Antarctic Adventure

[orlcam88]

Beautiful stories and photos. I'm planning on getting popcorn for the next instalment!
As I would never venture out into that type of weather, I'm enjoying it in the comfort of heat. Anything that requires more than 3 layers of clothes is too cold for me. Maybe in my next life I'll be able to withstand the cold.

btw, Del Fin Del Mondo mean The end of the world. Not sure if you knew as I didn't see a translation (or I missed it).

Thank you for sharing.

[Markvetnz]

64deg 41min South 62deg 37min West





After yesterday I wonder whether today will be any different or better. Even though I kind of expect more of the same, I am surprised to find that every place we go to is different and seems better than the previous one. This is a popular spot on the peninsula. I get some neat shots from the ship of the kayakers departing and paddling between the icebergs. This place is landscape heaven. I’m able to get some vistas of the bay and use the wide angle to good effect. Nowhere is the contrast between pitch black water and electric blue ice more stark.





There are thousands of Gentoo Penguins here. They claim any rocky outcrop and busy themselves going around collecting and pinching pebbles to make nests. I can watch them for hours. They are so comical. I don’t think there is a creature so ungainly on land and dynamic in the water. They literally fly underwater. The acceleration and speed are breath taking. Groups of them swim about, porpoising in and out of the water. They are almost impossible to photograph because I can’t predict where they are going to break the surface and they always seem just too far away.





Penguin guano has a rather nasty odour which I can smell from a long way off. “Eau de Pengwaan”. I lay down in the snow to take a few shots of them and I couldn’t get rid of the smell off my clothes for a few days. I was ordered to leave them out the cabin for a day or two, or risk total banishment.



I’ll let these shots speak for themselves. Tomorrow we’re heading further south.

[Donald]

I’ll let these shots speak for themselves.

They just keep getting better.

[Mike Buckley]

This last series of landscapes and penguins is my favorite so far. Looking forward to the next series.

[jeeperman]

Great stuff, Mark.

[rpcrowe]

I love your imagery... It gives me a chance to see the conditions in an area which I will never visit!

[easternlight]

Great pictures, enjoy the story

[Markvetnz]

Although we didn't see an abundance of wildlife other than birds, we did get to see occasional seals. The Leopard seals always seem to be facing the wrong way but the others always obliged.


A Weddel Seal enjoys a good joke.


Weddell Seal


Southern Elephant Seal - Livingston Island


Leopard Seal




Give us wink baby






Big Brother


Old Crabeater Seal - notice decaying teeth and many old scars

[Donald]

Wonderful.

I hope that you will (maybe at the end), give us a piece on the photographic experience; i.e. the challenges (if any) you found in photographing in this environment - cold; dealing with all that white stuff; how all the gear handled the weather; etc. I'm sure it would be of interest to a number of us.

[RockNGoalStar]

That one is ruddy superb!

[Markvetnz]

Wonderful.

I hope that you will (maybe at the end), give us a piece on the photographic experience; i.e. the challenges (if any) you found in photographing in this environment - cold; dealing with all that white stuff; how all the gear handled the weather; etc. I'm sure it would be of interest to a number of us.

Will do Donald.

[Markvetnz]

That one is ruddy superb!

Thanks Tommy

[Mike Buckley]

This last set is really nice but the one that Tommy noted is Nat Geo material.

[tbob]

Really gives a sense of forboding and how potentially dangerous this area is. Scenes like this must have given men in small wooden ships a deep chill in the soul.

[jeeperman]

I am right there with Tommy and Mike, that image iswhat wildlife photographer strive to achieve.

[Markvetnz]

Petermann Island

65deg 10min South 64deg 08mon West

After leaving Cuverville Island we head for our southernmost destination, Petermann Island. Although we don’t cross the Antarctic circle, we are so far south that it doesn’t get dark at all. A kind of twilight persists from about 11.30pm till 2am, after which it is just normal daylight again.



Our trip south takes us down the Gerlache Strait, Butler Passage and into the magnificent Lemaire Channel. In the Butler the ship literally slices its way through extensive sea ice. It’s a magnificent sunny day (which makes photography even more challenging – very hard not to overexpose the brilliant white snow) and we see a few really big icebergs. As the Butler slowly narrows the sea ice becomes less and less and the weather closes in. Most of us are out on the bow. Despite the sunshine there’s an icy wind in our faces.



As we approach the Lemaire Channel, surely one of the most spectacular passages in the Antarctic Peninsula, Don tells us about a lady of leisure famous in the area’s earlier whaling days, after whose buxom breasts the two tall mountains guarding the channel’s western approach are reputedly named. As we approach the entrance to the channel the mountains and glaciers get closer and closer making it hard to believe that our ship will find her way in. We enter the channel and a glance back to the entrance makes it clear why the aforementioned peaks were so named. Their rounded tops were separated by a magnificent “cleavage”. The pitch black water of the Lemaire was millpond calm. Massive peaks and glaciers were reflected on either side like faces in a mirror. The only disturbance being an occasional group of penguins. I spotted a Minke Whale leisurely breaking the surface. Regrettably we don’t see Orca or larger whale species.



The ship dropped anchor near a massive glacier. Blocks of ice stood at odd angles like the Manhattan skyline gone wrong. In time they will topple into the sea to form new bergs. I would love to see a giant berg break away from its parent glacier. Until you see the sheer size of these ice mountains you cannot understand the power and forces that produce them. It’s hard to actually fathom the real size of the glacial faces because we have no man-made object to offer scale and perspective. I estimate that some of them are hundreds of meters thick! As a berg melts, its centre of gravity shifts and the whole massive structure capsizes, revealing a beautifully sculptured underside. I can only imagine the sight. It was for this reason that Shackleton refused to encamp on icebergs. He knew them to be inherently unstable.



We make land on Petermann Island. The usual penguin odour greets us. A weather beaten Argentinian Naval refuge shed provides protection for breeding Gentoos. The refuge hut was built in 1955 by the Government of Argentina. It is intended for travelers who need shelter from the harsh Antarctic weather. This hut has been used several times, but the most famous was in 1982. This hut is a reminder of the fragility of human life in the Antarctic. A cross stands as a memorial to three British Antarctic Survey scientists who disappeared in the early 1980s. They hiked across the pack ice for several miles in the hopes of climbing a nearby mountain. They were turned back by the weather and took refuge in this hut on Petermann Island.



There was (and is) food and water in the hut to last for at least fifty days, and the three scientists took up residence, while remaining in radio contact with their base, a mere 6 miles away, but impassible by ship or on foot due to poor ice conditions. After about 30 days, the men were not heard from again. Their station mates were able to reach the hut after about 50 days and the men were not to be found. It was clear that they had been at the hut. The rescuers found their journal, which indicated that the three men had taken off across the ice to get back to the station. They have not been heard from since. (ref waymarking.com)





An uphill trudge leads the to the only colony of Adelie Penguins we see on the trip.

We leave Petermann at about midnight and head back up the Lemaire. Paradise Harbour tomorrow.

I take a photo of my watch at 12.20am in the twilight. I fall asleep to the tune of diesels humming, amazed that each place is totally different and just keeps getting better and better.


Personally I think this is my image of the trip. It has everything. Life, death, nature, human presence and frailty,size and scale. Notice the massive ice serac in the mountains above the ship.

[Mike Buckley]

There are some really amazing images in this most recent set. I agree that the last one has "everything" in it, but there is a mystical quality about the first one that keeps drawing me back to it. The scale, detail and composition in the sixth one is also wonderful.

[Donald]

65deg 10min South 64deg 08mon West

The location references are very helpful for those of us undertaking this journey on Google Earth. Fascinating.

[Nicola]

what experience, what pictures...
I'm watching and watching again your work!
thank you for sharing!!

[Markvetnz]

PARADISE HARBOUR – 64deg 48min South 62deg 52min West



After yesterday I thought I’d seen it all. This morning we wake up in Paradise Harbour, one of only two spots in Antarctica where cruise ships anchor. We are surrounded by the biggest glaciers we have seen to date. Huge ice cliffs loom ominously into the bay which is filled with brash ice, growlers and larger icebergs.


After breakfast we head off in a zodiac and make land at Almirante Brown, an Argentinian research base. As usual the snow is super deep and we have a bit of a job getting onto land. The local Gentoo colony is restless and agitated. The penguins should already be on eggs but the snow is too deep. I climb up a steep snowbank and take some shots of the bay. I take a few long exposures but the results aren’t great.



The rest of our mob all managed to “bum-slide” down a deep snow bank before we head off for a cruise of the bay. I finally manage to nab a shot of a zodiac at the base of a glacier and manage to give the image some sense of scale.



The birdlife in the bay is prolific. I am lucky to get an action shot of a pair of Skuas having a go at each other. It’s probably my best bird shot of the trip.




Port Lockroy – 64deg 49 min South 63deg 30min West



In the afternoon we cruise through the beautiful Neumayer Channel and make our way to Port Lockroy, an old British base. It is maintained by a charitable trust purely for historical sake. There is a museum, a small shop and a post office. Our passports are stamped here.

The weather today is stunning. There’s a cold breeze on the bow, but the sun is shining and the sky is almost cloudless. There is yacht at anchor in the bay. I don’t know if I’d like to sail such a small vessel in these waters with so much ice about.




We land on sea ice at Jougla Point. I’m hoping to get some shots of a whale skeleton but it’s pretty much snowed under. Once again Gentoo penguins wall to wall and a blinking leopard seal that is facing the wrong way again! At the base we spend an hour or two chatting to the four volunteers on duty.


Taken in freezing weather at about 11pm


Taken well after midnight

Back on the ship some hardy souls take the “Polar Plunge”, a ritual swim in the zero degree water. We even have a skinny dipper! That evening we enjoy the most spectacular barbeque on deck. The best possible scenery, blue skies, sunshine, no wind, good company, fine wine, a few beers and you guessed it some Argentinian beef. I have been to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Milford Sound, Table Mountain and a few other iconic sites, but nothing will ever top this Barbeque.




Not a bad spot for a summer BBQ

We have been so lucky with the weather. It can blow a 50 knot blizzard here for a whole week and that wouldn’t make for too much of an enjoyable time.


Fisheye fun - our leader Don