Icebergs, Land, and Penguins
Icebergs, Land, and Penguins
By Blog.Admin
Today was a bit rougher in the Drake, the winds got up to Force 7. The ship handled it fairly well. There were only a handful of people who were completely laid up with seasickness.Our first iceberg sighting was just before noon and Linnea was the spotter! After that it was another couple of hours before we saw more, and then they kept coming. Our goal was to try and get a landing in this afternoon or evening. Because of the winds we were slowed down a bit, but we did make it! During an early dinner, we started to see penguins swimming alongside the ship. Then the anchor was dropped and we all scrambled to get into our gear.
On shore, the penguins were right there near the landing! It was very exciting to see them up close and in the wild! We hiked up a little hill to see more rookery areas and saw a King Penguin as well. He looked a bit lonely in amongst the Gentoos and Chinstraps. After photo taking, everyone who wanted to take a hike headed off across the snow to hike to the other side of the island. It was a bit slow going at first and since everyone had been cooped up on the ship for the last few days, most people chose to do the hike. It was quite funny to look back at the line of yellow jackets hiking across the snow!
On the other side, we saw several young sea lions who were snoozing together on the beach. They were in the process of molting and looked rather itchy. Skuas and broken eggshells rounded out our wildlife sightings. Most people chose to hike back as well; it was much easier now that the trail had been trampled down! It was a fabulous way to cap off a relaxing day on board! The talks were informative, we got our boots sorted out, we ate (the food is pretty good!), and then our first landing!!!
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