Chris1984

Pretty cool stuff, will try to read it all tomorrow during work Already loving the pictures haha

Chris1984

Got some more pics:

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Live #74, Paradise Bay, Antarctica



29/03/2015 Perfect weather conditions allowed us to enjoy the breathtaking landscapes at Dorian Bay and Neumayer Channel. So far, we had only visited islands and were now very close of setting foot on the actual continental landmass of Antarctica for the first time. Thick sea ice blocked our entry point at Neko Harbour though and forced the captain to find another spot for us to land on what would become the seventh continent for some of the passengers. Missing Australia, it was just the sixth for me personally

Although it was not possible to get to our original landing point at Neko Harbour, none of us was unhappy with the alternative that the captain provided instead: Paradise Bay! Just hearing the name, one would actually not be suprised if it would be the superior location. And in fact, it was a great one. Not only was the entrance into the bay fabulous, but we would also have some very spectacular glaciers nearby too. My first stop was the Argentinean Station called Brown. Gentoo penguins would watch us as we stepped on the continent of Antarctica for the first time. The weather was still perfect as we were climbing up a viewpoint in the thick snow. It was actually really pleasant to be here out of season, the snow completely untouched and just sharing the amazing landscape with the ~80 tourists on our ship.

Once we made it to the top, several groups started to build snowmans. The russians also used the steep slope to roll down of it. I am pretty sure they were still a little bit drunk, I never saw them not drinking on board the ship! Another very interesting interacting happened right next to me: A guy kneed down in the snow in front of his girlfriend to offer his engagement ring. It was literally a pretty cool spot to propose Most of the wild life concentrated down at the Brown station though and as usual, the penguins provided our daily portion of entertainment. The sun would slowly disappeared behind the clouds while we were waiting for our Zodiacs to bring us to our last location of the day.

And it was a pretty good one! Passing by some cliffs with nesting birds and a lot of bird poo on the way, we reached a really nice glacier and got very close. The clouds dominated the sky now, but just when my zodiac reached the glacier, it actually peaked out and the light was shining just on a tiny roughly 3 meter long spot at the edge of the glacier, such a cool sight! It looked as if someone from up above wanted to point something out. However, we could not see anything other than ice and soon after had to retreat again, cruising along the ice bergs on the way back. My hands started to get really really cold very fast after taking all the pictures, forcing me to shut off my camera and warm up my hands in the pockets. It turned out to be a bad timing, because just 20 seconds later, a huge portion of the glacier calved off into a newly born ice berg, creating a wave that lifted up our zodiac boat.

Getting closer to the U/V Ushuaia, I could not believe my nose but the crew actually set up a huge outside BBQ on the deck of the ship with the wind pushing the smell towards us on sea! I spent a good amount of time in Argentina already and knew exactly how good their asado was, so I could not wait to get back and receive the first Choripán as an appetizer for the upcoming steaks for dinner Talking about the ship, there was one question I received regarding sea sickness. Most of the people actually took some pills and some of them still got sick. I had no problems at all without taking anything, actually I never got sea sick in my life! But the ship was indeed moving quiet a lot at times and you had to make sure to hold on to the railways and be a bit careful while using the doors to get outside – some people actually injured themselves with those before. Nothing happened in our trip so far though and after this great day in sunny weather, everyone was happy and filled up with lot’s of meat from the asado before getting back to their cabins. We would have two more fulls days to explore Antarctica before it was time to head back home again through the Drake Passage.

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offerendum

Can´t see enough of this pictures^^^

fly7b2

Breathtaking photos! One of my favorite TRs so far.

Definitely reconsidering whether or not to bump Antarctica closer to the top of my destination list!

Chris1984

You should do that!! Whats your top3 on that list so far if I may ask?

Chris1984

some more pics:

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deuce1

Really enjoying the report.

Question for you, have you gotten any feelings from the occupants of Antarctica regarding ecotourism? Are they welcoming to the new faces?

Chris1984

You refer to the ppl working on Antarctica? Well, the ones we met were friendly but didnt care too much about us either, I think they enjoy more working on their projects without showing tourists their rooms

Chris1984

And the last pics from this update:

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The Picture Gallery is up already for the next part, I will publish the text and start to put the highlight pictures in here tomorrow

2015/03 Antarctica, Part 5: Cuverville Island, Foyn Harbour

Chris1984

Live #75, Cuverville Island, Foyn Harbour, Antarctica



30/03/2015 Day 6 on Antarctica started early again at 06:30 with a delicious breakfast. We would have our coldest day so far and be surrounded by at least 20 whales while attempting to strike another landing at Cuverville Island.

After a lot of blue sky and sunshine in the last days, we were now surrounded by a thick layer of low hanging clouds, covering the icy peaks around us in mysteriously looking fog. I really loved the atmosphere and it was a great contrast to the previous days. We could also spot some humpback whales in the distance, occasionally pressing out water through their blow hole, but sadly never really appearing over the surface. It was freezing cold this morning and thoughts of staying in the warm bed rather than waiting for the Zodiac to venture out into the cold Antarctic Ice were present, but obviously, never really pursued. On the beach, the Expedition Team briefed us on the main attractions to be taken that morning: One to walk north to overlook the entrance to the Errera and see the busy Gentoo rookeries there and then another at the opposite end of the beach to overlook icebergs and more penguins.

Cuverville island contains the largest Gentoo rookery in the area and at an earlier stage of the season, we would now face a horrible smell from all the penguin poo. Luckily for us, it was freezing cold and most of it covered in ice or snow. We had to be pretty careful walking around on the icy patches and observed the Gentoo penguins minding their own business. This usually involved just standing around and watching at us, sleeping, swimming, lying down, eating or even disco dancing their muscles. Some of them grouped up in a small pool at the shore, having a little pool party while others joined us to stare at the ocean when groups of humpback whales came by to show a glimpse of their body. Again, they would not emerge further unfortunately, but it was certainly nice to have them around!

Some chicks were present among the penguins as well, looking pretty funny with their Iroquois hair style. And of course, we also had some seals around again. This time though, we had to be a bit more careful though because they seemed pretty aggressive according to our crew. So we watched them fight it out between each other from a safe distance while the penguins came to check us out. My feet got really cold after a while and I decided to head back to our Ship. Basically, we had the freedom to stay a bit longer or shorter in each place if we wished, because enough zodiacs (six in total I believe it was) were always around and waiting for passengers to pick up – pretty good organisation and the luxury of using a small Ship as well! Watching the amazing icebergs around us in the zodiac as we were brought back, I couldn’t wait to get inside and warm up my body.

Back on board for 11:30, there was not much time to warm up. I spent around 15 minutes inside before people starting to yell that we were having whales around, so of course, I was heading out again as well! All around the ship were humpback whales performing: sleeping, tail lobbing, rolling around lazily and slapping their fins in the water. I could count around (20!) whales around us, all of them humpbacks, some bigger, some smaller but most of them pretty tired as it seemed. Everyone was out watching around for over an hour in the still cold day, I was switching between the outside deck and the inside to stare out of the window while warming up my hands. At some point, the action increased and some humpbacks were actually jumping out of the water, right at the bow of our ship! It was so amazing to see it in this landscape, and I really would have loved to capture it on pictures as well. Sadly, my Sony A3000 was really much slower than my broken A6000 and messed up with the auto focus, denying me the shots.

The crew called for Lunch and no one went in to eat. The whale show was exceptionally exciting and I was pretty sure that they would keep the food warm for us. We would navigate into a snow storm soon after, abruptly ending it though. While the passengers enjoyed the great lunch, we were approaching our next stop: Foyn Harbour. Instead of a landing, we were supposed to have a Zodiac tour to get super close to the whales. To my big disappointment, it was cancelled though due to lack of time and poor visibility. So we sat at anchor, in silky seas, with pale grey light all round with occasional patches of low visibility in snow flurries. Most people now finally retreated to their cabins until another whale was sighted. After hours of watching them in the cold, nearly everyone stayed inside now though. I didn’t, in the hope to get some more good shots done.

Later on, I joined the presentation about whales and played a round of chess with one of the guys on the ship while the snow storm around us made sure that we could not see a thing. Around 18:00 though, it cleared up and put the scenery in an amazing light. One side of the Ship was highlighted by the last pieces of blue sky, while the other turned into a pinkish orange light, producing a breath taking evening panorama. At 20:00, we started our night-long sail through the Gerlache Strait and parts of the Bransfield Strait towards the South Shetland Islands. As every day, the crew would let us know what we would do the next day and for tomorrow, it really sounded great: We would pass through Neptune´s Bellows into Whalers Bay for a morning landing at Deception Island, the caldera of an active volcano.

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