Port Lockroy: snowshoeing and postcards

Time flies by! The last 7 days have been hectic, doing at least one landing every day, some days 2, plus extra activities like cruising, snow shoeing and kayaking. And now we have come to our last landing of this trip: Port Lockroy. At Port Lockroy, a tiny island scattered with gentoo penguin rookeries, amidst mighty glacier fronts, you can find the "Penguin Post Office", run by the British Antarctic Survey.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Besides sending loads of post cards all around the world, a small group signed up for getting out and experiencing the Antarctic nature one more time, on a snow shoe hike. Arctic Nature Guides Tessa & Johannes were more than happy to take them out!

Picture by Johannes C. Apon 

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

And so it became time again to return to Ushuaia, Argentina. On our way out of the Antarctic Peninsula, the captain found time to do a little more cruising in Wilhelmina Bay. Here, we got a very nice good buy wave from several whales that feed in this krill rich bay. A perfect end of a perfect trip. Until next time!

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Visiting the continent + camping on Danco Island

Today was a big day for many of our passengers, as our landing site, Neko Harbour, is the only place where we can do a landing on the continent of Antarctica itself. To be able to set foot on the 7^th continent is a big deal, and many pictures were taken to document the event. During our landing, the weather changed quickly from sunny to foggy and windy conditions. We are lucky to have the safety and comfort of the Fram just around the corner when we are doing our landings. For the penguins, it’s a different story.

Johannes C. Apon

Expectations might have been even higher for our next event. During our Antarctica trips, we try to camp in tents, if weather conditions allow it. We call this the "Amundsen night". There are few cruise expedition companies that (can) do these kind of trips, so we are really lucky. So many passengers were interested, that we had to hold a lottery to decide who was able to join. The weather was still a bit windy and snowy when we put up camp at Danco Island, but soon the wind disappeared and the visibility increased. The tents were located not too far (or too close!) from a penguin highway, which the gentoo penguins use to commute between the sea and their rookery (colony). Our Arctic Nature Guides Stian and Johannes took the guests to a good point where they sat in silence, watching the penguins commute, jumping in the sea at night and jumping back on land again in the morning. What a way of getting close to and experience the Antarctic nature!

Johannes C. Apon

Johannes C. Apon

Johannes C. Apon

Arctowski scientific station & Half Moon Island

This journey to and along the Antarctic Peninsula is – first and foremost – about penguins and ice, a lot of ice. Today, we made an exception and visited the Polish scientific station of Arctowski on King George Island. At the moment, 24 people are working and living in the station, which is open year round. We were welcomed in their home in the most hospitable way, with coffee, tea and cookies. The station is visited on average only once a month, so the staff was very happy to tell about their daily life. Outside the station, we could also enjoy some wildlife, with Gentoo and Adelie penguin colonies just around the corner, and elephant seals laying on the beaches.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

In the afternoon, we steamed further south-west to Half Moon Island, to visit the Chinstrap penguin colonies. This tiny 2-kilometer-long half-moon shaped island is squeezed in between the two much larger islands of Livingston and Greenwich, which create some of the most stunning backgrounds you can imagine. It’s a perfect location for snowshoe hiking. Guides Johannes and Tessa took 20 guests to a viewpoint to enjoy the scenery, composed of ice berg filled seas, and glacier topped mountains rising straight out of the ocean.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Elephant Island

We are back in the Antarctic again! The crossing of the Drake Passage, which can be quite dreadful in bad weather, was a pure “Drake Lake”, with only minor waves. The first island and land to spot was the famous Elephant Island, the north-eastern most of the South Shetland Islands. It was here that 22 men of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ‘The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition’ had to spend 4.5 months. The expedition never reached the continent of Antarctica. Their ship, the Endurance, got stuck in the sea ice of the Weddel Sea and was crushed. After a long journey on the sea ice, and later open sea, the hauled their life boats ashore Elephant Island. In their strongest life boat, Shackleton and two of his strongest men sailed to South Georgia, while the remaining men lived under the two remaining life boats, hoping that their expedition leader would return.

Relatively good weather conditions allowed the Fram to visit ‘Point Wild’ and see the place where Shackleton’s men lived for ourselves, although the swells were too big to go ashore.

After we had sailed around Elephant Island, we found calmer waters. At Point Lookout, it turned out to be a fantastic evening. We made a cruise under illuminating lenticular clouds, while enjoying the glaciers, ice bergs and first penguins of the trip. A marvellous start!

South!

It is not often this early in the Antarctic summer season that you are able to navigate through the Lemaire Channel, then farther south to Petermann Island. The winter sea ice is usually heavy and the Lemaire is often blocked with smaller icebergs. Despite the dire warnings of heavy sea ice this Antarctic season, we found almost none and we could easily reach Petermann Island in the morning.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

In a fresh breeze we landed on a snow bank to the right of our normal landing in Port Circumcision, and then explored the amazing island. At first the light was grey and flat but then the sun came out and made for wonderful views of the mainland on the other side of the Penola Strait.

Mount Scott stood proudly as a backdrop to Petermann. In the foreground are penguins, but therein lies a story. Twenty years ago the common species on Petermann was the Adelie but over the intervening period, they have declined and Gentoos have increased. It appears that there is little direct competition between the two, rather, the trends are related to differing reactions to climate change. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed more than any place on Earth over the last 50 years and this has meant less sea ice. Since krill rely on sea ice as a grazing habitat, they have declined on the peninsula. Adelies are krill specialists and have suffered with lower breeding success and insufficient recruitment to replace natural mortality in the adults. Thus the colony at Petermann has declined. Gentoos on the other hand can tolerate warmer conditions and are more flexible in the feeding habits. Their breeding success has been good and recruitment high. Their populations have been increasing on the peninsula and their distribution is moving south. Petermann is the most southerly breeding station for Gentoos in Antarctica so far but they are marching south!

A beautiful penguin feather lay on the snow at Petermann. The small things are interesting too!

Breeding with the penguins along the cliff edge were Blue-eyed Shags.

Part of the now small Adelie Penguin colony at Petermann

Gentoos doing what they do best at this time of year!

Amazing skies at the end of our landing!

A constant feature of our landing was the Gentoo Penguins returning from a feeding trip in large flocks. Then walking up onto the island and to their breeding locations. Why are the white penguins walking towards us, and the black ones walking away?!!!!

So this was our last landing in Antarctica and we are now headed across the Drake Passage to Ushuaia and then home. But we still have a couple of days to see more wildlife before we go ashore!

We have landed on the Antarctica continent!

A big day for our guests! Today, we made our first landing on the continent of Antarctica. Setting foot on the mainland means a lot! However, being here so early in the season, ice can constitute a real challenge. Fortunately, as we have been so many times this trip, the weather and ice conditions were just perfect. MS Fram anchored at Andvord Bay and the Expedition Team made everything in order to land at Neko Harbour, named after a Scottish whaling vessel from the early 1900s.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

On shore, we were able to visit a few Gentoo penguin rookeries. It is extremely fascinating to see how the penguins have made so-called ‘highways’ for commuting between their colonies and the sea. On the hills down to the sea, they often just slide on their bellies. And after a successful fishing trip, they jump up from the water as acrobats and land on shore. Some fantastic jewels of glacier fronts formed the backdrop of this landing. The guests were given the opportunity to hike up to a view point and watch out over the bay, surrounded by blue ice and penguin rookeries, while the MS Fram down below looked minuscule in this majestic scenery.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

It didn’t stop there today. The Fram continued through the beautiful Errara Channel, where snowcapped glaciers pump huge amounts of enormous icebergs into the sea. Our ship had to zigzag to avoid them. Going ashore our second landing site, Cuverville Island, was also a little challenge, but our skilled crew got us safely around the icebergs.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Cuverville Island is identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of about 6,500 pairs of Gentoo penguins, the largest for this species on the Antarctic Peninsula. The surrounding scenery of looming mountains, coated with a thick layer of glacial ice, contributes to the forgetfulness of it all.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Our first icebergs!

Our next stretch to the South Shetlands, crossing the Scotia Sea, gave us two quiet days to 'digest' all those impressions from our hectic, but spectacular time on South Georgia. When we say 'quiet', this doesn't mean the sea is quiet. On the contrary: Scotia Sea gave us 25 meter per second winds, which whipped the ocean's waves up to eight meters high. It is a good thing the MS Fram has fantastic stabilizers: they really reduce the movement of the ship. 

Today, we crossed latitude 60 degrees, and are now approaching the Antarctic Peninsula. The captain and officers are doing a fantastic job on the bridge navigating around the icebergs that float around. The icebergs come in all different shapes and sizes and have been fascinating our guests today, whether they were relaxing in the panorama lounge, or brave enough to withstand the weather elements, taking pictures on our outside deck (it is about 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) outside).

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

South-Georgia

Today, we reached the stunning island of South-Georgia. It took us two days to sail from the Falklands, and we were blessed with calm seas. On our way, we saw the interesting “Shag Rocks”, named after the great number of Shag birds that nest on these desolated rocks in the middle of the ocean.

Some of us got up early to watch the sunrise at approx. 4.30 am. Although South-Georgia is known for its changing weather, we were lucky again and could see the sun rise above the sharp mountain peaks, some rising more than 2,000 meters above the sea. Since we are still early in the season, practically all mountains were still covered in snow.

On our first landing of the day, we visited Fortuna Bay, were we could see a king penguin colony with chicks, fur seals and enormous elephant seals.

23 of our guests signed up for our Shackleton hike and followed the famous English polar explorer’s footsteps from Fortuna Bay to the former whaling station of Strømnes. While Fram left Fortuna Bay, the hiking group ascended out of the valley, through the snow. It really felt like an expedition! The views on the valley and the surrounding mountain walls, Strømnes below, and the bay and sea at the horizon, while Fram appeared again around the corner, were just stunning.

Reunited in Strømnes, all passengers had the opportunity to walk around and enjoy Strømnes, where fur seals and elephant seals were sleeping and loudly snoring on the beach.

Hiking, cookies and penguins at the Falklands

After the winds and swells at Saunders Island yesterday, we were happy to see blue skies and calm seas upon our arrival at West Point Island. Locals Kikki and Thies gave us a warm welcome, included one of the most extensive English tea & cookies table you could imagine. The fact that 200 passengers were interested in visiting their lovely house, could not have been less of a problem. After we had taken off our shoes, we could choose among dozens of different kinds of cookies. Enjoying them in the spring sun, while sitting in the back yard among the daffodils, felt like a real treat.

Besides the outstanding local hospitality, the hike to Devil’s Nose was our other reason to land at West Point Island. After half an hour of hiking, we were able to admire this rocky promontory. It is the habitat of approximately 2,100 breeding pairs of black-browed albatross, living together with about 500 pairs of rockhopper penguins. Although the rockhoppers and albatross occasionally seem to enjoy some neighboring arguments, they truly live together in peace, often nesting only centimeters apart.

Our second landing of the day took us a few miles further north, Carcass Island. The hospitality here was just as impeccable, and the cookies even more abundant – although, of course, it is impossible to favorize either West Point or Carcass.

We needed the calories, because the second hike of the day was even longer and took us about 1 hour each way. The stunning views at Leopard Beach were absolutely worth it. Sunbathing on the sandy beach or commuting through the dunes on their way from or to the sea, we were able to experience a whole bunch of Gentoo penguins and an occasional Magellanic penguin.

We made it back on board the Fram just before dark. It truly was nice day, packed with hiking, cookies and penguins. Give us more of the good stuff! 

We are now intrepid sailors!

Well we have been sailing for the past three days in open sea towards the Falkland Islands, and encountered a storm yesterday morning. It was no surprise as weather forecasting is highly sophisticated these days and we had lots of charts showing big red blobs to the south of the islands. No one ever wants to see these blobs, which indicate bigger waves or higher winds, but these meteorological features are a part of sailing in South Atlantic waters and there is nothing we can do about it. Well, I shouldn't say nothing because our officers on the bridge are skilled at navigating to give us the smoothest ride possible under the conditions and this may mean deviating a little from the optimum course, then speeding up to make up the time.

So today we are approaching our goal- the Falkland Islands! And what a goal they are- remote, wild, beautiful, and totally fascinating on many different levels. By late afternoon we had arrived at Saunders Island but the wind was blowing VERY strongly! Anyway, our intrepid expedition staff decided to see what the conditions were like on the beach and we launched two of our Polarcirkel boats and went in. As we approached we saw that much of the landing beach was being affected by rollers, although they were not too high and they were intermittent. This last feature was the key to success because the time between waves was long enough to allow us to land our guests!

The Saunders Island landing was fantastic, even with the wind blowing sand in our eyes! There was so much to see that we didn't care! The theme was wildlife particularly birds with five species of penguins breeding, three gull species and many others present. We will let a selection of images tell the story of this amazing place!

Waves rolling in and being blown back to sea

Part of the Gentoo Penguin colony

Some King Penguins had chicks

A Rockhopper Penguin pair with the Macaroni Penguin behind

A nice Brown-hooded Gull showing a pink breast

Two Black-browed Albatrosses courting

We landed on the beach at the far end

A young Striated Caracara

Some of our guests enjoying the wildlife at Saunders