The first outing this morning was to a Polish expedition base! Can I just mention how excited I am to be going to another Antarctic research base?!? After breakfast we climbed aboard the zodiacs and were off to the beach! This location is slightly different than the other locations because there is quite a lot of greenery. We arrived on the beach and were asked to go to the penguin rookery first. We carefully avoided the native grass called “Deschampsia Antarctica” and went to go look at some penguins. Along the way we saw a bunch of whale bones laying on the rocks of the shore. You can tell they had been there for some time because a lot of the bones were worn away by erosion and in some cases had moss or an algae growing on it. The walk to the rookery was fun because of all the different colored stones on the ground. When I got to the rookery, perched on a grassy rock above the path was an egg. We believe it is a penguin egg that likely had become a bird’s dinner… or an appalling golfer who missed the hole on the way to the green. After seeing the penguins, I walked over to the research base which was a cluster of a few yellow buildings. I walked inside where I was requested to remove my muck boots in the hall area. I placed my sunglasses on mine so I would know which ones they were.
The research hut is a pretty small wooden structure, but it was lined with teas and food for us to drink. I have been amazed by the hospitality of the research stations upon our visits. You would think that an area which has little access to supplies, would offer the guests snacks and beverages. It felt to me like the old saying, “give until it hurts”. I spent my time talking to one of the people stationed at the polish research station. I didn’t catch his name, but he is the IT guy there, and also a videographer. He’s making a self-funded video of his journey over a year in Antarctica. We talked for a while about what experiments the research station was doing. One such experiment was to put a dome over some plants and watch how a higher temperature effects them over several years. They also check glacier depth, and do all sorts of other experiments there. He explained that in order for him to come to the station, he had to do some psychological tests and apply like everyone else. He had only been in Antarctic for a few months but he explained how last year a Brazilian station had a fire which burned to the ground because they did not have the equipment to stop a fire. Their station acted as a salvation for some of the displaced people who were not injured while they awaited transport. He also mentioned that the replacement building is going to be 3 stories tall and take 3 years to build. I was surprised at how long that takes, but apparently it’s not a lack of labor or materials, it’s just going to take a while to build. He did mention that they had seen pictures of the foundation being poured so they will see how it goes. The Brazilian research base is 20 minutes away from the Polish base so they will occasionally do events together. They also keep in contact with the other bases as well.
After leaving the base I headed back onboard ship. I enjoyed the scenery and had a wonderful lunch while awaiting the next adventure. It’s hard to believe we only have one more landing left in Antarctica before we begin our voyage back to Argentina.
Our next landing is a smaller island near half-moon island- the location of our first outing. I dressed for slightly warmer weather because we were just walking around the island to watch the wild life. On the zodiac Chris asked what the name of the zodiac is called so I leaned back and called out “Degenerate”! Oops… nope! I have no idea what it said but it sounded like “Delagaus”… so that was a bit of a misread. When we got to land, I was hit by the instant stench of the penguins. The rookery we were visiting today was massive and the smell was overwhelming. When we were on shore, I nearly stepped on a penguin because it blended in with the rocks it was sitting on. The guides were there to assist us around the penguins if there was a lone penguin. There were easily 10,000+ penguins on the beach.
On the far side of the beach, surrounded by several thousand penguins, were seven elephant seals. A crowd of people formed to take pictures and watch the seals sleep on the beach. I took several photos of the seal in the vain attempt that it would begin to move. Finally, in hopes of finding fresh air, I walked up a small snow covered hill to discover a gorgeous scenery of the green moss material at the base of a sharp steep mountain. A snow covered mountain in the background reflected off of the pristine ocean water beneath it. I found a spot near the high point of the mountains which was extremely windy but produced fresh air to breathe so I stood and marveled in the scenery.
I decided to move when the wind started to blow up my expedition parka so I hiked down to another rookery near the water on the other side of the bluff. I watched several penguins steal rocks, and get in some pretty funny fights. One penguin was near the bottom of a slope and another penguin was at the top. It runs down the slope really fast, does a lap around the stationary penguin, then quickly nips the stationary penguin. The stationary penguin squawked and nipped back at the other penguin as he ran (waddled quickly) away- similar to Brad and I fighting…. Without the nipping.
After I had my fill of penguins, I walked back up to my fresh air spot and watched the seals from the hill. By now the seals had started to wake up and begin to wiggle their way over the rookery to a more comfortable position. Two of the larger seals began to fight by arching their backs, lunging at their chests at each other, and making barking noises- A sound reminiscent of politicians arguing. The sun peaked out from behind the clouds causing the scenery to glow. I shaded my eyes with my hand to continue watching everything around me. The wind was so cold it was blowing through my gloves, and any opening with a reasonable gap between the connections. My parka did a great job insulating, but my nose was still poking out for air. I stayed stationary until my hands were so cold I could no longer warm them in my pockets before deciding to go back to the ship.
I was in a zodiac with a few of the Australian girls and Marta, the expedition leader from Spain. Since this was our last zodiac trip we asked to be safe, but SOAKED. So she made a concerted effort to get us wet in the safest way possible. I had a BLAST. When we arrived back on ship everyone was laughing and covered in water. It was so much fun. From there we had the daily recap. Sitting through the last daily recap really sucks, because it means we’re about to head back into the Drake Passage back towards Argentina. To be honest, I’ve had such an amazing time… I don’t want to go back.
To make sure everyone has a pleasant experience on the Drake, a notice for anyone who gets sea sick to take their medications right after dinner to help with the experience. I went up to the bar to grab a quick drink and talk to the other passengers. Chris spent some time showing Kate how to play poker and amazing a group of us with some card tricks.
