Amin's Adventures

The day started just like yesterday, a bit of birding on a noticeably colder and windier deck. A colleague fell as he stepped on a water slick that had iced over. At breakfast the waiter said “look outside”. And there was our first look at Antarctica!

The ship continued to wend its way towards Half Moon Island for the afternoon’s adventure as we gazed at one incredible landscape after another.

We were designated as the Wendell Seal group and our time to visit the island was 4:05. We tried to kill the time but our excitement overwhelmed us and we donned our warm gear an hour ahead of time, which necessitated us staying outdoors or cook.

We were called exactly at the time scheduled and boarded a Zodiac for the short trip in. However, we had left too soon, as a “plunger” blocked our way into the landing spot. It seems to be quite a thing to strip down to a swimsuit and dive in. We were now cold as we waited and the wind cut into us.

once on shore there was a beeline made to the nearby Gentoo Penguins, photographs taken. Then up the hill with the help of a trekking pole as we had to traverse a foot of snow. At the top we were told of Wendell and Crabeater Seals to our right, a great viewpoint for everything to the left and up, and the penguin highway to the left.

Off to our right we couldn’t see the seals, until someone pointed out that the large rock ahead of us was a Wendell Seal! The crab eaters were the rocks quite far down from us.

We proceeded to the outlook area and gazed up at the Chinstrap colony and down to a breathtaking landscape. There were also colorful rock outcroppings that were colored by lichens.

Off to the penguin highway where Chinstraps were traveling up and down the steep hill. I have a funny video of one of these poor penguins climbing down the hill. To say that these animals aren’t meant to walk would be an understatement.

The Gentoo Penguins were just visiting, however the chinstrap Penguins are nesting here and one of the partners has to make the long downhill trek to the sea to get food for the female and young (once they hatch) and the long climb back. Meanwhile the predatory Brown Skuas were hovering over the colony, trying to steal the unlatched eggs and the penguins squawked loudly to fend them off.