This is where Ernest Shackleton left for his amazing 800 mile journey across the furious fifties in a small boat to reach South Georgia Island seeking help to rescue his crew. What a desolate place. Can you imagine being trapped here for months? Just you and your crew, nothing to eat but penguins and seals (if you could catch them).
approaching Port Wild, Elephant Island
We’d been learning more about Antarctica every day of the cruise so far. The ship was equipped with a science lab with microscopes where we could examine plants, minerals, plankton, etc. Our expedition team fed our interest in Shackleton and the other explorers (Roald Amundsen, Fritjof Nansen, Scott, etc) with films and lectures. There were plenty of books in the library as well.
We nosed our way into the small bay, up against the Endurance Glacier, with ice all around us. This was our last stop in Antarctica (technically only Orne Harbor was really part of the continent). We didn’t attempt to land.
Endurance Glacier
We could see a colony of chinstrap penguins and a monument to Piloto Pardo, the Chilean Navy Captain who managed to rescue the 22 men Shackleton had to leave behind there. His story and his tug Yelcho should be better known.
Chinstrap penguins
I find all that history fascinating and admire the abilities of those guys back in the days of exploration. The determination, stamina, courage, skills to do the things they did. Not just Shackleton, not just the Arctic or Antarctic explorers, but all of them: Columbus, Magellan, Cook, etc.
I think there’s something in human nature that needs that kind of wilderness- that frontier- that kind of challenge to look forward to. We need that kind of ‘escape valve’. It seems we’ve rid that from the world. I feel it myself. A loss of possibility. All we have left is space. I think it’ll be even more of a challenge, but will we find the capability to explore it like we did the earth?
We left Cuverville Island last night after everyone got a chance to go ashore and have a quick zodiac cruise among the icebergs. My group (the giant petrels) was one of the last, the sun was starting to go down so it was getting cold and the light really sucked for getting photos (besides zipping around on the zodiacs too fast to get a decent shot).
Southern Giant Petrel
We made an early arrival at Deception Island to pierce the narrow entrance through Neptune’s Bellows. I watched from my room since I wasn’t dressed to go out yet.
It looked like another dreary day. Overcast and cold, but at least not too windy. As we made our way into the volcanic caldera enroute to our landing site at Telefon Bay, we passed an old whaling station on our starboard side. I would’ve loved to go exploring there, but all these landings in Antarctica are very strictly controlled.
I really hate being restricted like that, even tho I can certainly understand it in a place like Antarctica. It’s still relatively free of the effects of mankind and I can see why so many people would like to keep it in the (almost) pristine state it’s in today. I agree, I do think the world needs to keep at least some true wilderness. I guess I’m a hypocrite since I really would love to see all of those places myself someday too.
On arrival at Telefon Bay, we waited our turn for the zodiacs to come for our group. Landing on the beach was very smooth this time. The bottom was mostly gravel rather than the usual rock and ice. Sit on the side of the zodiac and hop off. Easy. 🙂
Some people were really getting into the spirit of things, and jumped in for a Polar Plunge. I have to admit, I was too chicken to do it myself. I think I’ve watched those hypothermia videos too many times at work to take a chance of giving myself a heart attack like that. I put my hands in the water, just to see, it was freezing! (Not literally, but cooooold!).
Not far from our landing site, our guides had cordoned off a section of beach. There was a seal sleeping on the beach! I still can’t tell the difference between a crab eater seal, weddel seal and leopard seal. I think this one was a crab eater. This one was the only seal I saw ‘close up’ in the entire trip (still had to stay about 20′ away, but got a few decent photos at least). There were a couple of gentoo penguins further down the beach too, but all in all, this place was pretty desolate.
Deception Island is volcanic. Once you pass through the narrow channel of Neptune’s Bellows (only about 750′ wide), you’re floating around inside the caldera- on top of the volcano.
It is still active, you can see some of the steam coming out of the ground around the island . The last ‘major eruption’ was only in 1970. From the beach, it was a steep hike up to roam around the edge of the caldera. I was glad for the use of the hiking poles to help keep my balance.
Landing at Telefon Bay
The scenery was beautiful in a very stark way. All black volcanic gravelly rock and white snow, with a few small ponds full of colorful algae. I tried to walk over to one interesting depression, where the snow was melted, but our guides called me back to their marked off pathway (too bad).
Supposedly there are lots of seals, penguins and other wildlife around this island but I didn’t see any. Just the one seal, all alone on the beach and the 2 penguins nearby.
As we were leaving, we passed the Argentine base and then outbound through Neptune’s Bellows again. The weather brightened up late afternoon and really made the scenery sparkle.
On departure, we were met by a whale mother and calf (I’m not sure what kind). And flocks of penguins porposing through the water nearby. This was the first time I got to see whales fairly close to the ship (tho they were still at least 100 yards off). I got a couple of photos and some video, but wasn’t able to get anything decent. They were all too far off and moving too fast for a good shot. Can anybody tell what kind they are from my photos?
According to our onboard expert, you can send in photos and then identify the whale from an online database.
All in all, another fantastic day on the MS Roald Amundsen. I was a little sad that today was our last landing in Antarctica, but had to get over it and go enjoy another delicious dinner. At least I had another few days of great food to look forward to- and we still had to see the Falklands. 🙂
Here’s my entry for Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Hot or Cold Things. I was very lucky this year to go on a trip to Antarctica. I’ve been dreaming of a trip like this for decades. I had a fantastic cruise on the MS Roald Amundsen with Hurtigruten cruises. Here are a few photos. It was definitely COLD! 😉
We were very lucky with the weather so far. It was very changeable, but most of the time so far was pretty nice. Sunny without much wind. This was our first real meeting with “authentic Antarctic weather” according to our captain.
The weather eventually got better and it was more enjoyable to hang around and watch these funny little guys. More on that later…
When I woke up, the sun was shining. Everything looked fresh and new, the stark contrast of white against blue was strikingly beautiful. The world was a blank slate, empty of all but water, ice and snow.
The weather had changed completely from yesterday. We had passed through Lemaire Channel and found ourselves surrounded by the ice. Our captain decided to drive the ship up into the ice to give us a truly unique experience.
We crowded the decks to watch as the ship slowly ground its way through the flat sheets of ice. When we slowed to a stop, we waited anxiously to see if our expedition crew would find the ice thick enough for it to be safe for us to hop off and explore.
they look so tiny!
expedition crew testing the thickness of the ice
Yes! It was. We watched each group head down the gangway to stumble around on the fresh packed snow, staying within the area marked off with the usual orange cones. My group- the Giant Petrels- was not one of the first. The snow was already pretty torn up by the time I was able to exit the ship.
It was so empty, so quiet. Nothing to see, for miles around, but us and the ice and snow- with far off mountains hemming us in. I did see the tracks of a couple of penguins, but there were only 2. I kept wondering where was all the wildlife I’ve been expecting to see. So far, I’ve only seen a couple of seals (far away), and some gentoo penguins.
It was hard to walk around, with the snow melting into slush and so the ‘ground’ was very uneven. Everyone was wandering around, taking selfies in the snow with the Roald Amundsen in the background.
Today we made history! This was the first time in the history of Hurtigruten that a ship drove into the ice and we got to take a walk on the sea ice! So exciting. 🙂
After a beautiful day at Orne Harbor, we woke up to a more ‘typical’ day for Antarctica. So far, we’d been lucky finding nice weather most of the time. It changed quickly tho. We picked up our hearty campers, then headed on to our next planned stop at Neko Harbor (Andvord Bay).
Campers got to spend the night at Orne Harborwe can just barely see the campers from the ship (far right in the photo)The end of the red line is Orne Harbor. Around the corner to the South is Neko Harbor at the bottom of Andvord Bay. At the bottom left corner is Port Lockroy.
On arrival, we were met with high winds, rough seas, snow and very cold. There was a lot of ice in the water and it kept moving around. The zodiacs would have a hard time shuttling us back and forth to shore. After checking it out, the captain decided that the weather was not going to allow us to go ashore as planned.
too much ice for the zodiacs!
Expedition cruising, even more than normal cruising, is dependent on weather and other local conditions. You need to be flexible. It’s best to have the attitude of looking forward to whatever the day may bring and forget about being upset about what you might’ve missed.
We sailed on towards Damoy Point and Port Lockroy where we were scheduled to go ashore to the historic site run by the British. It has a museum and the only post office on the continent of Antarctica.
you can just barely see Port Lockroy middle left of the photo, we could just barely see their people waving with the binocularsseals on the ice, taken from my cabin- I’m not sure if they’re weddel or crabeater seals
Sadly, the weather was still too bad for us to go ashore. I would’ve liked to send some postcards home with an Antarctica stamp. We did drive by and we all waved at each other. Brave people, to stand around outside in that kind of weather to wave at our ship.
On we went, to cruise through the Lemaire Channel. The weather was still pretty nasty for a little while. Howling winds, snow and cold! It felt like about 20 below, but I don’t think it was actually below 0 F. It was the wind that really made it feel cold.
The scenery was spectacular. We made our way through the channel filled with pancake ice, the sharp tips of the mountains peaking out of their coats of snow, glaciers calving off large chunks of ice into the passage alongside our ship.
The passage narrowed as the day went on. The wind died down, the snow stopped and the sun came out. I sat in the lounge with it’s wrap around floor to ceiling windows and just watched the world go by. Towards sunset (around 9 pm- it didn’t get dark until about 11), we passed through the narrows- only 1600 meters wide. The sound of the ice scraping along the hull of the ship was loud enough to be heard everywhere onboard.
In my room, I fell asleep to the low pitched background sound of the sea slushing along the side of the ship and occasional bang of a berg as we came out the South end of the Lemaire Channel to find our next adventure in the morning.
