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Published: February 18th 2010
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ANTARCTICA
I went on a 12 day trip onboard the Polar Pioneer, to the Weddell Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula. Crossing the Drake passage from Ushuaia to the Antarctic takes about two days, and the boat leaves late afternoon and gets back early morning, so we had about 6 days on the continent. And it was fantastic!
We started off with what was apparently a gentle crossing of the Drake; 3-4 meter swells, sometimes up to 5, waves crashing and wind blowing. Most of us managed to fight off the seasickness with pills, but there were a few ‘new’ passengers appearing at lunch on the third day, finally able to get out of bed. By then we had reached the South Shetland Islands just north of the peninsula, and were ready for our first landing. Adding layer upon layer of clothing we stumbled into the zodiacs and made it to the beach on the Aitcho Island, being welcomed ashore by thousands of noisy, smelly and very entertaining penguins. This island had large colonies of gentoo and chinstrap penguins, later we also got very familiar with the adélies. These were ‘our’ three species - unfortunately there are no emperors or
king penguins in the area. However a lucky break gave us the chance to watch macaroni penguins on the tiny Chileo Islands south of Cape Horn on the way back.
We generally had two landings every day, sometimes combined with zodiac cruises in the area. Most places there were large penguin colonies, and seals relaxing along the beach. We would wander around freely for a couple of hours, and/or climb ridges and hills to some fantastic viewpoints.
On every landing naturalist Jenny Scott gave us briefings on where to walk and how to behave: typically stay off the green moss and keep a minimum distance of 5 meters to all the animals (no-one told the penguins though, so they would often waddle over for a closer look at our gumboots). Before the first landing all the cloths and bags we were to bring ashore were vacuumed, and our boots where cleaned and sterilized after each visit. No food or drinks other than water could be brought on shore, and no toilet stops allowed (had to get a zodiac back to the boat). I don’t know if we did any damage, but so far there is apparently little evidence
of negative impact by the tourist industry. The penguins don’t seem to give a toss - a study carried out at Port Lockroy shows a slight increase in breading success in areas with lots of tourists, probably because we keep the predator skua birds away.
We also went to some old historic sites - most notably Whalers Bay on Deception Island. This was originally a settlement for Norwegian whalers, and later a British scientific station, which was destroyed by a volcanic outbreak in the late sixties. The huge oil tanks for whale oil are still there, as a several buildings, boats and piles of old whalebone. The only active station we visited was Port Lockroy where a small shop sold maps and souvenirs, and we got send our Antarctic postcards.
One of the highlights on the Weddell Sea (east) side of peninsula was meant to be Seymoure Island, which is very rich in fossils. We had Dr Paul Willis on board who gave us lessons on fossils, and ABC was filming it all - mainly because Paul (also a science reporter on ABCs Catalyst show) had found a 5 kg meteorite on a previous trip a couple of
years earlier, and finally had all the paperwork done to collect it and bring it back to Australia. In the end Seymoure was blocked by sea ice though, so we could not get here (and ABC will have to show something else on Catalyst - penguins maybe?). We did have a fossil hunt on another island in the area though, and found some nice looking ones, but nothing new or interesting for the experts.
The Polar Pioneer is one of the smaller ships doing this sort of trip (about 50 passengers), which meant we could go to more places than larger ships and also get everyone on and off faster (some of the large cruise ships hardly stop at all). I was originally booked on another tour, which was cancelled just as a place became available on this one - lucky break as it turned out! 😊 The Polar Pioneer has a very good reputation, and we had a great expedition crew with endless enthusiasm and decades of Antarctic experience between them.
One evening I thought they were joking, as it was announced dinner would be half an hour delayed, and served as a BBQ on deck! Not
a joke though - cruising through the narrow Lemaire Channel with mountains and glaciers on all sides the music was turned up, silly hats distributed and excellent food served. Later there were more drinks and Russian drinking games (the boat crew was Russian) in between all the photo ops. Nice way to spend an evening!!
For those not content just to watch the icy waters, there was also a chance to jump in. On the southernmost point visited in the Weddell Sea a rather alarming number of crazy individuals jumped ship. It was zero degrees in the air and zero degrees in the water - none went for a very long swim…
All in all it was a fantastic trip! The wildlife is amazing, and you get so close to the action. Watching the penguins is like a little soap opera every time. But the most amazing is the scenery. I’ve seen mountains and glaciers in many parts of the world - but nothing like this! The fjords are lined with glaciers, as they hug the bottom of steep mountain slopes and tumble down the valleys. And then there are iceberg in all forms and sizes - some
dwarfing our roomy Polar Pioneer.
This will be hard to beat - pretty sure I’ve started my round the world tour with the number one highlight!!
😊
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Heidi
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Fantastiske bilder!!! Ser ut som det var en utrolig flott tur. Hvor er du nå? Koooos deg!! Masse hilsner fra Heidi M