31/12/2014

I woke after a solid 9 hours sleep, happy to have caught up on some hours, but still a little tired. But that was OK, as 2 days of Drake’s Passage awaited, with not much but some lectures, movies, and going through photos to pass the time.

At breakfast it seemed half the boat had decided that rest and sleep was the order of the day, with the dining room only half full. But those that were up were very happy with the current state of the Drake, with calm seas outside our dining room windows. All the horror stories of rough waters were still just that… stories.

The rest of the day was always going to be quiet with not much to report. A few great lectures entertained much of the boat. One on whales by John, glaciers and ice by Gerard, and a fascinating one about the race to the pole by Scotty. They all really knew their stuff, but Scott’s on Scott and Edmunson’s battle was amazing. It really stirred the need to read more about it.

Wedged in there was also a screening of March of the Penguins. It had been a while since I had seen it and it is nice, if a bit cliche and populist. But a nice way to spend an hour and half (although a bit of an odd choice in way since we were never going to see Emperor penguins).

Kind of anti-climactic huh? In a way it is the only disappointing part of the trip. Totally unavoidable, but two days of Drake after the sheer wonder of the past 8 days meant that it was difficult to not be a bit flat. But thankfully, being New Years Eve, we had that to keep us going.

After dinner, the water started to get a bit rougher. Hardly Drake Passage rough though, just a bit more of a wobble and enough for Kate to feel a bit uneasy. She rested while I caught up with photos and chilled out until we got called for an impromptu kayak meeting.

Mark called the meeting just to thank us for the good times and let us know about some feedback they were after and that we would all receive a certificate of accomplishment for our hard work. We also took the opportunity to share email addresses and start the process of getting some photo swap happening.

11pm arrived and it was time to visit the Polar Bear bar for some New Years shenanigans. Most the boat had made their way there and as we got closer to midnight the ships crew begin to prepare some festivities. On midnight a countdown came from the bridge. On the stroke of midnight a number of crew lit flares and shot them into the air. Happy New Year!

 

 

Everyone was celebrating joyously, most of us still trying to wrap our head around the surreal nature of our new year. How do you top being in the Antarctic, on the back of an expedition ship, drinking champagne?

The celebrations went on long into the night. I pulled the pin at about 1am, content to finally take a breather and call it a night. Happy New Year everyone… hope yours was as memorable in its own special way. See you in 2015!

30/12/2014

6am, the familiar voice come over the speaker in our room. It’s Jonathan with his morning wake up call. “Good morning everybody” he starts and lets us know that we have an early day today as waters are calm and we can tackle some landings that are usually off limits due to touch conditions.

Deception Island is our destination, but lucky for us, given the conditions, we are aiming to land on a black sandy pebble beach that is home to thousands of Chinstraps. But this was very dependent on conditions as we have to do beach landings which given the waves can be tricky. But it all looked promising.

Given the different landing conditions, kayaking was off this morning due to all hands needing to help out. That was OK, as everyone I spoke with was intending to head on to the beach anyway. Fingers crossed for the afternoon.

At 7:30am we were getting the call up to get on to a zodiac. With seas pretty calm, we headed on to shore and had an easy time getting on to shore. I was getting to the point where I didn’t think we would see much different, but here we were greeted with a black volcanic beach and thousands of Chinstraps heading in and out of the water. Definitely a different sight to the usual icy landings.

 

 

Deception Island is actually an active volcano that last erupted in 1970, so not that long ago. As such the beach is actually very similar to that of Iceland, and it had much the same feel. Except for the penguins of course. Our landing point was actually Bailey’s Head, and Jonathan, who drove us on shore, said it was only the second time he had seen it so calm and sunny. Our blessed run continued.

 

 

 

 

The next couple of hours were spent wandering the island and amongst the thousands of Chinstraps. These little fellas seemed to be more curious than the other penguins. We found that if we just sat there, then the odds were good that you would have a penguin at your feet. Indeed one of the other passengers had a penguin pop up on his lap!

 

 

 

The whole beach and area we explored was a buzz of penguin activity. There were penguin highways, but not of the clear snowy kind we were used to. Rather there were clear lines of penguins wandering, although a little more haphazardly. All we had to do was try not to get in the way.

 

 

 

In our exploring we saw quite a few chicks as well, which is always a kick to see.

There also seemed to be quite a few adult penguin skeletons about which was very different to other areas we had visited. Lyn, our resident bird expert, could not explain it definitively, but told us it was unlikely due to attacks from other penguins or birds.

 

 

 

 

We spent the last 20 minutes just sitting on the beach watching the penguins only a couple of feet away. Everyone was content.

It was then time to get back to the ship and like the way in we had calm conditions. Once on board an announcement came over the PA that given the exceptional conditions, our captain wanted to take us on a small cruise into the volcano. Woo!

So in we entered through Neptune’s Bellows inside the volcano. As you can guess Deception Island is the top ring of the volcano and there is a fairly narrow entry was that can be difficult to enter, but today all was fine. Once inside it was quite spectacular, with snowy peaks surrounding us all around. Inside there was also a couple of bases, and the remains of whaling ships of a couple of centuries ago.

As well the rock formations were very different, again due to the volcanic nature of the area.

We enjoyed a fairly leisurely cruise inside and then headed back out toward our next, and final, stop of the tour. It was hard to believe we had almost spent our 8 days in Antarctica already.

Final destination was Elephant Point, where we would be seeing yet another new animal believe it or not. This time it was the big papa of seals, the Elephant Seal. These bad boys can weigh a few tonne, and are also not the prettiest of seals, but it was exciting nonetheless.

There was a feeling of melancholy in the air though, as it was to be the last shore landing for the trip and also when the kayak meeting was called and we had the go ahead, our last kayak session. This was going to make session number 9, which was the equal record for number of outings on this trip. Another indicator of the good fortune we had had.

This kayak session was to paddle across the fair body of open water from the ship to the shore, and along the coast as much as the swells and rocks would allow, to get close to the seals. I was super up for it, especially as it was our last outing. Kate was not sure, as she really wanted to get close to the new seals. She managed to secure a spot on a photo zodiac, so decided to head to shore.

 

So we parted ways and I was paired up with Wucai again for the final paddle. In we went and the group headed toward the shore. As we approached we could see the big blubbering sausages on shore that were the Elephant seals. They looked so slovenly, just lying about, occasionally making some noise, or having a scratch. But they were mesmerising… and very smelly.

 

 

We continued to kayak around the coast, encountering many more seals (and Gentoos) as we went. It was tough as given the rocks and swells we had to be extra careful, but it was good fun.

In no time at all a couple of hours had passed and we had gone quite a ways, much past the zodiac landings and all the other passengers. Between us and the ship was a lot of swelling open sea, but all we could do was put our heads down and start paddling.

It wasn’t too bad in the end. We made it fairly comfortably, and I actually made it back into the mud room before Kate. It was a bit sad finishing up, and all us kayakers (the ones who did today were the ones who did the vast majority of outings) were a bit down that we were all done. But we had shared some pretty special experiences, so were buzzed about that.

 

 

Kate’s trip was super eventful. Being in the photo zodiac, she was fortunate to come across another whale in her travels, one that only her zodiac encountered. Our good fortune continued!

 

 

 

 

 

She also got the best pics of the numerous, pretty ugly, elephant seals hanging about. There were some cute pups though, so kind of the opposite of the ugly duckling story hey?

The timetable seemed to be slipping a bit, and a bit later than scheduled, Jonathan did a quick talk on geology, starting universe, and getting to Antarctica. Man, does he know his stuff. What is most impressive is that he had been so amazing to this point with running the expedition, but he has an amazing knowledge of geology. The man is a marvel.

From there it was straight into the final briefing, where again it was all a bit melancholy as the talk turned to wrap ups and talking about the end of the trip. With only Drakes Passage ahead of us, in many respects the trip is about done. There is two days left, but it would be some lectures and things to pass the time and keep people’s minds off the Drake. Kudos was given to all the crew and it was well deserved.

The theme for the evening was black and white, and we were all encouraged to wear what we could. During dinner it seemed everyone had really settled into some smaller groups, Kate and I with some lovely folks from England, and some from Sydney.

After dinner was a bit of fun, a fancy dress competition. It was great to see those that had put some effort into costumes. Sure, most were penguin themed, but everyone, especially the crew, was in the spirit. The winner was a rather crazy British lady dressed as quite an outlandish penguin. The whole boat was accustomed to her by this point and we expected nothing less. To see her win the comp was justice.

The night wound up back in the Polar Bear bar, where a number of the Filipino crew had formed a makeshift band, the Monkey Eating Eagles. They banged out some enthusiastic classic cover songs and it was great to see the vast majority of the boat in there having a drink and some fun. We had to soak up the good vibes, as two days on the Drake awaited us.

29/12/2014

The next morning greeted us with a little bit of travel during breakfast before arriving at Kinnes Cove. Like a lot of what we were seeing, brash ice was all about, as were the usual icebergs and penguins. The overcast day was performing some magic on the icebergs, accentuating the magnificent blues in them which was a treat as we dropped anchor.

Kinnes Cove was home to the usual Gentoo and Adelie penguins, although there seemed to be the chance we would see some Chinstraps as well. Given I had only seen a couple of rogue ones about, it was a bit exciting.

The morning kayak briefing was business as usual… conditions were good, there would be ice to battle, and we had a good 3 hours to spend on the water. So in no time it was back in the mud room and suited up.

 

As we headed out the conditions were a little windier than we had had to that point. Not too bad, but a touch more challenging. The kayaking was mostly getting about the ice and small icebergs that were in the cove. I tried popping the GoPro underwater to try and capture the amazing iceberg bottoms (and hopefully spot the odd penguin swimming about).

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we navigated about the ice, we came across penguins on icebergs, but also a Weddell seal with a young pup. The pup was on the iceberg when we saw the mother pop up out of the water and on to the iceberg. They were a bit hidden so we couldn’t seem them too clearly, but it was nice to see a seal in action rather than just lounging on a beach.

The rest of the kayaking time was pretty leisurely as we darted as close to the coast as we could get. We got close to some penguin colonies, but alas we found only one Chinstrap surrounded by Gentoos and Adelies. Our collective of Chinstraps was still alluding us.

We hit about two and half hours of kayaking when the wind turned around and found us a long way downwind of the ship. Mark made the call that we wouldn’t be able to get back to the ship in any reasonable time, so the zodiacs were called in to help.

So excitingly we had to pull up alongside our zodiac, unpop the skirt, and clamber into the zodiac over the freezing waters. It was a pretty easy process in the end.

With that we attached four kayaks to the back and zoomed to the ship. It was a bit precarious, as the ice caused havoc trying to keep the kayaks right way up. In fact our kayak (named Minke) overturned a couple of times but we were able to right it, get most the water out, and make it back.

Lunch was ready for us (as always) and yet another big lunch led to a couple of hours of cruising to our next stop, Gourdin Island. This was apparently one of the most difficult places to land in Antarctica, due to it being right near the entrance to Drake’s Passage and being notoriously horrible weather. But as we continued to ride our good luck we had great, albeit choppy, conditions meaning we could land.

 

 

The attraction of Gourdin Island is that three types of penguin happily coexist: the Gentoos, Adelies, and also lots of Chinstraps. Woo hoo! We did have the option to kayak, however they were just going to be going on a short kayak around the island, and given the Chinstraps and the choppy waters, we decided to and on shore.

 

 

 

 

We were so glad we did. On the zodiac ride there we got to come face to face with a large Fur seal, happily showing off on a rock near the landing point. He was happy just to sit there and pose for photos. He did look majestic up there, that’s for sure.

 

 

 

We then landed on shore and our decision was vindicated again. We immediately met thousands of Chinstraps, waiting for us on shore and up the side of the hill. These little guys all have the distinctive thin black stripe at the chin and are very striking.

 

One little one was very curious of me and decided to come up close. I guess he was just saying hello.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made the trek up the hill and were surrounded by lots of Adelies and some Gentoos as well. It seemed lots of chicks were out in the Adelies, and Kate managed to get heaps of great photos of the little ones.

 

Jonathan gave the challenge to try and get one of each penguin in a photo, and on the way back to the shore, Kate spotted all three there together, like they had been set up. While they didn’t pose for the best photo, mission accomplished!

With that we were back in the choppy waters to the boat. During the briefing we found out our southern most point, being 65 degrees 11 minutes latitude. The Antarctic Circle is at 66 degrees 33 minutes, so we were about 150 miles off. Not that far, but given the ice we had seen, it really wasn’t going to happen. But as you can tell from our revised plans of the last couple of days, not a bad substitute hey?

28/12/2014

As mentioned yesterday, the plans for the day had changed. The goal was the Antarctic Circle, however ice had put the kibosh on that. Instead the new plan was to head to an area on the continent called Brown Bluff for the morning, and then move on to Paulet Island in the afternoon.

At breakfast time we were starting to see the huge Tableau icebergs that characterise the area. They can be miles and miles long, and while we hadn’t seen any of that size, they were already starting to dwarf the ones we had seen to that point.

During breakfast the call went over the PA for people to sign up for the days Photographic Zodiacs. These are one or two boats that go out with the intent to just cruise around, looking or interesting things, to allow people to get some unique photos that everyone doing shore landings (or kayaking) wouldn’t. I bolted and managed to get Kate and I on the list, so we decided to forgo kayaking for the morning and do this for a change. While kayaking would have been my preference in a way, I thought it would be good to get on one photo zodiac for a change of experience.

So after all the zodiacs had gone out, we jumped in one with John our driver and Cherie, the resident photographer, and out we went. The great thing about this was that John would simply ask “so, where are we going?”. It seemed the area would be best for penguins on icebergs, possibly seals, and reflections in the water. So first we chased penguins.

 

 

 

 

Immediately we were able to spot some penguins just hanging about, so we got up close and personal for some amazing photos. The little Adelie’s were happy to just stand there and pose.

There was talk of a Leopard seal in the area, but then John got on his walkie talkie to base, asking “permission for an IW”. Permission was granted for whatever the IW was and pretty much straight away, John simply said “hang on… and I mean it” and he sped forward heading toward the ice. I expected it to give, but nope, up we went, getting half the zodiac up on a massive piece of sea ice.

John jumped out, holding the rope for the zodiac, and gave us the go ahead to jump out of the boat. We were standing on a piece of ice floating off the coast of mainland Antarctica.

 

 

 

 

 

Not many visitors get the chance to do that, but we were super lucky today. Not only did we get on the photo zodiac, but we were the first group on the ice. Given we had no time constraints, we got to hang out. Why did we hang out for so long? Well, a group of Adelie penguins decided they would join us on the ice. Within 10 minutes we had almost a dozen on our big chunk of ice, happy to get close and entertain us.

 

 

 

Imagine it. We are on a sheet of ice in Antarctica. Penguins are jumping up on to the ice around us. You can’t imagine you will ever experience this EVER.

They kept us entertained for so long, the Leopard seal was long out of our memories. It was sadly time to head on to shore and explore Brown Bluff a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

The bluff is home to thousands of Adelies, many more than we had seen anywhere. It was quite the sight, but most exciting was that there were many chicks there, all about a week old, so there were lots of little grey fluff balls hiding under their mothers and fathers. But given they were 7-10 days old, they were being shown a lot more and being exposed to the elements.

 

There was also the odd pair of frisky penguins doing there thing. Just like in the Attenborough documentaries!

 

Also on shore were quite a few bones, including an almost full skeleton of an Emperor penguin. It is unclear how it would have made it here, but I can now say I have seen an Emperor.

We only had a quick shore visit and then it was time to head back to the boat (via another ice landing). It had been a full 3 hours out and about.

As mentioned, the plan was to head to Paulet Island, but a little way into the journey a message came from the bridge that we were not going to make it. In our path was huge amounts of ice that we were told would be almost impossible with an ice breaker, let along our ship. It was incredible to just see the impenetrable ice in our way.

So yep, we simply had to turn around and chart a course to a new place. We were told it would be a few hours of sailing to get to our next destination, Hope Bay, so many folks went for a nap. But those of us in the lounge were about to leap to attention.

 

Word got out of a whale, so a few of us wandered out for a look. To our excitement, it was not just a whale in the distance, but a large group of Orcas (i.e Killer Whales) in front of the boat. And they were not scared of us. In fact they wanted to show off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What happened for the next hour or so was euphoric. The whole ship was a buzz with the appearance of these gorgeous whales, coming right up to the ship, showing off, and causing us all to run in all kinds of directions up and down, left and right.

People were yelling out and screaming everywhere. A few of us were even starting to get a bit emotional at it. Seeing a dozen killer whales only meters away in the wild will do that.

 

What we saw was most likely a group of female orcas with one male. The male was clear to see as it had a huge top fin that was easy to spot.

A word here must go to the Captain of our boat and Jonathan, our G Adventures leader. Rather than keep going for our destination, the captain kept the boat circling, allowing the whales to play with us and the boat. Damn Hope Bay, it could wait.

After an hour we had to keep moving to our destination, so off we went, leaving the whales in our wake. It was sad to see them drift off in the distance, but that could simply have been the absolute joy slowly dissipating. Wow.

On the way to our next stop, given everyone was up and about, Scott gave a lecture on Shakleton and his exploits. Man he was a hard ass in every sense. Such a courageous man and hard to fathom what he did given what we were experiencing.

 

We arrived at Hope Bay relatively late, but the intention was to still land. This was especially so, as the nearby Argentinian base had invited everyone to come and visit their facility which was very cool. This base was a bit different to others in that it was scientific research but with a large number of families on the base. Seven in fact, including 15 children. Because of this there was a school with dedicated teacher, a chapel, and many accommodation huts. The families actually stay a whole year, not just the summer. That is a helluva experience for those kids.

 

 

 

 

So we went ashore and got to explore some of the buildings. The folk were lovely, and even had a stamp for our passports which was very cool. They also had a makeshift store, meaning that I got another patch to signify my trip. It was here I got my first proper sighting of a lone Chinstrap penguin. These little dudes have been hard to find, but I finally got one on camera.

It was well past dinner time when everyone got back to boat. Another great thing about everyone in the G Adventures crew was that a dinner an hour or two late was no problems. Mmmm…. delicious Japanese food tonight.

Kate and I decided on a night cap in the Polar Bear bar, with the boat musician Blaise playing some tunes. Another Bowie song dedicated to us was nice and were the Blue Whale cocktails of the day. They went down easy.

And before we knew it, it was midnight.