A lot happened today so this is a long one!
(Disclaimer: I didn't take this photo but I'm in the background!)
This
morning, I opened my eyes and everything was bright yellow. Disoriented, I blinked a few times and felt a
faint draft on the top of my head. Then
I remembered where I was. I unzipped my bivy
bag as I heard shovels chipping away and light voices. I peeked out and yep, it was as beautiful as
I had left it. The hot sun blazed down
on us and glistened on the glaciers across the water. All of the snow that we had loosened and
sculpted was now hard ice. The seals
that slept next to us had moved but their blubbery bodies still occupied the
snow beside us. A few penguins continued
to mingle on the beach while other campers scraping at the ice attempting to
fill their holes.
Last night I slept outside in Antarctica. About 30 apprehensive campers climbed into the
zodiacs and set off for the beach where we were camping. A group had gone the night before and had to
return to the ship early because the winds were so strong that they were losing
equipment including ten sleeping bags.
We were told we would have better weather but still, we were
worried. Our zodiac floated up to the
beach and the staff member that greeted our boat immediately shushed us. To our surprise, we were sharing the campsite
tonight with about 20 Gentoo penguins and six Weddell seals. One lazy seal was smack dab in the middle of
our campsite and lethargically would look our way and roll his large blubbery
body around without a care in the world.
A few of us stayed up to “quiet hour” making a snow penguin, seal and
polar bear. After we finished our
masterpieces, we zipped ourselves in for the night. I only noticed the wind once ripping above my
bivy bag. I slept through the night
perfectly! Digging the hole and filling
it back in in the morning was quite difficult because there were only a few
shovels for all of us. I said goodbye to
the seals and penguins and headed back to the ship to try to get a few more
minutes of sleep before breakfast.
Today
was the most beautiful day. It got up to
about 60 degrees out and when we hiked to the top of a mountain we all took off
our wetskins. So many people got sunburned. I stayed at the top of the hill for almost
two hours soaking it all in. There was
virtually no wind (2 knots) and the water was still and incredibly reflective. The icebergs in the cove that were glistening and looked like frosting. We
saw two avalanches, one from the top of the mountain and one from the
zodiac. The 360 views were
breathtaking. To make the day even
better, we sledded down on our bottoms! It
was really steep so we ended up going pretty fast. On the zodiac ride back, the Expedition
Leader, Chad, mentioned that he has never seen that rock face before when he
was asked about the future of Antarctica.
He told us that all of the large icebergs around Denco Island originated
from the Ross Ice Shelf.
In the afternoon, we finally went to a Chinstrap
penguin colony! It was still so hot that
I hiked up to the high point in a tank top.
The hole in the ozone layer was not doing good things for people’s
faces. The snow at the high point was so
pristine and untouched since we were some of the first of our group to go
up. Adults were acting like children,
collapsing into the snow to form snow angels. I chatted with Michelle, the OSU
professor, and Vicki, one of the wildlife experts while observing the chinstrap
colony sprinkled within the Gentoo nests. Michelle told us all about what it
was like to handle penguins. She said
that their bites didn’t really hurt because their beaks are not very sharp but
their fins are strong and they can slap you with a lot of force. They also projectile poop so you have to
watch out for that too. On the cruise
later we saw a male elephant seal! It
was a lot larger than I had expected. Even the staff was impressed.
Unfortunately, one negative thing did happen
today. I was descending the mountain
during the afternoon excursion, and rounded the corner to find about 20 Gentoo
penguins in my path. We had been
reminded again and again to stay on the path that the staff had set up for us
with orange markers as to not disturb the snow further than we needed to. If everyone made their own path, the snow would
be filled with penguin traps by the end of the day. My friend and I waited about 5 meters away,
realizing that we could not do much other than just wait and hope they
dispersed. We didn’t have anywhere to be
or anything so we stood there for a bit, watching them waddle around. A boy caught up to us on the path and stood
there, clearly impatient but seemingly unsure of what to do. His father followed close behind and immediately
bypassed us tramping through the snow around them. His son quickly followed. He did not maintain a 5 meter distance, made
impressive footprints in the snow, and had clearly startled penguins that were
moving in that direction because they turned and began waddling the opposite
way. This was the same
family that had no regard for appropriate noise levels around wildlife and did
not pay attention to ship announcements and education. I had hoped that their behavior and respect
for wildlife would improve after watching other passengers and staff exhibit
the correct behaviors but was disappointed to see that not much had
changed. Though the staff had done a lot
to ensure this would not happen, there are serious enforcement issues with
human-wildlife interactions.
Half way through writing this post, I
looked out the window and decided to have a look at the beautiful sunset as a
writing break. I was up there for about 30 seconds when I looked ahead and saw
some movement in the water. It turned
out to be about 20 humpback whales all surfacing together and sea birds flying
in circles above them. I learned later that they were bubble net feeding where they encircle krill in bubbles and then pop up through the net to get a high concentration. This day just could not get any
more incredible. Of course I forgot my
good camera so I was left with my iPhone snapping pictures as humpbacks
surfaced, nose first in the orange sunset glow.
I felt like I was in a National Geographic magazine. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas despite
the turkey dinner and the staff’s fun costumes but considering what has
happened today, wow, what a Christmas Eve.
