Blowin' to Brown Bluff

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Saturday 20th
Another early wakeup call from the expedition leader (I have figured out his actual title). Baby emperor penguins off the port side. Great, that means I can grab my shades and watch from my bed! But I was up and ready to start another excellent day in the land of penguins and icebergs; and that was what this day was particularly full of. From breakfast, the boat maneuvered its way through iceberg alley, which is just off the coast of Snow Hill and Seymour Island. Apparently, the emperor penguins breed not far from there, and as it is summer time, the groups break up and use the ice to drift out to sea. “BOOM!” The front of our boat smacked into an iceberg. “Whish,” the ice started churning and kelp spit into the air. “BOOM!” Another iceberg. Everyone on deck shook as though an earthquake had started beneath us. But the captain continued through the ice, as though to show off his vessel, and maybe also to buy time before we picked up some scientists that were dropped off earlier in the day.
The iceberg alley tour was really incredible though. We were totally surrounded by blocks of ice that were perfectly cut into rectangles, like giant tables. Other icebergs were shaped like, as my uncle put it, “Garfield,” or as my dad said, “the sphinx and the pyramids.” I have to admit I saw what they meant.
Later in the day, we visited brown bluff, our first official landing on the actual continent. To put my excitement to rest, we had a presentation before we left which explained to us about the ice that covered “the big ice.” In fact, the Antarctic peninsula was only tied to the main land by ice. If all the ice melted, the peninsula would be an island. Oh well, all that ice isn’t melting so soon. I’ll count it.
So, brown bluff was another penguin rookery, with more adelie penguins and even a small group of gentoo penguins (the ones who look like they’re wearing headphones). After a short walk along the beach, we headed up onto a glacier. The glacier was our ladder to an incredible view of the Antarctic sound. From up high, we got a great panorama of the mountains, with probably a couple hundred feet of snow built up on top, the massive icebergs, and the boat. One iceberg that I pointed out to my uncle, because it had a nice dark blue cave in it, calved on our way down the glacier (which I later learned). At that moment, I remembered hearing a loud rumbling noise, but thought nothing of it. So much is foreign here that my mind must have accepted it as another unknown. But sure enough, looking back toward that berg from the boat, it was gone.
Also spotted a whale during dinner, but from rumours going around the boat, we are 100% garunteed to see one tomorrow. So as it’s late and the boat begins to rock its way back to the Shetland islands, I’m ready for some sleep.

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Photos

Top of the Glacier
What a view