A gorgeous day. Patches of sunshine, 6 degrees and little wind. Three excursions planned for today, so it was going to be busy. An early morning wake up call to tell us that there was a humpback whale near the ship got us out of bed, but it had gone before most of us got rugged up enough to go on deck. However, it meant that everybody was up in time for breakfast.
Our first expedition for the day was to Cuverville Island, a large hatchery for Gentoo penguins. There were high hopes of seeing lots of newborn chicks as they hadn't begun to hatch on the last visit, and we weren't disappointed. We saw eggs, chicks and, in one case, one of each which meant that if we had been able to hang around for the day we would end up seeing a hatching.
Then it was a zodiac cruise to look at the icebergs glinting blue in the sunlight, and the Waddell seal sunning on the rocks. Whilst doing that, a solitary (therefore adult) humpback whale came wandering past on a 6 minute dive cycle, so we got to see a couple of events. Finally back on board to warm up and have lunch.
The ship moved on to Neko Harbour during the lunch break. The harbour's chief attraction is that it's the first time we'd set foot on the Antarctic Penninsula proper, so everybody was keen to go ashore. For many, like me, it was the seventh and last of the continents to visit. It was also a Gentoo penguin colony with recent chicks, but the challenge for the day was to tramp through the snow to the top of the nearby hill to gain a great view of the harbour, nearby peninsula mountains and other features. Even saw (and heard) a glacier carving into the bay below twice during the afternoon.
The way down was different. Tobogganing down the side of the hill. Lot's of fun and much quicker than getting up, but unfortunately they didn't provide toboggans, so it was done on your backside, and you stopped when your jacket filled up with snow. The wind picked up at the end of the day, and we got quite wet coming back on the zodiacs, but not half as drowned as the expedition team who were waist deep in the water holding the zodiacs for us.
Dinner (the chicken or the salmon) then pretty much straight to bed, although dinner doesn't finish till 9:30, in anticipation of an early morning.
The web's original travel blog
