Back to Antarctica

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Back to Antarctica.

Beyond this flood a frozen continent

Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land

Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems

Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice...

MILTON, Paradise Lost.





It was the best of crossings it was the worst of crossings.

The Drake Passage is a rite of passage for most people visiting the Antarctic and it is usually a bumpy, stormy passage. We got tossed around on one of the crossings as a Beaufort Force 9 slammed the sides of the vessel – truly spectacular waves hammering over the bow. However, our southbound voyage was a tranquil, peaceful passage with the company of the majestic fin whales and the mighty albatross.

I love the sea. I love being followed by the great wanderer.

It’s great to be back down here.



Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and most mountainous of the seven continents – it is also the least green. However, there are two species of grass, several moss species and a few hundred types of lichen. Often overlooked, I have been exploring these simple-yet-complex areas of vegetation. Antarctica is essentially completely white and covered in ice, but its frigid edges have snow-free areas and a surprising amount of greenery. Hardly a forest, but by Antarctic standards, that’s what it is – a forest of green in an emptiness of white. I crawled around these micro-forests, they are lush and they smell like spring!

The Gentoos dominated the show as usual. I didn’t notice the smell of the guano as much, not even the squawks and squabbles. I noticed the harmony between predator and prey. The south polar skuas and kelp gulls are forever trying to grab penguin chicks and penguin eggs – everyone has to eat. There is a gory side to watching penguins getting attacked and killed –but this is raw, untamed nature.

Interpreting the Antarctic emptiness is a challenge. This blog, with only a few words and a few pictures hardly does justice at all. It is a special place – one that words and pictures cannot describe…

Dave.

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Comments

[Elaine White]

Dietary intake:
David, do you have any idea of the staple diet of the crab eater seal?

[D MJ Binkley]

Well said
So few words and yet the message was received. Always love your blogs.