 courses; afternoon tea, sandwich/enchilada and cake; dinner 4 courses; sometimes popcorn with films. We had lost weight since retirement – C 1st 3lb, M 3st, post cruise weight loss C 1st, M 1.5st.

The expedition staff and guests all intermingled and laughed pretty much all of the time. Our new Aussie friends Lesley and Meaghan taught us Gin Rummy where Meaghan proved to be the only person Caroline has met who is as competitive as Murray (or his brother). There was bizarre dressing up with weird conversations such as Caroline asking a lady passenger where they had got their big Y-fronts from (she was wearing them on the outside of her clothing with a stuffed albatross on her head) apparently they were for unspecified 'emergencies' – if you can think of a suitable emergency that may occur, please drop us an email!

On the Polar Plunge Murray had neglected to check his swimmies at the back after the fast disrobing and showed rather a lot of bum cleavage. Some wag enlarged a photo so that Murray's bum crack (sorry) was the wallpaper of all 3 ship computers, so at one time everyone going into the computer room had bit of an eyeful. One lady came up to Murray, winked and said 'hello cheeky'-hmmm. (requests for a copy of the photo by email please)

Bio security was also carried out in the mud room. This meant scrubbing boots, washing overtrousers and walking through disinfectant every time we left and returned on board.

Every day was a mix of shore trips, lectures, documentaries and a film (Murray napped through most). Every single one was on ice, sea mammals, Antarctica wildlife, Shackleton, whaling, global warming or the Falklands war.

On the last night crossing Drakes Passage in calm sea a heavy snowfall led to a massive snowball fight inside the aptly named Polar Bear bar.

The crew did their best to always get in landings and to go to the best places accessible in the weather/ice conditions. This was not a 5star ship but gave us everything we wanted and more.

 G Expedition