OUR ITINERARY ROUTE
Antarctica—Stunning Beauty and
Teeming Wildlife
Antarctica—Stunning Beauty and Teeming Wildlife
February 2020
How do you
describe the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen in the world when there are
no adequate superlatives? How do you
show the most beautiful place on earth to others when the camera can’t do it
justice? That’s the conundrum we face.
So, let’s
start at the beginning. After some long
flights from Maine to the tip of South America and 2 days of sailing, we
finally made it to the 7th continent, our 7th continent
of discovery. We transited successfully
through the infamous Drake Passage with only a few swells to rock the ship
gently, or, moderately perhaps? We
enjoyed some lectures about the seals, penguins, and other sea birds as we
prepared to explore.
The South Shetland Islands were the first lands to come into view. There, we experienced elephant seals and a few penguins. Most of the seals were either females or juvenile males, not the hulking big mature males that weigh nearly 4 tons and resemble a freight train car. They were lying together in heaps, occasionally raising a sleepy head to see what was going on with the red-jacketed tourists aiming cameras at them. At this time of year, the seals and penguins are molting—losing their old coats and preparing for their shiny new ones that will see them through the forbidding winter. So, most of them are a bit on the shaggy side.
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| Elephant Seal |
At Mikkelsen
Harbor, we visited a Gentoo Penguin Colony.
Along with the penguins, we noticed many whale bones and the remains of
a century’s old whaling supply boat.
Everything deteriorates extremely slowly here due to the dry, cold
weather.
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Penguin Feeding
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| Old Whaling Boat |
After having
made a comment a day or so into the expedition that it appeared our photos
would look as though they were taken in black and white due to overcast, gray
skies, the clouds disappeared to reveal beautiful blue skies, pristine white
glaciers and icebergs, and cobalt blue waters.
The result was a 360 degree panorama so beautiful and breathtaking that there was
absolutely no way to describe it in words or capture it with a mere camera. For most of the rest of our expedition, the
weather stayed gorgeous and very moderate—mostly above freezing. One day, the temperature reached 11 Celsius,
about 52F. The week prior to our visit,
there was a new high reached of 20C or 68F.
During
zodiac cruises around the bays and harbors, the sea came alive, teeming with
life. Humpback whales surrounded us with
their elephantine-like low moaning exhalations. Penguins were leaping like dolphins as they quickly
plied the water. And seals were sleeping
on the ice. The seals we’ve seen are so
huge, we couldn’t have imagined their size, as we are used to seeing much
smaller harbor seals in Maine. One of
our goals was to see and photograph a leopard seal, an apex predator of penguins. There have been some lazily stretched out on
the ice. They don’t move when we
approach and fire off our cameras.
Instead of the vicious animal we’ve seen in documentaries, these have looked
like smiling, friendly giants. Oh, for a view of those teeth!
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| Leopard Seals |
There was a treaty signed by several nations in 1959 agreeing to share and use the Antarctic only for research and peaceful purposes. We have seen a few research stations dotting the landscape. Yesterday afternoon, we passed an Argentinian station devoting its research to studying the leopard seal. And, we visited a Chilean research station specializing in selling postcards to tourists. There have been tiny huts scattered about that we learned are survival huts stocked with necessary items that can be used if a human is caught out in the elements.
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| Chilean Research Station |
As time went by, we viewed other varieties of seals and penguins. The crabeater seal is a bit smaller than the others. It’s named for crab-like teeth that interlock and allow it clench down on its prey. The Weddell Seal is a very large seal which spends much time under the ice. It keeps an escape hole open in the ice by sawing around the edges with its teeth. The last seal we viewed was the Antarctic fur seal. We kept our distance from these guys since we had been warned that they can be aggressive if disturbed.
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| Crab-eater Seal (front) & Weddell Seal (back) |
We’ve had fun watching three varieties of penguins—Gentoo, Adelie, and Chinstrap. Each has been interesting to observe and photograph. Our presence has not seemed to bother them at all. They just continue to do what penguins normally do--walk around using their signature waddle on tiny legs and big webbed feet. Parents arrive from the sea and feed their chicks, now nearly the same size as the adults. The chicks are distinguishable, because they are covered in their gray and white downy feathers which they are losing as their adult coats are developing. When the adults go to sea to fish, a group of them will stand on the rocks as if daring the first one to jump in the water. After the first one dives in, the others follow.
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| Adelie Penguin |
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| Chinstrap Penguins |
