Sunday 15th January 2012 - En-route to the Weddell Sea Overcast with some bright sun

So last night at the dinner briefing we were told that plans have changed and we are no longer going to the South Orkney Islands and instead heading straight down to the peninsula in hope of seeing some Emperor Penguins.  Apparently there have been massive storms and they want to make sure we get to the peninsula because if we go via the Orkneys, we are likely to get caught and not make it to the peninsula.  The down side is we have another 48hrs at sea before we get to land again.  I felt a bit queasy last night but managed to sleep for 12hrs so feel much better today.  I’m a bit disappointed we are not going to the South Orkneys but seeing Emperors would be cool.  The ice is retreating and some of the Emperor’s habitat is disappearing so hopefully we get to see them.

I went to Dag’s lecture on ‘Why did Scott die?’ which was interesting as are all his lectures.  We have another passenger slideshow on tonight so I gave Bruce 5 of my photos.  This time I couldn’t find Tom so make them look better so they will be shown exactly how I took them, which in some of the photos, is quite dark.  Oh well, again, I’m not out to prove I’m better than anyone else like the professionals are.  I sat with some new people at lunch today in the smaller dining room and we have established they are the youngest on this ship at 30, followed by Nico and Brigette at 33 and then it would probably be me.  For the most part majority of people are nice.  I am still finding that the Australians, Brits, Swedes and Swiss still hang around together and generally avoid many of the Americans – who don’t understand any of our jokes.

We found out immediately after lunch that there was a 6.7 earthquake not too far from where we are so it will be interesting to see the follow on effect and if we will experience any big waves.  I attended Doug’s lecture on Antarctica – Adaptions of Seals and Penguins but skipped the rest because the bar/lecture room is so depressing.

So now is probably a good time to talk about the ship.  It has 6 decks and the bridge.  The pleb level is 3 which is the one I’m on.  It’s quite warm down here compared to the more expensive rooms on levels 4 and 5.  The bar/lecture room is at the bow end of deck 3.  There are no windows in there and its quite rough so most people start feeling sick fairly quickly in there.  There are two dining rooms on the 4^th deck.  One is much larger than the other and its near impossible to get in and out of the tables because they are so close together.  I’m usually the first in line for breakfast and lunch so usually get a good seat on the end where I can get up and leave when I want, not when others start to move.  Breakfast and lunch are buffet style and dinner is a sit down 3 course meal.  We get to choose between meat, fish and vegetarian for diner.  Most meals have been quite good, although some have been a bit average.  Apparently the head chef had to train the entire Russian crew of the ship how to cook.

Level 1 has a gym, sauna and plunge pool, although there is no water in the plunge pool.  I’ve not used the sauna but a few people have.  The 6^th deck has the library and you can go up to the bridge from the 6^th deck inside or outside on deck 5.  Generally most of the people are ok.  Some are a bit clicky but thankfully there aren’t too many snooty people.  The Americans are still the butt of all jokes.  The main people I hang around are Mandeep from London, Baltz, Gille, Nico and Bridgette from Switzerland, Thomas and Camilla from Sweden (poor Thomas is 6”10’ and can’t stand up anywhere inside without hitting his head on the roof.  It must be so uncomfortable for him), Lisa from Canada and Matt and Laura from Australia.  My room mates and I are spending more time talking to each other in the cabin and appear to be one of the only cabins who are getting along.  Some other people are really clashing with their room mate/s.

The staff are all great.  They are so knowledgeable in their own field of expertise and can answer any question you throw at them.  It’s really quite impressive.  Doug and Gail Cheeseman who set up the company in the 80’s plan to retire after this trip but their son, Ted who is our Expedition leader will take over full control of the company.  Doug is hilarious.  He’s a nutter but so intelligent and funny and it’s impressive to see him out driving the zodiacs and doing lectures at 74yo.  I’ve only seen the doctor once and that was when I first got on because I still had a saw throat and blocked ear.  She gave me these massive penicillin tablets, about 2cm long because I had tonsillitis.  I’ve not had it since I was in school, but have had it about 5 times on this trip so far, so not sure why.  Thankfully the antibiotics cleared it up within a week.

I’ve been sleeping so much on this trip but so does everyone else.  Someone said it’s because of the motion of the ship that it makes you tired.  I can have 3 sleeps a day and then still sleep a full 10hrs through the night only waking a couple of times.  It’s a weird feeling.

Saturday 14th January - In the Scotia Sea en route to the South Orkneys Overcast, some snow and choppy seas

We got a sleep in this morning because the clocks went back an hour (yay!).  It’s a travel day and because the seas are still quite rough they only put on a handful of lectures today.  I only attended two – Joan Boothe – a passenger on the ship who has recently published a book called ‘The Storied Ice’.  She spoke about a Swedish Expedition to the Antarctic, and Rod on the Antarctic and photographic techniques.  Apart from that, I slept a good part of the day.  As yet I have not got sea sickness, although sitting in the lecture room you start to feel queasy which is why I only attended a few of the lectures.  Tom Murphy asked if I could have a look through some of his photos to help pick a selection for a calendar, but that was postponed because he wasn’t feeling well.  Someone threw up in the hand basin in the ladies toilet overnight which consequently blocked the plumbing so our hallway has smelt quite bad most of the day.  That really hasn’t helped how I feel so I spent most of the day in the library.  I did sit up on the bridge and did some whale (Fin Whales) and dolphin spotting.

Friday 13th January - Drygalski Fjord & Cooper Bay, South Georgia Overcast most of the day with patches of sun

With a 0555 wake up call it was an early start with a ship cruising at 0600 into Drygalski Fjord for 1½ hrs.  It was quite stunning, even though it was overcast.  I started on the bridge but soon moved out to the bow where it was blowing a gale, snowing lightly and freezing cold.  Mind you, I wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion.  I had my sandals on without socks and only three layers.  We passed many great geological land formations, glaciers and icebergs and I saw my first Weddell Seal and Snow Petrels.

 

Then it was breakfast and cruising to Cooper Bay.  It was quite windy so we had to go around Cooper Island to get into the Bay.  The beach was tiny in comparison to other places we have been and it was crowded with Fur Seals.  I went straight up the hill to the Macaroni Penguin colony and tried to take some photos but there were too many people there so I headed back down to the beach and went zodiac cruising instead.  I’m so glad I did because there were hundreds of Fur seals playing in the water and riding our waves and we saw some chinstrap Penguins, nesting South Georgia Shags, Mantled Sooty Albatross courting and Antarctic Terns.

 

We headed straight back to the ship for lunch and set sail for the South Orkney Islands.  They managed to pop two more zodiacs whilst putting them away so hopefully they will be able to repair them and the other two popped yesterday before we get down to the peninsula.  They decided not to put any lectures on in the afternoon so we could enjoy the view of the bottom of South Georgia and catch up on sleep and sorting photos.

 

Thursday 12th January 2012 - Gold Harbour, South Georgia Sunny with huge winds

This morning was suppose to be an early start with a 0530 landing, however, the ship broke anchor during the night so they had to relocate into Gold Harbour proper and the winds were so extreme that we couldn’t land.  So after getting up at 0445 I went back to bed, after first looking out the port hole and seeing the amazing landscape of Gold Harbour and mentally noting that I should have gone and taken a photo but was just too tired to go beyond my bed!  I then got up at 0630 and went and had breakfast before returning to bed again.  At 1000 I finally got up and the sky was still blue and clear but the wind still hadn’t died down so they put on some lectures.  Ideally they would have relocated the ship and gone to an alternate location but it was too windy to even do that, so we were essentially stuck where we were.  I only went to one of the lectures on ‘Why birds migrate’ by Marco.  We had lunch on the ship and for dessert we had chocolate mousse.  It was so good I ate everyone at the tables who didn’t want it (I’ve been told I eat the most on the ship because most nights I ask for an additional main meal and any of the chocolate desserts I as many as I can…the Swedish couple have also told me they have nicknamed me ‘yummy’ because apparently I say it before I start eating at every meal).

At 1400 we started landing at Gold Harbour.  I was out on one of the first zodiacs and our landing was on a black sand beach again covered with King and Gentoo Penguins, Elephant Seals and Fur Seals.  I didn’t get past the Elephant Seals for the first hour.  They are so hilarious to watch.  They burp, fart and scratch and roll around like giant fat blubbery slugs.  These ones were only juveniles but wow, they are still so huge.  They all line up in a row and flick sand over their bodies to keep cool.  Watching them get in out and out the water is tiring.  It takes them so long to wriggle their way down to the water but once in, they are unstoppable. 

Tom did a photographic workshop which I only stayed for the first 20min because a lot of it I have already done with him one on one.  Hugh led a hike up the mountain so I went on that along with half the ship!  Initially we had to snake our way through the tussock grass and all the resting seals before getting out onto the low vegetated hills.  I only went ¾ of the way up with Zoe – far enough to get some lovely views over the harbour and then turned back and went to the Light Mantled Sooty Albatross nesting site.  There were three birds on the side of a hill nesting.  Occasionally you got to glimpse a fluffy grey chick.  From there I snaked my way back down through the Fur Seals and back to the beach to go and watch the King Penguins in their colony.  Many of the birds were incubating their eggs.  Unfortunately I didn’t see an egg exchange, but certainly saw enough couples with eggs waiting to exchange.  Just as I was returning to the landing site I stopped to take a photo of a couple of King Penguins and suddenly heard the high pitched call of a penguin and looked down from my camera to find an adult King standing at my feet.  His beak came up to my elbows!  He was so cute and curious and just kept calling.  It’s so loud when you are right next to one.  He was too close to photograph so I just stood there watching him before he decided I wasn’t really responding to his call and he turned around and waddled away.

At 1900 we had to return to the ship and had dinner at 1930.  Thankfully these last few days they haven’t been putting anything on after dinner so we can get to bed at a reasonable time.

Wednesday 11th January 2012 - St Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia Morning: Overcast and raining; Afternoon: Sunny and windy

I had a brilliant night sleep and was up and to breakfast on time and out on the third zodiac at 0830.  There was an initial delay for departure due to strong wind conditions.  St Andrew’s Bay is stunning.  It has a 6 mile long rocky beach backed by grassy rolling hills and snow capped mountains in the distance with two large glaciers at either end of the bay – Heaney Glacier to the right and Cook Glacier to the left with several rivers flowing out from each glacier.  From the ship you could see thousands of King Penguins on the beach but as we got closer and closer the sheer number started to become apparent.  There was only a small area where we could get out onto land and apart from that, there were penguins everywhere.  There are 300,000 King Penguins at St Andrew’s Bay.  Initially I wasn’t too sure where to go because there was so much to look at but decided to head to the colony first with Mandeep.  It was raining so it seemed the logical thing to do.  It was a bit of a minefield trying to get there because there were penguins, Fur Seals and Elephant Seals littered all over the place.  We walked up and over several rolling hills and when we got to the colony; it was one of the most impressive sights I have ever seen.  There were penguins for as far as the eye could see and the low hum of their chatter was priceless.  

There were adults with eggs and fuzzy brown babies scattered everywhere.  We sat for an hour watching them and eventually the rain stopped.  At 1000 we headed back to the landing site for a photographic workshop.  It was with Rod and Tom but as everyone have their favourite photographers, Mandeep, me and three others ended up walking with Tom and our workshop went to 1300.  We learnt a lot about composition and how he decided what to photograph.  We decided to head back to the landing site to pick up some lunch…and again, there were no vegie ones left so I ate a biscuit and watched the penguins surfing.  Tom had another workshop at 1430 which I started at but there were lots of people who haven’t been to any workshops yet so they were asking a lot of questions that Mandeep and I have already covered so we decided to walk out to Heaney Glacier.  It took so long to get there.  We passed a herd of Reindeer with babies with them and large pools of water filled with penguins.  We never quite made it to the base of the glacier because it was a lot further than what it appeared and we wanted to get back to the colony to watch the penguins.

We cross countried across to the colony, getting dive bombed by a Skua along the way and eventually made it to the colony.  I sat there for a couple of hours watching penguin politics.  They all nest quite close to each other and have to walk a very long way to get to the water to feed and along the way they get pecked and flipper slapped as they walk the gauntlet to get to water.  The breeding pairs alternate incubating the egg so many of the nesting birds have their mate next to them waiting for the egg exchange.  The pouches are amazing that they incubate the egg in.  It makes them look like they have a beer belly.  Eventually the wind got a bit too much so I headed back to the landing site.  Along the way I stopped and watched the elephant Seals in their wallows (they are such beautiful animals) and watched the juveniles going through their major moult.  They are quite skinny because their parents are no longer feeding them and they can’t go out and feed until they have fully moulted so they look a bit ragged compared to the feeding adults.  The fuzzy babies are just hilarious.  They look like they are wearing a huge fur jacket and they are really fat looking.  They look like a kiwi fruit.  Then there are others who are loosing their down and getting their real coat and they have fluffy scarves, fluffy jackets, fluffy headwear.  It’s so cute.  Some of them just follow their Mum around pecking at her for food and occasionally she’ll just flipper slap them and keep walking.  I put my tri-pod down to take a photo of one of the moulting penguins and when I picked it up, one of the legs fell off.  So I will see if I can take it back to the shop I bought it from in Buenos Aires and hope they give me money back.

Once back at the landing site I just sat and watched the penguins sitting on the shore and the few brave ones that venture up to the bags and where you are sitting and look at you and try and peck your feet and then they’ll suddenly turn around and waddle away back to where their friends are.  The wind really picked up so I decided to go back and caught the second last zodiac back to the ship at 1820.  It was a very choppy ride back and took ages to clean the boots because there was so much poo on them.  Dinner was at 1900 and because I didn’t eat lunch, I was so hungry.  I ate so much and managed to order an extra main.  It was so good.  I returned to my cabin straight after dinner and repaired my tri-pod with a paper clip and some gaffa tape and went to bed.

Tuesday 10th January 2012 - Hercules Bay & Grytviken, South Georgia Morning: sunny with some cloud; Afternoon: overcast

What another fantastic day.  I had a perfect night sleep, as I have most nights, although last night we didn’t sail anywhere and were anchored in a sheltered bay.  The ship pulled anchor and moved around to Hercules Bay first thing.  Breakfast was at 0700 and boarding zodiacs at 0800.  The scenery was spectacular.  Steep sided cliffs with lots of folding with Macaroni Penguins, Fur Seals and Elephant Seals spread out around the cliffs and on the small pebbly beach.  There was a lovely waterfall that was quite a long drop and the top of it was lost in cloud most of the morning.  The plan was to send out 3 zodiacs to one landing, 3 to another and the remaining 6 out cruising.

I went out on one of the first zodiacs and went to landing site near Hercules Point.  It was only a small area but wow, so much to look at.  It was great that there were also only 24 people there.  I watched the elephant Seals for a bit before heading to the Macaroni Penguin highway.  They are such funny animals, only walking in groups walking down the hill from their nesting site, dodging their way past Fur Seals who chase them and then into the crashing waves.  Some chicken out when they get to the water and turn around and head back up the hill.  Many of the young Fur Seals were playing in the water.  There were two baby blonde Fur Seals.  They are really sweet except they never sit still long enough to take a decent photo of them.

After an hour there I jumped in a zodiac and went cruising with Tom as our driver.  We went out and around Hercules Point to some rock caves.  These were filled with loafing Elephant Seals and I got a great photo of a swimming Elephant Seals face with a reflection of our zodiac in its eye.  We saw one Chinstrap Penguin and some Sheathbills and a lot more Macaroni Penguins.  We then went out to the opposite headland point and saw an adult female blonde Fur Seal lazing on the rocks.  Then we went into the Bay proper and sat and watched the Macaroni’s going in and out of the water off the rock cliffs before going to the landing site next to the waterfall.  We all bailed out and then walked the steep hill to see Macaroni’s nesting.  I can’t believe how high up some of these animals walk just to nest but have to return to the water to feed.  It would be quite an effort.  I saw some fuzzy babies.  Mandeep and I walked back down the hill together and it was a challenging walk.  We slipped and slid down the hill getting barked at and chased by Fur Seals all the way to the bottom.  It was then time to return to the ship so it could pull anchor and start heading to Grytviken.

After lunch we had a talk by one of the managers of South Georgia on the ship whilst customs did an inspection of the ship.  The talk was really interesting.  She talked about the rat project currently taking place.  They have started doing massive baiting with the hope of eradicating rats from the island.  At the moment they are using the physical boundaries of the glaciers as baiting boundaries, but because it is a known fact that the ice is retreating, they need to get the program completed within the next four years otherwise the rats will be able to pass past the ice as it retreats.  Once they get rid of the rats, they will start removing the reindeer with the hope that the island returns to a more natural state of long grass and bird colonies will return in good numbers.  Two of the current scientific researches at the research station based at Grytviken also chatted to us about their projects – one on Fur Seals, the other on fish sampling and inspecting commercial fishing boats.

Once we had cleared customs we were ferried across to the mainland with our first stop being the cemetery where Shackleton is buried and as of a month ago, Wiles, Shackleton’s right hand man who now lies alongside him.  The staff handed out shots of Captain Morgan Rum for everyone and Dag did a toast to Shackleton.  From there we had free time to explore the area.  Again there were Fur Seals and Elephant Seals everywhere.  The whaling station was interesting.  The church has been restored and there is a post office which everyone crammed into.  It was just like having to queue in the post office at home at lunch time.  I visited the two museums, both really interesting and had great displays before heading into the shop.  Who ever designed all the stuff they sell in there really knows what people will want to buy?  Its one of the best gift shops I have ever been too and oddly enough, also one of the cheapest.  I bought a couple of small lino cut prints.

The area where Grytviken is quite spectacular.  They put the whaling station there because of the size of the bay to process the whales.  Now everything is falling down and rusting and all the Fur and Elephant Seals call it home.  There are three ships decaying in the port and all the processing equipment is still there lying around.  Again I caught one of the last zodiacs back to the ship.  At 2000 we had a BBQ on the deck.  It was freezing cold and sleeting.  Some of the research station staff and Museum staff joined us for dinner.  I was very proud of myself for staying outside as long as I did.  I have so many layers on trying to stay warm but things because difficult when I tried to eat my corn cob with gloves on.  When the snow started I decided to venture back inside and joined a few people at the bar.

Monday 9th January 2012 - Fortuna Bay and Stromness, South Gerogia Morning: sunny; Afternoon: overcast

Today was a great day.  After breakfast we started landing in at Fortuna Bay.  A large bay with black pebbly beaches, green grass and snow capped glacial mountains in the background.  I spent most of the day watching the King Penguins and their chicks and saw my first ever King Penguin egg.  The penguins were scattered all over the place fighting for walking space along with the Fur Seals.  There were quite a few glacial stream fed pools of water which were basically baby Fur Seal paddling pools.  There would have been at least 100 babies swimming and playing in one pool alone.  If you stand there long enough watching them they come out and stand next to you.  Some practice being big seals by growling at you but they are just so cute with their huge brown eyes and fuzzy coats.  The adults are a bit scarier to walk past because they do charge forward so you have to stop and stare them down.  It’s like playing statues half the time.  You stop, turn around and there will be a seal right behind you who will stop dead still and pretend not to look at you and then when you turn around again and start walking, they are running along behind you.  Apparently a few tourists have been bitten in the past few years so you have to have eyes in the back of your head to ensure they don’t nip you with the massive sharp teeth.

There were reindeer everywhere here.  I can’t believe I’ve seen reindeer.  They were introduced here and they plan to remove them in the next few years because they eat all the grass and basically remove the habitat needed for so many species.  I took some photos of them, although they are going through their moult now so they look a bit mangy.  I saw one baby blonde Fur Seal.  It was so cute.  I walked up a hill next to a waterfall, dodging Fur Seals the whole way up to see a Light-mantled Sooty Albatross nesting.  They are really beautiful birds.  The detailing in the colouring is amazing.  Getting back down the hill was a lot harder than going up.  The number of Fur Seals seemed to multiply and they really don’t like you walking past them.

I returned to the landing site and grabbed a packed lunch and then walked in the opposite direction to see the Elephant Seals.  They are so cute with their big blubbery slug like bodies and huge teddy bear eyes.  On the way back to the landing site I passed Doug who was trying to photograph some baby fur Seals but they were so curious as to what he was doing they started playing with his shoes.  It was so cute.

 

At 1400 they started ferrying those of us who wanted to hike over to the other side of the bay.  The beach was only small and again covered in Fur Seals.  I really needed to go to the toilet and asked Marlene, one of the staff where I could go so she directed me to a rock pool and some tussock grass, but when I got there it was full of baby Fur Seals so I didn’t go.  We set off on the hike straight up the mountain.  The hike was the last 5.5 km of Shackleton, Crean and Worsley’s epic self-rescue from the sinking of the HMS Endurance.  It was a lovely walk and we had a group photo taken at the top of the mountain, as well as eating several blocks of Cadburys chocolate.  I walked the whole way with Matt and Laura, the Aussie couple from Cronulla.  I managed to find a spot to go to the toilet, but at the same time managed to loose my beanie.  I was hoping someone behind would find it, but no one did.  So now I am without any head covering for the rest of the trip.

The staff was saying that in every past trip the walk used to be covered in ice and snow and they used to walk over the lakes because they were frozen, but now there was no snow anywhere along the walk.  Towards the end of the hike we had great views over the remains of the whaling station at Stromness.  We walked down to the waterfall where Shackleton went to get down to the bay to have a look.  Those who didn’t do the hike we transported around there by the ship.  Matt, Laura and I chose to walk up a hill to the bay (as opposed to walking along the river) and we came across a Gentoo Penguin colony right on the top.  There weren’t many penguins there, but they all had chicks who were hassling them for food.  One Mum just pecked her babies and ran away, but they persevered and followed her, pecking at her every time they got close enough.  We saw another herd of Reindeer and as we got closer to the bay and whaling station, the number of Fur Seals picked up to the point where you had to keep turning around to make sure you weren’t going to get bitten by one.  You can no longer go into the whaling station because it’s been declared an asbestos hazard but you could walk around some of the propellers that were on the edges of the station.  There were baby Fur Seals climbing all over the propellers and old chains.  It was like a Fur Seal playground.

I was on the last zodiac back to the ship at 1930 and dinner was at 2000.  After dinner we sailed into some of the other whaling station harbours (Leith and Husvik) to have a look.  It was a lovely day, although quite tiring so bed was a good option straight after dinner.