On the 15th of February we left the South Shetland Islands to go deeper south, into more 'icy' territory.
The first half of the day we were mainly crossing the sea after which we sailed along the coast of Trinity Island on our way to our anchoring place close to Spert Island.
We encountered our first big icebergs from relatively close.
Late in the afternoon we would go on a tour with our zodiacs and sloopy to navigate the small channels here between high rising rocks and getting up close for the first time with icebergs in the so called iceberg graveyard.
What amazed all of us was the incredible blue color of the ice.
Some Chinstrap penguins were trying to keep afloat a small ice floe, we all wondered how a group of these little fellows had climbed a quite steep ice slope, encountered a big dead jellyfish and enjoyed a truly magical sunset.
Anchored here, next to towering icewalls with no human presence in sight except our own, staying the nigh was an impressive experience . I do remember I went out at night alone on the deck just to take in the breathtaking scenery and enjoy this to the fullest.
This album here has pictures of Trinity and Spert Island, Chinstrap Penguins, a lot of icebergs, sunset, us touring on the zodiacs through the ice and a dead jellyfish.
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.
Late in the afternoon we would go on a tour with our zodiacs and sloopy to navigate the small channels here between high rising rocks and getting up close for the first time with icebergs in the so called iceberg graveyard.
What amazed all of us was the incredible blue color of the ice.
Anchored here, next to towering icewalls with no human presence in sight except our own, staying the nigh was an impressive experience . I do remember I went out at night alone on the deck just to take in the breathtaking scenery and enjoy this to the fullest.
