I’m going to try real hard to keep my blathering to a minimum and just post a bunch of picture. Last night we sailed back into rough water (I kind of enjoy it at night.. sort of like being back in the cradle) and headed further south. We are way beyond the Anarctic Circle now. The intent was visit an Adélie penguin colony, and then find a fjord with enough stable sea ice to ram the ship in, and let everyone play on the ice.
We hit ‘em both. What a great day. But this post is all about penguins. Everyone loves them. This particular colony is fairly large, located on a very rocky shore beneath a glacier. Everything is beneath a glacier here. It was our first wet landing (we wear big waterproof muck boots, and a short steep climb up on the shore. Except for a group of crazy people who climbed up a steep glacial moraine for no particular purpose other than to climb up a steep glacial moraine, everyone else just wandered around watching penguins either on the shore, or up on the rocky slope, or wandering in between. They were everywhere. It was like watching either a cartoon, or a nature movie. We even got to watch the males stealing rocks from one nest to their own. And of course these penguins are known for their high velocity pooping. No, I did not photograph that. These are all Adelie penguins, the smallest of the Antarctic birds. But just as cute and funny to watch. I spent most of my time by the colony, where the females were sitting on eggs and males were wandering around aimlessly (it seemed), and then watched a bit from the shore. It was about 30F – cold enough when you are standing on snow for 90 minutes. It was nice to be back to the ship
Enough blathering….I do have some video and will eventually do a summary including the best photos and some video as well.
And there was one Wendell’s Seal lazing around the beach
This post will cover what turned out to be a bonus day on the trip. Usually, it takes a full two days to traverse the Drake Passage, and activities begin the day following our arrival. The passage was kind to us (although there were a few who required medical assistance) – no extremely heavy seas, and we made it through fast enough to arrive at the tip of Antarctica mid-day Thursday. The day started out well – clear skies, and we awoke with the ship surrounded by Humpback whales. I opened my curtains to view spouts everywhere. There were also Orca’s out there as well.
Since we were cruising along to hopefully reach a location where we could get out on the ice to visit a penguin colony, the ship did not stop for the whales. But it was still an amazing sight to see so many of the critters, including a big pod of Orca’s. There were also large numbers of sea birds following the ship – 3 or 4 types of albatrosses, and a bunch of others I’m not familiar with. The observation decks were crowded with bird watchers and photographers for the first two days of the trip.
The first view of Antarctica is astounding as you get closer to see the details of the huge peaks and walls of ice.
At this point, most everyone was dressed in their orange parkas, standing out in the viewing areas photographing the incredible scenery.
And to celebrate reaching our destination, the staff came out with trays of bubbly. Hot cocoa with Baily’s Irish Crème would have been better. It was really cold out there. I’m glad I found my old expedition hat – toasty warm. We keep the orange coat, which has a fleece jacket inside.
The NG trip leads decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and our early arrival by scheduling our first excursion – the passengers were split into multiple groups and then shipped off for either a Zodiac cruise around the icebergs, or a hike on shore to view a penguin colony (you got to do both). This was the first time we had to get fully dressed with multiple layers, along with the incredibly heavy/awkward much boots, and the ever present life vest for the time spent on the Zodiac. By the time you are fully dressed, you kind of look like an orange penguin, sort of waddling around.
The landing was something of a challenge to get up a rocky, icy slope from the Zodiac, but staff members were spaced out to help the decrepit old folks like myself. The rest of the hike to the main penguin colonies was just a walk in a snowy path. Sort of like being back in Colorado. Hiking sticks helped a lot.
The penguins, mostly Gentoo, were all over the place – large and small grouping and individuals wandering around on the penguin highways which are paths worn into the snow. The ground around the large groups was stained red from the bird poop and the fragrance was quite strong. Sort of like passing by a sea lion population. We had an hour or so to wander around the colonies – it was an amazing experience, not just seeing the penguins – the view of the glaciers, snow covered peaks, glaciers and icebergs was overwhelming – I was speechless at times. Plus the weather was absolutely perfect – an almost cloudless skies and temperatures in the balmy 30’s
And now for a few penguin photos:
There were times while I was wandering around in the snow, that I just had to stop and take in the incredible beauty of the moment. This was a lot like the time in Glacier Bay, where I put down the camera and just soaked in the incredible solitude and magnificence of the surrounding landscape. This was even better.
This was posted a few days since we visited the penguin colonies. I’ve been shooting hundreds of photos each day, and just have not had a chance to keep with the blog, and probably will not post again for another day or two. Every day is filled with excursions and activities on the ship, and I’m not getting a lot of sleep either. The sun does not set until 11:30 right now, and sunrise is just a few hours after that. It’s very weird going to sleep at 11:00PM with the sun just starting to set. My internal clock is really messed up.
9:30PM…..still daylight
But the strange lighting makes for some photographs.
The Traveling Widower 