2 posts tagged “awesomeness”
We visited Arctowski, a Polish research station in Admiralty Bay of King George Island. Not far from the landing site, we were welcomed by a Chinstrap Penguin and a few metres on a young Sea Elephant was dozing away and even yawned at me as I took a few pics. There were Adelie (most of them) and Gentoo Penguins, too and they were just utterly cute. On my way back to the landing site I got "trapped" between two groups of penguins and had to wait for five minutes until they had waddled on. Wonderful. Got a badge from the "souvenir shop" and I intend to do so at the other stations we visit so they will make up for the missing print on the jacket.
I'm also glad I put on all those clothes (long underwear, shirt, fleece, windbreaker jacket, lined trousers, hat and hood) as it is rather cold down here, especially with the windchill.
The journey to our next destination was quiet but foggy so not very interesting which meant I found some time to write almost all of the postcards I intend to send from Port Lockroy tomorrow.
The ship stopped at Greenwich Island, specifically Yankee Harbour at around 16:00 and the first boat group went out half an hour later. The landing was wetter than the first one as you had to wade through some water (just shy of the top of my rubber boots) but it was no problem at all.
The island was host to three colonies of Gentoo Penguins and a family of seals who were sleeping by the beach. Many of the penguins had chicks, some older, some very young and it was wonderful to watch their behaviour, feeding the chicks, fighting each other, fighting the always present and ready Skua or just wandering back and forth to the sea. There was a lonesome Chinstrap penguin, too who looked a bit lost amongst all the Gentoo. The various types of penguins share living space but they don't interbreed.
All in all, a truly awesome day. It's been building up constantly and if this was just a taster for things to come we're really in for a treat.
Words can't adequately describe what or even how I feel right now. It was like being live in a nature documentary by David Attenborough, only the voice-over was missing.
In the early morning we were shipped out on a local tender and then got onto a bus which took us to the National Park.
Before even entering the park proper, we spotted a condor sitting in the pampa by the side of the road, no more than 30 metres away. It minded its own business and then took off very gracefully for a creature of that size (wingspan of 3.2m).
On we went for a few minutes only to spot a whole group of condors sitting on a rocky bit further away.
There were some Nandus, too but we had seen those more clearly and closer on the way to the Otway Sound penguin colony so they weren't that interesting anymore.
And then, the highlight: a whole herd (flock? I'm not sure what the collective word is) of Guanacos, right there beside the road, the closest not further than 15m away or even closer. There were at least 30 animals, maybe even 50, including a large number of young one who couldn't have been older than maybe a week. A wonderful and utterly awesome sight. We spent at least 15 minutes there and I got a number of brilliant shots, including a sequence of one male (assumingly the dominant one) chasing another (impostor?) across the hill and back again.
All the while a condor was circling over the herd on the lookout for any weak or sick ones. As one of the lecturers told me, they will finish off a still living animal that's fallen and can't get up again or is sick etc. so they won't just go purely for things that are already completely dead.
On went the journey into the park proper where we spotted a grey fox at one of the vantage points. The weather was clearing up more and more the further we went in and we soon had bright sunshine, just the very top of the mountains were still in clouds, including the landmark of the region, the Torres themselves. They wouldn't come out later, either but all those animal sightings more than made up for it.
There was lunch at the Hospitales by Lago Grey, in which icebergs from the glacier drift along lazily and then the long drive back with various stops on the way when more animals were sighted. We also saw several Karakaras (large birds of prey who also feed on carrion), Magellan and Koroskovia Geese and finally, back in Punta Arenas, black necked swans who look similar to our swans, just as if they'd dunked their heads and necks into a pot of ink...
Ferried back to the ship, it was time to relax a bit and watch the anchor being weighed.
We are now on our way to Porto Williams, our next destination, again passing the Kirk Narrows on the way, which I won't miss this time!
