Drake's Passage between Antarctica and South America has a reputation as one of the roughest seaways in the world. We're there now, heading back to port and it's pretty rocky, but so far not so bad. It's exemplary of the luck we've had with the weather in the last week, with almost universally clear skies, still seas and chilly, but wind-free conditions. The scenery has been incredibly beautiful, and unlike anything I've ever seen before. Life on the boat has been very busy and tiring, but even when I haven't really felt like going outside into the cold for a landing, I've dragged myself up to do it and have been glad I did. The Zodiac cruises have been very cold, particularly when zipping across the semi-frozen sea between the icebergs, pancake ice and "bergy bits". At times the cold was quite painful on the toes, fingers and face. And of course, I've bagged the seventh continent, landing twice on the Antarctic Peninsula at isolated beaches populated only by seals, penguins and tourists. After a great couple of weeks, I'm hoping the only unwelcome experience to come on the way back to Ushuaia is paying the bar bill.
The two days sailing from South Georgia to the South Shetland Islands were uneventful. The four-a-day lectures were starting to be attended by fewer people (particularly Axel's "here's another picture of a penguin" talks) although most people were still making the early breakfasts.
On Saturday we arrived off Elephant Island. This proved a taster of the landscape we would see for the next week. The island had a rocky base with an ice sheet hundreds of metres thick resting on top. Sharp shards of stone broke through in places, but otherwise it was utterly uninhabitable and inhospitable. Jutting out into the rough sea was a small peninsula, only a few metres across in places and constantly being washed over by breaking waves. This was Cape Wild were 22 men survived for over a hundred days under small overturned boats. It's now occupied by a statue of the Chilean captain who rescued them and several hundred Gentoo penguins. The seas were still quite rough at this point so we didn't land (not that anyone wanted to), just sailed around in the Zodiacs. It was the most nervous of all the Zodiac rides and my camera battery packed up halfway around which was a bit of a blessing in disguise as it meant I could use both hands to hold on.
On Sunday we started with a landing at Half Moon Island, a much calmer affair. As well as being home to loads of penguins there was a good walk up to a high vantage point where we could take in the view. The sky was clear and we could see for miles. Great stuff. In the afternoon we pulled into Deception Island, a collapsed caldera ring of land with an entrance a couple of hundred metres across. It's like a cold Santorini, only virtually no vegetation and certainly no tavernas. We had a wander around a deserted whaling station (most of which had been destroyed in the volcano's last eruption in 1970), said hi to the penguins and climbed up to Neptune's Window to look out to sea. Some people took up the suggestion to go for a swim under the premise that the active volcano heats the sea water in the caldera. If it did, they couldn't tell and were out as quick as they entered.
Monday we took a Zodiac cruise around Charlotte Bay, mainly to look at the ice. It can be incredibly beautiful stuff, carved by the glaciers, sea and penguin poo into some fantastic sculptures. Where the ice is cut clean and exposed, its true colour of deep blue can be seen to stunning effect. Orne Harbour in the afternoon was more of the same thing, but the beach there was going to be our first opportunity to land on the Antarctic Peninsula. Unfortunately, the staff felt it was too icy (really? In Antarctica?) to walk on and there were too many fur seals (complete with bad tempers and sharp teeth) around the landing site. We were a bit disappointed but the Zodiac cruise was pretty good and almost made up for not getting a landing.
Tuesday morning we landed at Port Lockroy, a former British base now run by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. What's amazing about the place is it's built on a tiny outcrop of rocks, no more than 100 metres wide surrounded by ice cliffs across the bay hundreds of metres high. Four people live here during the summer months to tend to the buildings and sell stuff to tourists. It's the most visited tourist location in Antarctica. The middle-aged man is slightly mad and the other three are all young girls in their twenties – it felt a bit like one of those dodgy American religious cults, but we're assured it's all strictly above board. I bought a t-shirt and posted a card to me mum who should receive it by November, I'm reliably informed. There's a middle-sized Gentoo penguin colony across the bay where we saw a Leopard seal catching and munching away on penguins. It will apparently try to eat anything, including Zodiacs and people. We saw it sneak up on penguins on the rocks, grab them, then slash them around to turn them inside out. This way it could get to the meat inside. The alternative would be the eat the bird from the outside in – equivalent to chewing on a feathery duvet. Gruesome but spectacular.
After sailing up the spectacular Neumayer channel we arrived at Cuverville Island for another beach landing and penguin colony. These penguins weren't as curious as some of the others we'd met and didn't want to come over and play. That said, there were the usual groups of juveniles who would throw the most entertaining tizzies, running around like maniacs flapping their flippers and squarking for no apparent reason. That night we had a barbecue on the aft deck, which was a bizarre experience. It was pretty cold but the grills and salads were out and the scenery was considerably better than the average back garden in London.
Wednesday was our final day on the Peninsula, and the best day of the lot. It started at Neko Harbour and our first landing on the continent itself. There were penguins, one of whom tried very hard to eat my waterproofs, spending several minutes trying to get its beak around my legs and Wellies. After climbing a snow covered hillside there was a great view of the bay and the glacier which fed it. Unfortunately, the glacier wouldn't drop any ice into the sea while we were there which was a bit inconsiderate of it. There was also the remains of a hut which had been in tact on the crew's previous visit but had been completely destroyed in a storm last week. The penguins were making good use of the remains for shelter. We finished off with a very cold Zodiac excursion around the bay.
In the afternoon, the ship moved to Paradise Harbour. There were more penguins and another hill to climb for a view, but the best moments came in the Zodiac. A Minke Whale came up under our boat and blew it's nose on us. We got a great close up look of the 10 metre long animal as it circled the Zodiac a few time before disappearing. After that a crab-eater Seal followed us around the bay and then tried to get into the boat. According to the guide this was not something we would want to happen as then we'd have to get the thing out again, teeth and all.
See you back in Ushuaia.
Rich.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment