This morning was another blue sky, sunshine filled day. We managed to land on Brown Bluff, our first landing on the actual Antarctic continent. There were small groups of Gentoo penguins dotted around the bay and a large Adelie Penguin colony at one end of the bay (No 5). It was fascinating to watch the penguins go about their daily lives, completely ignoring (generally) the large blobs in their way.
After clambering up the cliffs to discover no Snow Petrel nests we carefully returned to the shore where a leopard seal was patrolling the beach and penguins clustered in groups trying not to be the first in the water. We were lucky enough to see it swimming through the growlers but missed it grabbing a penguin. (not sure I would have enjoyed it)
After leaving Brown Bluff we sailed further south through the Antarctic Sound in search of Emperor Penguins. An amazing display of icebergs of all shapes, sizes and colours floated by including one that looked just like a huge scottie dog. Around the icebergs we found the near mythical Snow Petrel - looking whiter than the icbergs.
The objective was to try and spot any Emperor Penguins which might be lurking on the pack ice. This is the time that they disperse from further south following breeding. We were very lucky to spot an adult Emperor on an ice floe, and the captain slowed the ship down so that everyone could get a good view. We had a total of 12+ adults which is really amazing as most trips only ever see 1 or two juveniles. Very lucky. (Penguin no 6)
We also had our first Orcas spy hopping among the pack ice. An amazing view was of one young one which swam over and investigated the boat by swimming all round the hull.
Our objective was Snow Hill Island but as the pack ice was still too thick we went for plan b which was to land on Seymour Island, somewhere that is not on the usual itinerary and not many of the crew had visited before, which was really interesting. Beach combing in the Antarctic, how special is that?
We had lots of Adelie Penguins and also some very strange jelly fish and crustacea.
Heading back towards the Antarctic Sound and Paulette Island we had the most amazing couple of hours with 40 + Orca at every hour of the clock around the ship. We also had another Emperor Penguin swimming past. Just magic.
After clambering up the cliffs to discover no Snow Petrel nests we carefully returned to the shore where a leopard seal was patrolling the beach and penguins clustered in groups trying not to be the first in the water. We were lucky enough to see it swimming through the growlers but missed it grabbing a penguin. (not sure I would have enjoyed it)
We also had our first Orcas spy hopping among the pack ice. An amazing view was of one young one which swam over and investigated the boat by swimming all round the hull.
At 4.00pm the zodiacs were launched and we cruised round the ice-floes looking for seals. We found some crabeater seals and then we were asked if we wanted to land on the sea-ice, to which we gave an enthusiatic 'Yes'. This was another amazing experience as Ilya, the zodiac driver, just pointed the bows up onto the ice-floe and we hopped out (out of sight of the Plancius).
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| Crabeater Seal |
Do we look pleased?
Our next experience was to find an adult Emperor Penguin standing on one of the ice-floes. We watched it, cameras clicking from both zodiacs like mad, and then moved away to let the other 8 zodiacs approach from all points of the compass, the first 'Antarctic Twitch'? It just couldn't get better.
Emperor Penguin
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