Category: Antarctica

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Aitcho Island

It is with sad and heavy hearts that we do our last landing- at Aitcho Island. There are two penguins nesting here: The Chinstraps and Gentoos. The island is alive with new life- large penguin chicks are being looked after in large creches. The chicks wobble around behind their parents to get fed, and they run and trip over their own two feet. This is really adorable to watch.

The skuas are around trying to get easy pickings from the creches –and they are very strategic in their approach, working in twos. While one detracts the adults, the other attempts to steal a chick.

There are also Chinstraps that are performing some mating dances. They also say hello to one another by making a braying / donkey sound while lifting their heads to the sky.

The Gentoo chicks are really curious and if you stand still or sit on your haunches they will come to you to get a good look. As a matter of fact, I was standing and speaking to one of the passengers and one of the curious little fellas came to us, sniffed and pecked at his walking stick- I think he was hoping for some food. When there was none of that forthcoming he just laid down at our feet.

I am somewhat heartbroken, writing this last account of our most epic trip ever!! It is as if putting it up on the blog is a final admittance to it being over. If I had to summarise it in one statement it would be like living through my very own three-week long National Geographic episode!

It has been great to get to meet so many people from all around the world and across all walks of life! To share experiences that are difficult to describe in their full glory and totally understand, unless you have been there! I am sure that I haven’t been able to capture ALL the beauty of the Islands and the continent, and for what I have missed, I refer you to a specially gifted photographer that was one of the passengers on the cruise: his website is www.ericesterle.com and I would encourage you to check out his current images, and hopefully by the end of February some exceptional images from this amazing part of the world- I am sure they will be awesome!!

Upon leaving the South Shetlands we were blessed with a sunset like a constantly changing painting, and due to the long days it lasted near on four hours! The photos speak much louder than my words ever could!

As we head into the 2-day trip back to Ushuaia, we are wondering what the infamous roaring forties and the Drake Passage will bring- but all we got was calm waters and sunshine as we came into the Beagle Channel again. The Drake’s reputation was not to be fulfilled at all this trip- it was like crossing a lake!

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay is home to a large Chinstrap penguin colony, with one lonely Macaroni penguin. It is also the placement of another Argentine Station. On our landing we go through a walk around the Island- which is only 2km in length. It is pretty rocky and slippery due to a mixture of penguin poo and mud! The penguins and their chicks are mighty dirty due to this mixture! The only clean adults are those that have come back from their feed.

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Almirante Brown Station

The trip to Almirante Brown Station will be one of my most memorable portions of the trip!!

Brown station is one of many Argentine stations on the Antarctic Peninsula; although with the economic situation in the country as it is, there is very little presence at these stations at present.

There are split activities again- with half the people going ashore and the other half going on zodiac cruising. Our group goes zodiac cruising first- in Paradise Bay which surrounds the base. Within the 2-hour duration of the cruise we are overwhelmed and humbled by all our sightings –to the point where one didn’t know where to look! At first we cruise towards a Weddel seal on the main land- it’s pretty far though. Directly hereafter we cruise towards some floating ice that has a crab eater seal resting on it. Do yourself a favour and Google what Crabeater seals’ teeth look like- like delicate carved jewellery! While we gaze at this seal a call on the radio alerts us to humpback whales in the bay- so we head in that direction. For the next 4 hours four whales remain playing in the bay- unusually playing very near the rocky shores where it is not very deep, and hence they surface often. I didn’t take very many photos- I have pretty much none of the whales I saw on the whole trip as I just wanted to enjoy their beauty without a camera between me and them. We were all hoping to see some fluking (whale tails) but they only did that when everyone put their cameras away 🙂 . Once we had soaked up some whale watching we headed off to the leopard seal that was resting on ice, that the kayakers spotted. It looked around at us a bit and yawned to show off its magnificent set of teeth!! On our return we did some more whale watching and spotted another Weddel seal on the ice. We turned off the engine in the hope that it would sing for us- again I refer you to Google for an amazing, nearly electronic sounding song.

Being really satisfied with that abundant wildlife experience, I’m rearing to go on land as there is a large hill, covered in snow behind the station that one can slide down on. You do have to climb a pretty steep hill each time you want to slide…but that’s part of the fun!

As a group of us start hiking up the hill in deep snow our attention is drawn to a great big noise: one of the nearby glaciers has calved and created a large wave that rippled across the bay and the noise echoed between the mountains.

After a 10-minute climb we get to the top. I get myself ready- all you need is the waterproof pants and our red jackets. These are slippery enough and off you go!! It takes a while to sort out what works best but then I’m off; legs lifted and quickly speeding down the hill. Towards the bottom I hit a bump, turn around and do the final bit on my stomach, like the penguins sometimes do.

It was so much fun that I brave the hill climb again for #2… and it was fabulous!! So fabulous indeed that after a couple of minutes to catch my breath I went up for #3!

Upon my arrival in the queue up top I remember telling everyone that sliding down this hill is “Like a drug!”. I did some quick calculations though…how would one increase speed in this scenario. Decrease friction- but this was not possible. So… physics would suggest that an increase in mass would increase velocity. How does one increase mass instantly? GO TANDEM!! It didn’t take much to convince Ross to join me. Ross sat in poll positions, I hooked my legs onto him, he held on and we were off…took a little while to sort ourselves out but when we did we shot down that slope like a rocket!! It was soooo much fun!! All until we hit the last bump in the slide and I smashed my face into the back of Ross’s head!

From the bottom of the hill, where there was a bit of a crowd… I just heard comments of “Wow, they are going so fast” and then “Oh no there’s a lot of blood!”. Yeah, once I landed at the bottom of the hill one of the ladies who is a nurse ran up to me, wiped my face down to check where the bleeding was coming from and confirmed that I had a cut on my nose. I, in turn also told her that the nose was bleeding on the inside- I could taste all the blood. Our expedition leader rushed to me to help me up and take me to the zodiac to get to the ship’s doctor. She constantly checked up on me for dizziness, coordination, pain etc. I could tell, from the look on peoples’ faces, that there was a lot of blood on my face; however due to the adrenalin I did not feel any pain. Over the radio, our expedition leader asked one of the guides to clean up the blood.

The doctor cleaned me up – I did enquire as to why she was wiping my eyebrows and cheeks and everywhere- she confirmed that I’m covered in blood. She first placed a plaster on the cut- but it bled right through, so she used some skin glue- which worked like a charm. I had some swelling on the forehead, but no further signs of concussion etc. I was super glad to have all my teeth and no broken nose!! I applied an icepack every few hours.

At dinner I got many questions of concern, but relief that I was there… I did mention that I lost a lot of blood, but not my appetite J. I didn’t realise just how long the blood trail was until people who saw the incident starting telling me their version of events:

  1. Jo, you slid down the slope, holding your nose, with blood dripping everywhere- and yet you still had a smile on your face
  2. Jo… it looked like a penguin died on that slope!
  3. We had a person who stopped sliding part way down the slope and wasn’t sure where the slide was…and everyone just shouted back: “Follow the blood!”
  4. Our expedition photographer managed to take a few pics prior to clean up and showed them to me. His statement was that the photos do not depict just how epic it was… I asked him what sort of a photographer he was if he couldn’t capture that 🙂

The next morning, I was dreading looking in the mirror- I just imagined that I would have two black eyes and nose and that I would look as if I were beaten up! So I walked into a dark bathroom, closed my eyes and switched on the lights… and I looked OK- no colour changes!! Yeah!!

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Cuverville Island

Cuverville Island has a large Gentoo colony nesting on its banks. It also contains shallow waters which creates an iceberg graveyard. While walking around the island we witness two skuas eating a small penguin chick. The skuas are very skilled at distracting the adult penguins- hard as they try to protect their young.

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Gonzales Videla Station

After Danco Island we head off to Waterboat Point – Gonzalez Videla Station. This is a Chilean research station, though not too much research is done here. Nearly all personnel residing here for the summer are military in nature. They are very welcoming and excited to tell us about their station and work.

The station is home to a Gentoo penguin rookery and a very rare leucistic Gentoo penguin. Leucistic penguins are not albinos, but do not have black pigmentation- a genetic disorder. This penguin is a female and has normal colour offspring. The chicks here, most couples having two, are much larger than those in Danco Island as all snow has melted. As I watch the penguins I note that as the mates try to impress their partners and bring them rocks for their nests, some are lazy and bring what i have termed “phantom rocks” . In other words they do all the motions but actually bring no rock back- but they do pretend drop these non-existent rocks. It was really funny to watch!

This station is also on the Antarctic mainland- and thus stepping onto the land means I have landed on my seventh continent!

As the station is relatively small we split the visit and zodiac cruising. During our cruise we see some spectacular icebergs and penguins trying to gather on the icebergs… they seem to have a theory that the smaller the iceberg, the more penguins can fit on it. As they launch out of the water like little missiles they knock off half the others that have managed to get on…endless entertainment really!

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Danco Island

Arriving at Danco Island is like waking up in an Antarctic dream! Steep, snow covered mountains rise from the sea and the Errera Channel has beautifully carved icebergs floating on a calm, mist covered ocean. We land on this island to observe the Gentoo penguins. The snow is still very deep- which is unusual for this time of the year. Penguin chicks are thus also relatively small as penguins wait until they have a snow free area to nest. The penguins have carved deep “penguin highways” in this snow and sometimes all you see is the top of their heads waddling between ocean and rookery.

While we do a few short walks in the snow- to various rookeries- a heavy snowfall commences- which adds to the mood. The snowflakes are giant clumps and I observe the delicate snowflake structures on my gloves before the few seconds it takes for their beauty to dissipate.

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Deception Island

Our second landing for the day is in the furthest, southerly point of the South Shetlands: Telefon Bay in Deception Island. This is an active volcano, whose one side has broken away during one of the eruptions and now the caldera is filled with sea water. The entrance to the caldera is through a narrow gorge. That has a steep side with a couple of frozen waterfalls and on the left is multicoloured, multi layered volcano. Just as you enter the caldera there is an old whaling station. The island is named as such as the whalers expected an abundance of wildlife, but found none. As we carry on sailing, to the furthest point away from the entrance we are hit by the vast difference of this landscape to the others we have seen. Besides the very low clouds, which does not allow us to see the top of the caldera, the landscape is a mixture of midnight black basalt, contrasted by white glaciers and grey waves where these mix.

At our landing we hike up to an area that saw volcanic activity a few decades ago. The landscape is really striking in its colour contrasts- the grey layers one can see are actually in the glacier, these are not rocks.

Nothing grows here except a bit of algae, and we found one lonely Weddel seal on the beach.

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Turret Point (King Edward Island)

Our first zodiac landing in three days had us all excited to get off the ship and onto some land! Turret Point is named for its rock structures that look like turrets. Here we find elephant seals in great numbers…again, belching and farting and sneezing mucous over each other. We also see Adelies for the first time- these penguins have a distinctive white eye. There are also chinstraps around. From our landing point we also see a marvelous volcanic island (Penguin Island), the maroon colour of the scoria is distinct (though possibly not well captured due to lack of light).

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Antarctica South Shetlands & Antarctic Peninsula

Elephant Island

At the end of nearly three sea days we arrived at Point Wild, Elephant Island. This is the northern most island of the South Shetlands. It is most famous for Shackleton’s men having spent over 4 months here while they waited for a rescue attempt. One cannot call this place a beach…it is barely a rocky outcrop. That eleven men spent 4 months here and survived on penguin and seal meat is amazing. I have marked this in red in one of the photos. The seas around here are rough and extremely cold, and the cold winds whip in from the sea and down the neighbouring glaciers! There is a statue here of the bust of Videla- the only captain who would lend Shackleton a ship to rescue his men. If you haven’t yet investigated or do not know the history of Shackleton and his adventure with the Endurance then you must read up on it- it’s very exciting and “Endurance” is a most suitable name for the whole expedition, not just the ship.

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Antarctica South Georgia

South Georgia 4

On our last day we have two stops, the first being Ocean Harbour. Little remains of an old whaling station and the elephant and fur seals are taking over again. There is the wreck of the Bayard, which now hosts a breeding colony of blue eyed shags/ cormorants in the tussock grass that is growing on board.

St Andrews Bay is the largest King Penguin colony in South Georgia with approximately 170 000 breeding pairs and their chicks!! The beach is 3km long with penguins from one end to the other and a dramatic back drop of 3 glaciers and glacial valleys is home to this beautiful species. The thousands of dots on the photos are penguins!!! The penguins standing in the river are at different stages of moulting- being close to the river for to cool down and have a water source.   Blessed with beautiful weather and some free time we can soak in the views from a short walk up a hill and are just spell bound by the extensive beauty of the Bay! This was the most magical place that we could have finished our South Georgia trip on, but we have many nautical miles before the South Shetlands- and more specifically Elephant Island… so we head off even further down south.

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Antarctica South Georgia

South Georgia 3

In the afternoon we head north to Royal Bay, a first time landing for the ship and check out our first elephant seals. The mature males are already out at sea, however their younger counterparts are still impressive yet disgusting massive ellipses of blubber and snot. Having said this, they still have a much more peaceful nature than the fur seals.

The weather shadow remained decent in the morning and so we landed at Jason Harbour. Here we saw the usual suspects: fur and elephant seals, Kings and Gentoo penguins. There is also a hut that was first intended to be the start of a whaling station, but was decided against. The hut then acted as a postal station and contains a wooden table with sailor’s initials from ships in the 1920s.

Grytviken is the largest settlement on the island with approximately 30 permanent residents- mainly research and museum staff. This is the location of a whaling station that commenced in 1904 and was closed in the 1960s. The whaling station is set on a beach with tall, jagged and often snow covered peaks, that rise nearly immediately from the water.  The station is a museum that one can walk around, and learn about the whaling era and processing methods. The town housed 450 men that worked 12 hour days, 7 days a week. 175 000 whales were processed here and at peak up to 25 whales were processed in a single day! When numbers started declining the whalers believed that they could take a few years break and come back for further whaling- but the whales were never going to recover at such rates- and this ended the whaling era.

The whaling station is not the only drawcard here, it is also steeped in other history and is the final resting place of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Wild, as well as whalers who died from industrial injuries.

Today we learn about the work of the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT). They have worked tirelessly over the last few years to eradicate rats from the island and have succeeded!! Rats were feasting on bird eggs and thus ruining the bird populations- especially of the pipette. Pipettes are the most southerly existing song birds, and have recovered dramatically over the last two seasons… which everyone is very excited about! I have included the link to SGHT if anyone would like to make a donation to this work.

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Antarctica South Georgia

South Georgia 2

As soon as we are finished with the zodiac cruise we are off towards the south of the island- to get some protection from the upcoming wind, in the island’s wind shadow. We do this in Cooper’s Bay. We have a pre –breakfast cruise to see the second crested penguin species of the trip- Macaronis!! It’s rare to see these penguins as they breed on steep and rather inaccessible mountainsides.  A penguin has got to eat though-and we catch them waddling down the hill from their rookery, and into the ocean. To top off this glorious morning we also spot a leopard seal- and take in its power and size.

As the winds pick up, so do the wave heights on our way to Drygalski Fjord and the wind howls through the funnel created by the fjord. The views of the glaciers that terminate in and above the fjord are breathtaking though and we all brave the winds and hang around outside on the bow. The fjord terminates with three glaciers coming into its waters. The ship stops here for a while for us to soak it in, and as we turn around the winds start to die off a bit and the sun appears, which adds another dimension and brilliant blue skies too. It is in this fjord that one is most likely to spot the snow petrel, as it is their prime breeding ground. These are elegant, completely white birds. We spot several pretty quickly, but one flies just above my head, and with the sun shining on it from above makes it looks just like an angel!

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Antarctica South Georgia

South Georgia 1

We leave Stanley at 19h00, and head towards South Georgia. It should have taken us a couple of days to get there; however high seas and strong winds slowed progress, and we added nearly a day.  The time on board is spent eating…eating and more eating interspersed by interesting lectures and thorough biosecurity cleaning procedures prior to our first zodiac landing on the island.

Our first stop is Prion Island- best known for its wandering albatross colony. There is a boardwalk built to a couple of look outs and we are lucky enough that one albatross has chosen to nest right by the boardwalk. Some of the local fur seals were not happy to see visitors and attempted to chase us away!! The wandering albatross is the largest albatross with wings spanning up to 3.5m!! Its special to see them gliding around –and even a couple’s mating display.

Our second stop in the Bay of Isles is Salisbury Plains. This forever-expanse of beach with jagged mountain tops and glaciers as a backdrop; is home to the second largest colony of King Penguins. They are beauties to behold- their sharp, crisp yellow and orange colouring is so striking. We have a winding walk through the plains, in between the angry fur seals and inquisitive Kings, towards the main colony.

There are many penguins that are moulting- these penguins cannot fish as their feathers are not waterproof at this stage. This means that they attempt to remain as still as possible to conserve energy during the moulting- which takes up to 2 months to complete.

A sea of crisp coloured Kings great us by the main colony and dotted in among them are brown fur balls – these are the penguin chicks, which are now pretty large. Some are moulting and gaining their first waterproof feathers. The chicks are nothing like their royal looking parents- and many years ago, the first explorers thought that they were a different species!

As we are making the best of the beautiful sunny weather we have on our first day- we do a third activity for the day- before we “run away” from the storm that’s hot on our heels. This is a zodiac cruise around Prince Olav Harbour- one of the most recent whaling stations on the island. It opened in 1904. As we cruise around we get some history of whaling and sealing in the area and note the sheer magnitude of this operation by the size of this station. Before returning to the ship we visit a seal colony that has a male “blondie” – a light beige coloured seal. 1/1000 fur seals are this colour- and being the dominant male on this beach he has also sown some of those seeds around!

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Antarctica Falklands / Malvinas

Falklands/ Malvinas Islands

Two days of cruising through the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia, and further East brings you the Falkland Islands, which after the Argentine/ English war and occupation of 1982, are now English again. The Argentines refer to these islands as the Malvinas; and both sides strongly and openly believe that they belong to them!

Now, to be quiet honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from these Islands, for no real reasons except ignorance really. Our first landing was at Westpoint Island- a tiny island in the north west of the archipelago. Our small cruise ship of just over 100 passengers anchored and we set off in our groups on the zodiacs to shore. We had a 2.5km one way walk to the black browed albatross and rockhopper penguin colony. The little bit of rain stopped and we had pretty good weather while visiting- however the rain poured down much more on our return walk.

These albatrosses make their nests from mud and plant material and return to their nest year on year. Both males and females incubate the single egg that is laid. The chicks are grey and covered in fluffy down feathers.

Rockhopper penguins- belong to the crested penguins and lay two eggs, though only one chick usually survives. Both parents incubate the egg.  You will note from the photos that these little rockhopper penguins have a hefty climb from the sea up to their nests!

After the walk and colony experience we were all invited for cakes and biscuits by the couple who look after and farm on this island. The lady baked 26 different varieties of cakes and snacks by herself for 150 people!!! This is all by herself- and she does so for the 40 cruise ships that will be hosted by her during the season!

Our second landing for the day is at Saunder’s Neck. The weather starts off with some rain and even a bit of lightning- a rarity in the Falklands. However, it clears up to magnificent blue skies and beautiful warm weather! This island contains colonies of Magallenic (burrowing) penguins, northern Gentoo penguins and a small number of King Penguins, three of whom are moulting. Penguins are coming from both sides of the neck from the ocean after feeding- and it is great to just sit around and watch them as they waddle onto the beach. The chicks are already pretty large, though some penguins are still sitting on eggs. It’s most likely that these will not hatch.

We come back in the late afternoon, and head straight out towards Stanley- capital of the Falklands and situated on the eastern Island. We do this in order to sail away from a storm coming towards us. We dock in Stanley the next morning at 4am. A bus is organised to Gypsy Cove, which I skip as it is cold, windy and raining outside- which doesn’t go well with my cold I have had since day 1 ! I decided to go out on the shuttle bus at 10am- which is fantastic as the weather clears and we have yet more blue skies for the rest of the day!

I spend nearly a couple of hours at the museum, with interesting natural, maritime, historical and general displays. The museum is well presented and describes some funny stories too. Stanley was a very important stop for the ships of yester-year that came around Cape Horn needing repairs and stocking up. This was all prior to the opening of the Panama Canal. In the afternoon a group does a walking tour and even later there is an option to do a walking bird tour. I didn’t opt into this one as I wanted to spend some more time walking the streets and seeing the old houses and streets of the town.

I am happy to find out that there are regular flights to the Falklands from the UK and once per week from Santiago de Chile.