ANTARCTICA - A Real Adventure

One of the goals of the trip was to visit an Emperor Penguin Rockery. The plan was to anchor about 40 km from Snow Hill, travel by chopper to within 45 minutes of the rookery and then walk the remaining distance. Three days were allotted, allowing for three attempts. To get to Snow Hill we had to navigate through the Weddell Sea. We initially made good progress, but as we progressed south,  the ice pack became more dense and the water between ice bergs disappeared until there was nothing but solid thick ice. 

Our speed dropped from 25km/hr to 2 km/hour. The captain tried three different routes into the pack ice before concluding that it continuing on was impossible. The ice was simply too thick. 

It was disappointing to learn that we would be unable to make it to the rookery. However, it was quite extraordinary to experience the solid ice pack...... to feel the power of the ship's engine grinding forward,  to watch cracks form in the thick ice and to listen as the steel hull carved through the ice only to come to a dead halt.

In the Antarctic nothing is usual, every trip is unique. The weather, ice and wind change constantly. Our journey took us into the vast, empty solitude of endless pack ice, then to high winds with huge waves and finally to scenes of wind sculpted ice bergs under sunny, windless skies.

Our first views of the Antarctic Peninsula

Reaching the peninsula by zodiac

A beautiful day cruising the iceflows ......aka the calm before the storm.

The next day with high winds and waves crashing on the bow of the ship. This photo was taken from the Bridge with winds of 50 km/hr. The winds were as strong as 150 km/hr but no passengers were permitted on the bridge at that time.

Icebergs floating in and around the ship.  

Icebergs as viewed from the air while on a helicopter ride in the Weddell Sea.

A beautiful sunny day heading toward Discovery Bay 

Views of the crater and surrounding area on Half Moon Bay.

  

ANTARCTICA- Penguins

The penguins are definitely the star attraction of any Antarctic Cruise and it is easy to spend hours watching and listening to them.     

It was simply entertaining to watch then move, whether it was walking

sliding on their bellies

or jumping

The  most active are the Adelie Penguins and the Chinstrap  Penguins (48 cm/19" in height) The Adelies have black faces and beaks 

                                              

The Chinstrap Penguins have shite faces with a black strip under their chin. 

The Macaroni Penguin stands out with it's funky yellow hair and is slightly shorter at 45cm/18". 

This solo Macaroni has been hanging out every year with a colony of Chinstraps. At one time there were a few Macaroni couples on the island, but in the last several years this guy has been on his own. 

The Gentoo Penguins have orange beaks and grow to 53cm or 21" in height. They were the least active and were mostly sitting on eggs. 

The largest are the Emperor Penguins that were featured in the movie, "March  of the Penguins" 

Although we were unable to visit the Emperor Rookery, we did see a lone male on an ice floe. 

Two others were spotted but dove into the water before we could move in for a closer look. 

This is the season for mating and sitting on eggs.

We still saw many penguins singing for their mates or young penguins singing to attract their first mates. The ability to built a nice nest and having a nice song is what the female penguin look for in her mate. 

There were couples still in the process of building nests 

                                                                      

In the act of coupling.

      

 

And attentively warming the one or two eggs on the nest. 

The males and females take shifts sitting on eggs. When they are not on the eggs they are in the water eating krill and fish.......and getting clean in the water. 

We were not supposed to get any closer than 5 m from the penguins, and our guides enforced this rule rigorously. However, nobody informed the penguins!

             

ANTARCTIC AHOY

We arrived at the airport in El Chalten 1.5 hours before our flight as recommended. We stood forever  in a line that grew ever longer with no sign of any airline staff to check us in. Thirty minutes before our flight we were reconciled to the fact that there must be another Aerolineas Argentina's strike of some description. We were feeling thankful that we have given ourselves two days to arrive in Ushuaia. THEN....suddenly there was some action and movement. We got checked in, on the plane and it actually took off on time. We were very happy to see Ushuaia from the air.

At the port we saw the G Aventures Ship anchored waiting for it's new engine.It is the red ship.

We also saw the St Christopher wreck and hoped that our trip woudl have a happy ending.

One of the things that we did in town was to find parkas to rent. On our original trip, parkas were provided. We found some for US$40 each or at the blue rate US$28 each for the 10 days.

We spent our days in Ushuaia hking. The first day we hiked in Tierra del Fuego National Park

The second day we hiked to the Martial Glacier for views of town.

In one hour we board our ship. We will have no internet for the next 10 days. Steve will try to send out a few SPOT messages but the SPOT has had some issues sending messages. Here is a view of the ship . It is the closest ship to the shore on the left of the dock.

Argentina - Fitz Roy last week, Antartica Tomorrow!

We have had quite a couple of weeks. We started in the town of El Chelten. It is a very amazing little town - it was first constructed in 1985. The water for the town water is pumped straight out of the river. There is no contamination in the river so it still requires no treatment. A local guide told us that before the streets were paved they used to walk around wearing ski goggles to prevent getting sandblasted by the gravel.  A local dude welds together junk to make litter baskets that look like climbers.  

Or Jedi Knights!

There is also a chapel in town that was moved brick by brick from Austria. It is dedicated to the many climbers who have perished in the area. 

The wind is always very strong in Patagonia!

The big attraction is views of Mount Fitz Roy. 

We started a

five day trek with a trip to Laguna Torre, the lake below Cerro Torre. The winds here sometimes knocked us off of our feet! We actually managed to see the top of the peak one day!

There are a lot of amazing hanging glaciers in the Fitz Roy area. 

Because we had so much time, we were able to traverse along the entire Fitz Roy massif. 

When we returned to town, we found out that our Antartic cruise had been cancelled due to an engine failure on the ship. The next 24 hours was a frenzy of work via very slow internet, but we managed to find an alternate voyage - and our new ship has a helicopter!

When we managed to make the last change, we celebrated at a local wine bar. 

Yup, Jackie is in love with Malbec! They also have some mighty fine beer!

Our last days in El Chalten we did an amazing trip to the Glacier Huemel. Because the environs are sowind blasted and arid, there is not a lot of wildlife, and the band that is habitable ecosystem is very thin. 

We went to the glacier on a shuttle, which took us upwind. The winds were so strong on the return that at times we had to use our brakes to keep from going too fast! On one flat stretch, Steve went five minutes without pedalling!