Date: 13th Jan, 2011
Finally the day for the Antarctic continent arrived. The plan was to land at two places on the main continent - brown bluff and hope bay. The ship was stationed closed to a huge mountain which is at the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. It was pretty cloudy with low visibility. We dressed ourselves in lots of warm layers and hit the gang way to load the zodiacs. Due to constantly changing weather conditions we were informed to make this a short landing for about 1hr only. Brown bluff has some nice rock formations which are beautifully covered with yellow lichens. We landed here and immediately made our way to the sharp icicles that seem to be melting because of summer. There were lots of these hanging at the base of the glacier along the coast. The right side of the island was home to 2 species of penguins - Adelies and Gentoos. We walked on the little rocks encountering sparsely spread out colonies of the penguins until we arrived at a big one. It was amazing to see a lot of penguin chicks nourished by their parents. We could rarely see any penguin chicks unguarded from the predators such as Skuas. The Adelie penguins like marching along the beach forming long lines until they come across a right spot for jumping into the water. They tend to stick together even while hunting for fish/krill in the sea.
I was so glad that we could get at least an hour landing time on the actual Antarctic continent amidst bad weather. I had planned to propose marriage to Andy on this special continent that is also my favorite. Here is an opportunity to make it the most memorable too. I did pop the question going down on my knees with a solitaire in hand at around 10am amidst penguins and light snowfall. She accepted and here are some after engagement pics.
The Gentoo penguins were hanging out away from the sea just below the rocky mountains leaving the region close to the sea for the Adelie penguins. It was quite windy and these penguins nest behind the rocks to keep themselves warm. We could also spot some albatrosses scouting the scene to salvage any dead birds. The wind was blowing hard and it also snowed a little bit while we were walking back and forth on this landing site. This is the first time we had set foot on the seventh continent and many fellow passengers wanted to take of their shoes/socks to step the actual foot here. The kayakers were having a good time after paddling their way from the ship to the coast. Apparently it was difficult to navigate for them in these strong winds and they were constantly pushed towards the coast. They got a bit of both kayaking and landing experience and seemed extremely happy. Shortly we had the expedition staff chasing us back to the ship so that we can get to the next landing site quickly.
Next stop was Hope bay which is located very close to Brown bluff in the Antarctic sound. Sound is the term used to describe a strait or passage between islands. The ship did sail close to hope bay but the captain could not manage to anchor it due to the heavy winds. We had to abandon this landing and move on to our next destination which was carefully picked based on the direction of the winds and the protection offered by the surrounding mountains. As we moved along the Antarctic sound we could see a large Agentinian base station called Esperanza at Hope bay. It was quite foggy but still nicely visible due to sunshine. The sea was getting rougher due to the winds and this means less food to avoid sea sickness symptoms.
In the late afternoon we arrived at an island called Madder cliffs with calm waters surround by huge glaciers and abundant wildlife. Seemed like a perfect spot for zodiac cruise. We headed out to the madder cliffs to spot some Weddell seals and penguins on the cliffs. There were lots and lots of Adelie and Gentoo penguins walking on the glacier to reach the top of the glacier to their nests. It was quite a scenery to see black dots spread all over the white ice that covered the mountain. David who was our zodiac cruise driver was enthusiastic to heed to my request to get closer to the glaciers. This is quite a brave thing to do because the glaciers can break away and fall into the ocean causing huge waves that can topple our zodiacs easily. Seeing these glaciers from close is the true Antarctic experience in my opinion. The weather was great with abundant light to snap away at these glaciers. We were also greeted by some Antarctic terns but no whales which apparently hang out close to the glaciers. After our close encounter with the glaciers we had to head back to the ship. It seemed like all I needed was this zodiac cruise to complete the missing piece towards a true Antarctic experience.
Back on the ship the sunlight was so good to capture some great shots of the glaciers surrounding us. We went to the deck followed by a visit to the captain's bridge to enjoy this beautiful scenery. Very soon all the zodiacs returned back to the ship and we set sail northwest towards south shetland islands. There were lots and lots of ice bergs scattered all over the sea.
There was a special pre-dinner event planned to raise awareness about "save the albatross" initiative. Lynn proposed 3 toasts before the auction started - to pristine Antarctica, to all of us whose friends and family asked "why go to antarctica for holidays?" and never quite understood/appreciated the beauty of this wilderness and to the crew who made this all happen.The ship staff auctioned off 6-8 items and all the proceeds were meant to fund the initiative. Duncan did a great job auctioning these items quickly one after the other while we sat at our tables sipping champagne and enjoying the show. It was fun cheering the bidders. After dinner we spent some time at the bridge spotting whales until sunset. It was a beautiful sunset with the sky turning completely orange that looked like somebody set it on fire. Many of us tried to capture this scenery when this orange light hit the huge tablets of ice bergs that created a fantastic effect.
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