The Traveling Widower

Tag: antarctica

  • Cruising Antarctica  – Photos only

    November 26th, 2025

    I have completed a very brief first pass through the images that I’ve capture from this incredible journey. Some I have already posted, others are recently curated, but I thought it would be nice to just have a single post, with a few of the best what I’ve digested so far. Unfortunately the software has limitations on how many images I can include in a gallery. I’m grouping them by topic: Penguins, Seascapes, Mountains & Glaciers, Ships & People & Everything Else. I will limit my blatherings to just brief description of each category.

    Remember that you can enlarge any photo by double tapping it.

    Penguins

    I placed this on top, since it’s probably what most readers are interested in. We visited four different colonies, and spotted penguins pretty much everywhere we traveled to or through. The little critters cover a lot of territory to feed. We saw two types, Adelie and Gentoo. There were a few Chinstraps spotted, but I did not see them. The birds were nesting at all of the colonies, and I did include one picture where the penguin stood up and you can see the mottled egg. Chicks were not born yet. The colonies are all large, noisy, stinky and very messy. You have to clean and disinfect your boots when you get on board. The photos are all mixed up, so if you are interested, the Adelie penguins have the all black heads, and the Gentoos have the black and white with the longer orange beak.

    Seascapes

    This category is mostly icebergs and sea ice – pretty much all the ocean images that were not of the shoreline (next category). We did see a lot of whales during our cruising, but I did not bother with the camera since there was nothing really worth capturing. We did see a very exciting encounter between a pod of Orca’s and two Humpback whales last night, but the photographs would just have shown some fins at a distance. Apparently, the Humpacks were adults, and the Orca’s were just being jerks. It was not a real fight. Once one of the Humpbacks started fin slapping, the Orcas beat a hasty retreat. I’m blathering….sorry.

    Mountains and Glaciers

    I’d have to say that this was some of the most amazing scenery I’ve seen in my entire life. I have seen (and fallen down) mountain glaciers before, and cruised around the glaciers in Alaska, but the views of huge mountain, and the continental glaciers literally falling into the sea were beyond belief. I was speechless so often.

    Ships & People & Everything Else

    I did manage to photograph subjects other than penguins – a lot of pictures of the ship, zodiacs cruising around, people on the stable sea ice (a new term for me), and some other odds and ends that I photographed. I have not written about everything we’ve done on the trip (yet) and may do another post to cover some of these leftovers.

    And a couple of others for good measure

  • Ice Everywhere

    November 24th, 2025

    This is one of those rare trips where the bar just keeps getting set higher every day in terms of how you’ve set your expectations for the potential activities of the day. It just gets better and better. I thought the two penguin colony visits would be hard to beat, but I was way wrong.

    Yesterday (Monday) was the start of our trip back North, eventually heading back through the Drake Passage to Ushuaia. The NatGeo team was hoping to visit two locations this day, both with penguin colonies, each of which offered potential opportunities for getting onshore, hiking, and maybe kayaking as well. The itinerary each day was always filled with “potentials” and “hopefull” activities. And plenty of alternatives.

    I was up early, mostly dressed with the necessary layers of clothing, and headed up for breakfast on the 8th level lounge. The weather was brisk, but clear. As we were eating and conversing, I noticed that the sea was suddenly filled with patches of small chunks of ice (referred to as brash). As we continued on, the brash patches became a continuous sheet, and larger chunks of ice were mixed in (called bergerbits….really). And then the ship started rolling – once they hit patches of ice, they had to pull in the side stabilizers which control rolling. The chunks soon turned into much larger chunks, and soon we were cruising through sizable icebergs. Bigly ones, all shapes and sizes. 

    As we approached our destination, it became obvious that we would not be hiking, penguin watching, kayaking or even Zodiak cruising. Time for Plan B. We did pass by another cruise ship, the first we’ve seen, which had cleared a small patch around the ship, and had a few Zodiacs out in the water. But there was no possible way to approach the shore.

    The Resolution captain helped to design this ship, and is an absolute expert in Antarctic navigation. The Resolution is extremely high-tech – it has four separate engine pods which can turn 360 degrees, plus there are fore and aft thrusters. The ship can literally stop on a dime, turn in any direction and remain in a stationary position using the thrusters. It also has state of the art sounding equipment, and a drone for remote navigation. So, off we went, picking out way through the ice pack, and using the drone to find the best channel out to a rarely visited bay where hopefully, we could get out and enjoy the beautiful day.

    The trip through the ice fields was incredible – most of the passengers were glued to the observation decks or lounge windows, watching the strange shaped icebergs as we slowly worked through the maze of ice. There was a constant bump and grind as ship either ran over or pushed aside the ice. It was a beautiful day to be outside as well – bright and sunny, a bit over freezing and not too much wind. Eventually, we made it to this incredible bay, surrounded by glaciers and peaks, with enough clear water for the ship to stay in position and launch the kayaks and zodiacs. The water was perfectly still..but the icebergs were all moving around. More on that in a bit. 

    I decided, for the second time, to pass on kayaking and just head out on one of the Zodiac boat tours. You see more, go further, and do not have to worry about getting an expensive camera wet. I was lucky for once to get a front seat on the pontoon side, which makes it easier to get unobstructed views for photography – no arms, heads or orange jackets in the way. It was absolutely incredible winding our way though huge icebergs, with all kinds of weird shapes, and eventually making our way to the edge of the glacier. I must have said “Wow” a hundred times. Words just cannot describe some of what we saw. 

    Navigating through this maze was a challenge since most of the icebergs are floating and moving about with the wind, tides and currents. Channels that we moved through on the way in were blocked sometimes, but there was always an alternative path to follow (although one boat was stuck for a while until the ice moved). After an hour of cruising, our boat driver began picking our way back to the ship – and this is when we started finding wildlife. Penguins of course. Some feeding on krill in the water, and a few lazing around on the icebergs.

    We also encountered a crab eater seal (they don’t really eat crabs) lazing away on an ice flow, close to the ship – nice photo op.

    Once everyone was back on board, the real fun started for the captain and bridge crew – finding a way out to the main passage. It was slow going the entire way since there was thick brash, and many larger chunks and icebergs the entire way.

    It was fun being able to stay on the bridge, watching the pilot in the Captain Kirk seat, working the controls, making minute adjustments to point the ship through narrow spaces between the icebergs. Not a good time to make a mistake. They all gave a sigh of relief when we made it to the main channel. This was a big deal for the captain and the crew – we visited an area that was uncharted, and most likely never visited by a commercial cruise liner. 

    What a great day. I’m still having a hard time coming up with the right words to describe how incredibly beautiful this place is. Unfortunately, the trip is almost over, but I’ll have a lot of really special memories engrained in my brain. I needed some recent happy memories – definitely got some from this trip