Antarctica Part three - never a dull moment!

The water was like glass it was so still in Neko Harbour.
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During the night we had again shifted our position and I think we went further south.  So in the morning we made a landing at Coverville Island, where we would see more wildlife. The weather had yet again changed and although initially it was cloudy and a bit cold it started to brighten. The weather here is always changeable it seems.  On shore there were many penguin rookeries mainly gentoos and also quite a few adelies.

Here I felt brave enough, after having talked with Robert, our artist in residence and gaining a bit of confidence from the art workshop, to actually do some drawing on shore! I sat on a rock and observed the similarities between groups of penguins and a group of the passengers !– they were obviously looking at something and so I went over to see.

...and people grouped very much like penguins! All watching the leaopard seal attack the penguin..
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There in the water we were treated to the rather macabre sight of a leopard seal killing a penguin, thrashing it around in the water to break its neck and just tearing it apart – Leopard seals are one of the main aggressors against the grown penguin, the chicks and the eggs have other preditors, but we were probably a bit early in the season to see any of those so much. At the briefing later I gave a description of the process, having already seen this on David Attenboroughs ‘Life in the freezer – an episode which I think had not been shown on board yet.

Adelie penguins - grouped a bit like people!
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After lunch we set out to Neko Harbour, our second landing on the Antarctic mainland, very sheltered, the sea was nearly like glass and the sun was out and it was a glorious afternoon. And very playful, as this was a place where we could ‘sledge’ down a very enticing slope – only trouble was it needed to be climbed each time! Hence I only did it once – but it was great fun!!

It was a really lovely evening, and very peaceful in Neko Harbour and this spot was chosen for the evening meal to be an on deck barbeque! We had had a meeting called by the Dutch guy with the idea of doing a show and I had taken on the task of rounding up all the ‘Brits’ to do something British! Various ideas flew around, but we ended up – at Micks suggestion – with ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’! Very seafaring and very English? We altered the words slightly and I decided we should all dress for the occasion in beanie hats and our life jackets! Mick and Mark and I discussed this later in the bar. It had been decided that we would do this on the last night aboard, so there were a couple of days to practice (which we sorely needed!)

Everyone ate outside at the outdoor barbeque.
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That night it seemed not to really get dark at all, I guess the year was moving on and we were at the furthest south we would be. We were woken early in the morning to see the Lemaire Channel – a spectacular long straight which runs north/south to the west of the Antarctic peninsula – and the morning was perfect for it! We saw Orca whales and snow pectrals and the view was magical, the morning sun bringing out the blues in the ice bergs and the snow and ice covered cliffs and mountains, and patches of ice on the sea.

Going down the Lemaire Channel early in the morning.
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After the early rise we had an early breakfast and then on to Peterman Island at the bottom of the Lemaire Channel. Here there was a scientific team from the USA staying in a group of yellow tents, monitoring the number of penguins and their chicks on the island. It was SO warm I ended up taking my jacket off for the first time, the sun was really hot, it was quite amazing, but we were constantly being told that this amount of god weather was really unusual.

In the afternoon we made another – and our final – landing, at Port Lockroy – which still very naughtily dcalling itsef British Antarctic territory despite the Antarctic Treaty! The place was very ‘Boys Own’ in its presentation – a picture of the Queen from the 1950’s and it was presented as a museum, with the quarters still kitted out with old jars and tins with labels from the period and books and magazines – probably just as it was when it was first set up. There was a shop with memorabilia and postcards and I took the opportunity to post to some cards to the family …from ANTARCTICA!!

Coming back to the Orlova for the last time - unaware of the leopard seal luking in the water! (although it didn't attack our zodiac).
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Then our VERY final landing place I think it was called Jougla Point – there were penguins and also large whale bones stuck in the snow, and for me it was very emotional to think we were leaving this incredible place and this may be the last time I set foot on this continent – or will it?

So the last zodiac ride back to the boat was very charged, but even more so in a different way for some of the others – I was on the last zodiac back and it turned out that the previous four had been attacked by a leopard seal!! Everyone was buzzing with excitement and someone had a photo of the leopard seals head resting on the side of the zodiac and one person had managed to catch it on video! All four zodiacs had a puncture, which Vladimir had to repair and the staff said this was unprecedented, so what with the grounding, the rescue and now this, the cruise had been very eventful!

The captain and the staff on our last night aboard.
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We then set out to start across Drakes passage again, back towards South America. A little more choppy than the way over, but plenty of things to do on board. We had a very good environmental talk from Luke, the geologist, about the effects of global warming on the Antarctic environment and indeed on the rest of the world. Very topical now, after the global admission at the Paris summit that such a thing IS really happening! Our discussions included talking about what each individual could do to alleviate the problem, if only in a small way, there were contributions from the passengers, especially the Europeans amongst us, of course I had things to say on the matter!  Very little comment from the American contingency though..........

and our dessert for the last evening meal - Baked Antarctica!.
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So then it was our final evening, time for cocktails with the captain and the international performance from us the passengers – it was a hoot! Great fun, everybody had entered into the spirit, the Americans (they were the largest number) did a kind of base ball cheer song that they all knew, the whole thing was presented as a power point by Hans, the Dutch guy whose idea it had been, and I ended up playing ‘Danny Boy’ on the little wooden flute that I’d bought in Ushuaia before we left. Tony, one of the English contingency, had written a poem about the crew, and so had the Dutch people, which we all sang I think, I forget to which tune!

Adelie penguins on Coverville Island.
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Then our final nights dinner on board – with a parade of the waitresses coming in with a ‘Baked Antarctica’ dessert with little fireworks on the top. As always it was a superb meal finished off with cheese and chocolates and a great winding down after what had been an AMAZING trip. And then packing to be ready for early disembarkation the next morning and our final night at sea heading back to Ushuaia.…