Antarctica cruise

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Sunday. At breakfast we saw World Navigator, an Atlas ship, nearby, We dropped anchor at Petermann Island in the Wilhelm Archipelago. On one side was a range of steep mountains with a large glacier. On the other was our shore destination, a large field of snow surrounded by rocks populated by many gentoo penguins and some skuas. While boarding the zodiacs to go ashore, a whale surfaced nearby. We landed near a small red building, a refuge hut. Large patches of the snow were pink, some green, due to the presence of algae. Nathan and I followed the set path to the right as it began snowing, where we were able to see an Adelie penguin and chick near a couple of cormorants among many gentoos, pointed out by Lancy, the ornithologist. I got a few good shots of scua, others were ruined by the falling snow. There was an empty penguin eggshell lying in the pink snow, either an old one that had hatched, but more likely one that had been eaten by scua. We climbed up to a pass with a view of a bay, dubbed Iceberg Graveyard, filled with icebergs blown there by the prevailing winds with no exit. It began snowing more heavily and I headed back, leaving Nathan to spend more time enjoying the scene. Waiting to board the zodiac a penguin walked right by me after hopping down from some rocks and I got a video of it.

In the evening we discovered that we had won the lottery for camping ashore overnight the next night. I was apprehensive, Nathan was elated.

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Comments

[Shara]

Enjoying your trip thru your blog and photos...
Did you camp ashore the next night?

[WilliamAtkins]

sleeping ashore
Yes, we did. It was wonderful. Let me know if you didn't get that entry.

[D MJ Binkley]

Petermann Island
Stunning photography.