3. Isla Barrientos (Aitcho Islands) 62°23'60" S 59°45'0" W Welcome to Antarctica

On the 12th of February we had arrived. We arrived at night when I was asleep. In the morning I had my first view of a piece of Antarctica, Isla Barrientos, part of the Aitcho Islands.



It was a strange feeling, to finally have arrived, the ship not moving, a stable deck and no welcome comittee. But, we finally could take a shower without running the risk of sliding through the cabin.

The days before we had gotten instructions on rules and regulations, like disinfecting your boots on leaving and returning to the ship, where you are allowed to walk and where not and the distances to keep when encountering animals.

We disinfected our boots and entered the zodiac to make our first landing.
The first thing you notice about penguins is that you smell them before you see them.
A penguin colony has a strong odor.... , like a huge chicken coop.

Then we saw tiny moving dots, and more and more and still more. A lot of penguins.
The minimum distance to keep for penguins was about 3 meter unless they approach you, because then it is natural behavior . This was our welcome committee.

Penguin chicks can be very curious.

We were allowed to walk on our own as long as we remained between certain landmarks and followed the rules. The first hour or so I just remained on one place, there was no need to walk around, everything in penguin life just happend in front of me. They really went on on their own business.
Adults were feeding their chicks, the chicks were running after their parents hoping to get more food.


Skuas were attacking penguins hoping that they would vomit up their food and some people saw a Gaint Petrel killing a youngster. I saw the dead body floating around later.



In the afternoon we made a second landing and went for a walk to the other side of this island. After climbing a short ridge we saw a dramatic landscape with razor sharp rocks peaking out of the sea, truly an alien landscape.

On this side of the island were less penguins but we would see fur seals and elephant seals here.



The first seal however was a mummified carcass.


The Elephant seals were lying in groups, they were moulting, shedding their coat for a new one to be prepared for the next winter. I had to pinch myself that it was not a documentary I was viewing, that I was not in a zoo but that this was real life. It is truly a sight to see these huge animals in their own environment.

When we returned and I tried to find a way between the mosses we were not allowed to tread on and the penguins I had to keep distance to I overlooked a fur seal, they have good camouflage, but after some growls and me returning quickly the peace was settled again.

Just this day alone would have been worth the journey.





This album here has pictures of Isla Barrientos, Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins, Skuas, Fur seals and Elphant seals.
It has 69 pictures.

click here for the album







Here is a short video:

4. Livingston Island, Hannah Point and Whales 62°38'60" S 60°36'0" W

The next day we would sail a bit first along Livingston Island to reach our next landing spot called Hannah Point. The main attraction there would be besides the penguins more Elephant seals. But the show started earlier. While sailing we where all gazing at the icewalls that we were passing, I have seen plenty of glaciers, but this was something else.





Somewhere in the morning excitement broke loose. Whales had been spotted and the whales probably had spotted us too because they were coming to us. Two humpback whales were around the ship for quite a while and they were generous enough to show their tails.

Arriving at Hannah Point it took us about an hour to move maybe 100 meters, so much to see all around us.
It was a marvelous place again, with Elephant seals, more penguins than the day before, more Giant Petrels and beautiful weather.

This album here has pictures of Isla Barrientos, Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins, Skuas, Fur seals and Elphant seals.
It has 69 pictures.

click here for the album







Here a video:

5. Deception Island 62°54'60" S 60°36'0" W Ashes And Snow

Deception Island is actually an active volcano. The last eruption was in 1969. At the moment it is dormant though and it is a safe anchoring place, inside the crater. Who can say that he was on a ship inside an active volcano?
We had a long day ahead of us, with visits planned to the largest colony of Chinstrap penguins, (about 250.000), making our own jacuzzi by mixing the almost freezing ocean water with the scalding hot water that wells up from the volcano and visiting Whaler's Bay where the remnants of an old whaler's station is decaying to time. So we were up for an early start.
However, the weather in Antarctica can be a hazard. We arrived with very strong winds (7 Bft), the sea was rough and it was snowing once in a while. To make things worse, the motor of one of the zodiacs did not seem reliable. After some tests with it the captain decided to cancel the landing. There was a serious risk if the motor would break down in this weather and you always need to have a backup, what if the good one would run into problems as well?

Deception Island is also very accessible for bigger ships and a popular stop, so we encountered a few other touring ships, some of those approaching us to take pictures of the Europa. It must be a stunning sight if you are on another ship and then suddenly see a tall ship in this environment.

When the weather calmed down a few hours later we could net go directly to Whaler's Bay, because of the regulations, no more than one ship can visit the same place at the same time and so you need to reserve a time slot in advance. This might sound restrictive but is for the best, we are only visitors and one of the aims of all the rules is to have as little impact on the environment as possible. So no more than 100 visitors are allowed on one visit. And actually, you do not want to neither, you want to have the places more or less for your own, feeling as if you are truly exploring.

In the evening we visited at Whaler's Bay the whaling station, which was abandoned in 1931 and remains of a research station that was destroyed by the volcano in 1969, both left to their own. Because of the late hour and little light, the fresh thin layer of snow on the ashes and the still blowing wind this was a magical place.

This album here has pictures of Deception Island, Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins, Skuas, a Fur seal and Whaler's Bay at dusk.
It has 46 pictures.

click here for the album



Here a video:

8. Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay 64.83° S, 62.55° W Colour On A Grey Day

Today would be the first day that we would actually set foot on the Antarctica mainland, all our other landing spots had been islands, not part of the mainland.
The day started out grey and would remain so, but the ice all around us had such deep colors that the grey weather actually enhanced the magic of this place.

 

Before setting foot on land we were warned about the very active glacier here, it is not uncommon for ice to crash into the water and we were advised to look for higher ground as soon as we heard or saw a piece of the glacier crashing into the water, and if we left our backpack that we would leave it at higher ground as well.

That turned out to be a good advice. When a piece of the glacier calved off, the resulting flood wave did not seem to be that big, but the force behind it cannot be underestimated. So I did run to higher ground and just remained watching, seeing the wave rocking the Bark Europa and the ice chunks in the bay.

Penguins (of course) where around us minding their own business and I got some insight into penguin psychology: A Gentoo was walking towards the shoreline when he suddenly saw me and our guide. He stopped at about 3 meters from us, apparently being puzzled what to do next. The guide told us to step one meter back, because a penguin is very one track minded and cannot factor in an unexpected huge two feeted animal standing in its route to his destination. So we stepped a meter back, which was enough for the penguin to continue.

After our landing here we continued to go to Paradise Bay. At Paradise Bay we made a zodiac tour marveling at the blue ice and the almost unbelievable reflecting water. When the first group was on our way I was filming from the Europa and had the incredible luck to see a part of the icewall crashing down just when I was filming.

We also encountered our first Leopard seal, resting on an icefloe. Leopard seals command respect, not only are they a top predator, they air a kind of confidence that you better not get too close. When it was our turn in the zodiac we decided to visit a remarkably blue iceberg.








When we were approaching suddenly we saw another Leopard seal swimming and that one showed a keen interest in us, approaching the zodiac and swimming around and under us. Though the temptation to get underwater shots was high, I had some doubts about the safety of doing that and did not try that.

After our tour we made short visit to the Argentinian base Almirante Brown, which seemed to be more a station built for political purposes than a proper reach station and remained at anchor overnight.
When we were anchored at night volunteers were always called for anchor watch, to check if the ship remains at its position, but in these places we also had to watch out for floating icebergs that might be on a collision course. This night I had volunteered and we had a busy night keeping the icebergs in check, there were a lot of them. Once we had to  wake up the captain to steer us away from an approaching iceberg the size of a few basketball fields. The night was cold but again an experience I will never forget.


This album here has pictures of Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay, Icebergs, Glaciers, Leopard Seals, Gentoo Penguins, the Bark Europa, Antarctic Shags and two scientific stations.
It has 99 pictures.

click here for the album


Some of the seals in this video where shot here:

11. Petermann Island 65°10'0" S 64°10'0" W Gentoo and Adelie Penguins

On the 19th of February we would first go a little bit more south to reach our most southern location at 65°16'9" S 64°16'17" W. After that we slowly sailed north again and our first stop would be Petermann Island, home of Adelie penguins, a species that we had not encountered before.



Those penguins start their breeding seasons a lot earlier though, this being more southern, the winter will also start earlier so they need to have an early start and most were already gone, but we managed to see a few.

A freshwater pool was a popular bathing spot for Skuas. It remains puzzling to see how penguins and those scavengers just stand close to each other at his pool but otherwise they are enemies.


We had several hours here to walk around on this ice covered island, once again I admired the stubbornness of penguins, seeing them climbing through the ice and rocks to go to their nesting place.

This album here has pictures of Petermann Island, Gentoo and Adelie Penguins, Skuas, Icebergs and the Bark Europa.
It has 57 pictures.

click here for the album







Penguins can be funny as we all know:

13. Port Lockroy 64°49'24" S 63°28'53" W Last Steps On Antarctica

We had arrived in the evening of February 19th at Port Lockroy and would stay here for two nights. Because of this we would have a barbecue on board. Strong drinks were served with ice probably thousands of year old. This was probably the strangest place to have a barbecue, it got close to (or below) freezing soon, we were close to massive icewalls and on board of a ship that had grapes as decorations.



Of course, all waste remained on board. Nothing, really nothing is being left. All our waste remained on board until reaching Ushuaia again.


Port Lockroy had been a British reach station, nowadays it is more known for being a museum and hosting a mail office. It is also a popular stopover and so we met a few other tourist ships. The feeling of exploring Antarctica was somewhat less here, still the penguins all around us were charming as always.








On our second day before leaving again we made a morning walk on the ice at Dallman Bay to have a great panoramic view of the surroundings.

After our last visit, having posted our mail we returned to the boat, this had been our last steps on Antarctica, but we still had one more stop to go.

This album here has pictures of Port Lockroy and Dalmann Bay, many Gentoo Penguins, a whale skeleton and the Bark Europa.
It has 86 pictures.

click here for the album