"i'm suffering from sensory overload".... said Joe

We got up very early this morning, because we had been told that we would cross the Neumayer channel.  We hesitated about getting up that early (this is a vacation and the beds are very comfortable!), but then the captain got on the PA system and told us that there was a large pod of killer whales very near the ship – that got us out of bed very quickly (at 5:45am)!  It was worth it!  In fact, it would have been worth it, even without the killer whales– because the landscape was so breathtaking in the morning light: 

But  seeing a large pod of killer whales,  repeatedly coming up for air as a group of 6 or 8 was the real treat.  Unfortunately – not easy to catch a picture of, because by the time you’ve noticed them and gone “wow!”, they are back under the surface.  This is the best Joe could do:  

But we got to enjoy them for almost 1 hour.  There was also a humpback whale, which did great dives, and we got a spectacular view of its tail- again, this will have to be kept in our memories, because I was not caught on camera….

After about one hour, we got on our way to Port Lockroy, which houses 4 people who stay there from November till March.  They are part of an English Foundation that preserves Antarctica’s history, and have a little museum and post office right there.  We did send a couple of post cards, but they only pick mail there a couple of time per season….  So not sure when or if  they’ll make it to the US (Claire and Emily – let us know if they do…..). The little museum was very charming, and brought to life what it must have been like during whaling days  (there were a lot of “pinups” painted on the walls, given us a good insight into what the sea man spent most of their time thinking about when they were not risking their life on small boats to catch whales.

The very small harbor was host to a couple of sailboats today – apparently, sailing in Antarctica is in – and you can rent the entire boat, which comes with the skipper, to sail you around this most remote continent.   




Note:   Port Lockkroy was named by a French explorer- he named it “La Croix”, but the British whaler who took it over could not pronounce it – thus Lockroy)

 Of course, the entire thing (museum, gift store, living quarter for the 4 nice women who are spending 4 months there) is completely surrounded by penguins (have I mentioned that I love penguins?) – in this case, Jentoo penguins (note the distinctive red beak, and white markings above eyes).

 Penguins have a very tight schedule when it comes to building a nest and breeding – the chicks need to be able to function on their own before the end of March, because then the adults need to molt and that takes all of their energy:  during the molting process, they cannot go to sea to feed themselves nor their chicks.– so it is sad too look at some of the smaller chicks, and wonder if they’ll make it – let’s send some grow-fast thought their way!   (Here are 3 of them who have set up nests on a big rock , and an entire family:  Mommy, daddy and chick).

 The penguins again seemed oblivious to our presence , and just went about their own business.  

  These 2 are posing nicely, so that anyone who looks at it can’t help but ask:  “ why are penguins' back brown or black and their front white?  The answer is simply “because evolution is just an amazing survival tool":  this pattern makes them almost invisible to all predators when they are swimming:  From above, they look like the color of the water (dark), but from below- they just look like light coming from above anyway – making it easier to escape tiger seals!  Isn’t evolution grand??

In the afternoon, we first went to another island, slightly to the south, did some easy hiking (amongst penguins, of course), and to watch the view from above.  My problem is that I am rapidly running out of adjectives to describe what we see:  how often can I use “amazing”, “beautiful”, “magnificent”, etc…. it is going to become repetitive very quickly.

“Other-worldly” may be a better one – because the landscape is so different from anything we have ever seen.   At some point, Joe just said:  “I’m suffering from sensory overload” ….. Which is a good description of how it feels to be surrounded by so much to see, everywhere we look.

And even though a picture is worth a thousand words, I still cant put enough pictures in this blog to accurately describe what we are seeing.  But here is just a small sample:

 This is a blue iceberg - Very old ice turns blue because the compression squeezes out the oxygen bubbles that disperse the light and make snow look white.  The color of the iceberg is very similar to blue cotton candy- it looks almost fake.

 Left is a penguin (could be either male or female, they take turns feeding the chicks) regurgitating today's catch directly in the mouth of the chick (the chick is the grey blob - it looks like the larger penguin is trying to swallow it whole - but that's not what is happening.

This is the view from the top of the rookery.

 We met this lone Adelie penguin (note that  his beak is shorter and black (the Jettoo have red beaks and white markings above their eyes).  The ring around the Adelie penguins' eye is light blue.

 These are Skua bird, who are constantly harassing the penguins, trying to steal the eggs, or even the chicks.  The adults penguins do a good job shooing them away, but we still saw a number of broken eggs - the remnants of Skua attacks on the trail.
(I have a great video of the penguins defending the nest, but not enough bandwidth to upload it now)

 We also met some seals, relaxing on ice flows.

And some beautiful icebergs

The wind/rain/erosion have dug a hole through this one, making the different shades of blue clearer.





There was a bit of excitement this afternoon, when one of the passengers fell from the Zodiak – in the 32 degree water:  the zodiac hit some ice, and he back-flipped out of the boat.  He is OK!  But I think we will be hanging on the ropes a bit more tightly tomorrow – when we are going hiking on the actual continent (until now, we have been on the islands line it.