Camping on Paradise Bay

Our camping evening looked quite nice. We didn’t have any rain, as the previous campers did, and we would be staying on a tiny island. We were surrounded by mountains and there were no penguins. It was all very calm (good… I need calm to be able to sleep).<o:p></o:p>

Prior to the departure, our sleeping equipment was distributed to us. We each received a sleeping bag and a Bivy bag (waterproof bag that is the outer shell of the sleeping bag). We arrive on our tiny island and Jason, one of our mountain guides, explains the work that needs to be done before the night falls, i.e. create groups and build a small snow wall to protect us from the wind. Then he taught us how to get out of our boots and Gore-Tex pants to get into our sleeping bag. Making the wall was a bit tiresome; my arms were aching using the spade as we had to hurry up. We all had our headlamps that proved very useful!<o:p></o:p>

A few days before, Robert had distributed some hand warmers that I hadn’t used before. I’m glad I didn’t as I could use them tonight. There weren’t any tents and I was disappointed about that because last year’s pictures showed tents. But, I kept that feeling away as Audrey, my roommate, told me her camping night went very well.<o:p></o:p>

Before we went to sleep, my group and I were telling each other stories to get to know one another a bit more (new team for me again). <o:p></o:p>

Now… my nightmare begins. Roughly one hour after having undressed and got into our sleeping bags, I was progressively losing my body heat and I was starting to shake. All around me was a cacophony of incessant snoring. Why didn’t I take my ear plugs??! It was impossible to sleep with the noise. Was there a contest going around?! When I felt I was falling asleep, my shivering increased. I couldn’t warm up. I didn’t want to say anything as everyone was sleeping and I told myself that if the first explorers could do it, so could I. As I was afraid of not waking up at all, I forbade myself from sleeping the whole night and patiently waited for the next morning to arrive. It also snowed during the night, go figure...