As Skipper the Penguin from Madagascar said "Just smile and wave boys. Smile and wave"

---

After a great nights sleep, and the marathon bus ride the day prior, it was really nice to know that we were getting up to head out for a cruise on the Beagle Channel. Once again, we flung open the curtains to see beautiful blue skies, we really were blessed with weather for our entire trip!

We headed down to the local harbour where we boarded our cruise for a three hour trip around the channel. Our first destination was the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, famously touted as the southern most lighthouse in the world, even though there is another one further south (and if my memory serves me correctly to the east)! After growing up on the Shipwreck Coast, and seeing a number of lighthouses, I was expecting it to be similar to the one that all of us Warrnambool people have climbed at Flagstaff Hill. How wrong I was to be! This lighthouse is a mere 10mts high, however given that it is located on a small island, it does stand about 22mts above sea level.

From the lighthouse we travelled to another small island where a colony of sea lions have made their home. Finally we headed towards another island, where we got off the boat and wandered for a short time before making our way back to Ushuaia.

After a quick lunch, we boarded a bus to visit a penguin colony. Not knowing too much about the trip before we booked it, we were surprised to learn that we would have a 1hr 30min bus trip before boarding a boat which would take us to the island. After snoozing on the bus, we arrived and suddenly realised that the temperature had dropped a few degrees whilst the wind chill factor had increased dramatically. Nevertheless we boarded the boat, that was thankfully covered to protect us from the piercing winds and the splashing water, to see the penguin colony. When we arrived I realised we were in a very special part of the world - there were several hundred penguins on the beach to greet us. We had very strict rules to follow to ensure that we left no damage on the island and limitations on how close we could be to the penguins, but this is to be expected given that it is such a privilege to be on the island.

Our guide led us around different parts of the island, where we were able to see young penguins in the process of shedding their baby feathers, penguins calling for their mates, and penguins arriving back on the beach after swimming in the cold Atlantic Ocean. When we arrived at another side of the island, penguins were all we could see for the entire length of the beach. This trip was definitely worth it and one that I will always remember.

---