Birds and ice on a lake

Today we awoke to an incredibly calm Drake Passage, with gentle waves caressing MV Fram up and down the sea. Normally, no wind at sea means no birds are in sight, but today was an exception since we enjoyed their company all day long.

Adult Northern Giant Petrel

Thin-billed Prion

And what stupendous company that was!! While we enjoyed breakfast, we could see five different species of albatross flying around the vessel: wandering, black-browed, light-mantled sooty, grey-headed and even a royal albatross. The “even” comes from the fact that royal albatrosses breed in New Zealand, and they tend to stay around those islands, so it was quite a nice surprise to see it on the other side of the planet; this just serves to illustrate that these birds are majestic flyers that very deservedly were considered sacred/magical animals (Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

Giant Petrels



Around noon, we enjoyed a nice surprise: a quite big iceberg (some 70 meters tall and 300 wide) was floating ahead of our ship, reminding us that we are in course to Antarctica. It was surprising because we have not yet crossed the Antarctic convergence, the liquid boundary between the Southern Ocean and the other, northerly and warmer oceans; and icebergs tend to be corralled within the convergence’s frigid embrace.

Usually, we tend to flee from the cold: today, our southward course brought us directly to it and we were very happy for it. At around 9 o’clock this evening, slightly over 24 hours since we left Ushuaia, we crossed the convergence so, officially and happily, we are in Antarctica. Keen to see what this land has in store for us tomorrow, we were gently rolled to sleep by a real Drake “lake”!

Harbour Day

Today we entered Ushuaia again, to finish the one trip and start with the new one.

In town we stumbled over summer impressions and thousands of petrified penguins in the numerous souvenir shops. One group of them, almost looking like a frozen choir, was obviously dreaming of more species-friendly conditions.

When we were on our way back to Fram they somehow managed to follow us. Not a surprise, of all it is FRAM that is linked most with Antarctica.

When a dull gull around the ship became aware of what was going on it started flashing white and red as if to warn us. Our famous birder in the team managed to document this extraordinary behavior, just in the right moment that you can witness the gull in front of the red band on Fram’s hull.

Since we all love penguins we just shook our heads about that flashing bird. It just fled and did the same about us.

Looks like the frozen choir made it onboard and we all received a very warm and friendly farewell for this unique expedition.

Meetings in the Drake Passage

Two days of Drake Passage come to their end as we are approaching the Beagle Channel. It was two days with several meetings.

The morning after we had left the Peninsula our onboard university continued with four lecture sessions, each with two lectures at a time. We continued today and finalized with a meeting in the observation lounge. While discussing about climate change we passed by Cape Hoorn in rough water as you can expect it there.

On a long part of our way north we had several meetings with snow petrels. Astonishing all white birds, which nest even a hundred and more kilometers inside the Antarctic. For a while also giant petrels followed and circled us using the wind and better flight conditions around the ship.

And today another unexpected meeting attracted our attention. We passed by the “Europa”, that is on its way South. Watching the bark disappear behind higher waves and being shaken by the waves gave lots of us the right impression of how comfortable we travel onboard MV Fram.

Volcano hike, whaling history and birders delight.

I wont use the "p-word" again, although it still feels like being there. Our visits to Whaler's Bay, inside of Deception Island, and Half Moon Island were a great mixture for our last day with landings on this trip. In Whaler's Bay one part of the passengers visited the old whaling station.

Another group went on a hike from Whaler's Bay across the ridge of the volcano crater towards Baily Head at the long straight Costa Recta on the Northern side of the island. Some snow was drifting in a strong wind. A slide downhill took us close to the Chinstrap penguin rookery. All in all a real Antarctic experience. Same had the penguins. Some of them were covered with snow or even a thin layer of ice, while they were still breeding their eggs.

The second landing in the afternoon was on Half Moon Island where the sun and more Chinstrap penguins were welcoming us.

Enjoy the photographs and have your own impression. I should add that the "p" is not related to today's penguins but more to the feeling to be at the right place, as all the previous days of this trip to paradise.

How many days of paradise can you take?

Yes we had another one. The clouds in the morning hours made the photographers on board cheer, because they like the softer light. But their cheering didn’t last long. After a few hours all clouds had disappeared. In fact not a single bit of any cloud was left. Blue sky above Petermann Island, Lemaire Channel and all of the surrounding all the way to the horizon.

On Petermann Island it was again the birders turn for cheering. Besides the already well known Gentoos we saw Adélie penguins and blue-eyed shags. Another small walk led to the opposite side of the Island where we were rewarded with a breathtaking view from a snow-covered hill across thousands of icebergs of different size and shape. Many said that was the most beautiful lookout so far on our tour.

But after three and a half days of overwhelming beauty in bright light and calm seas an astonishing discussion could be heard during lunch time. Basically it was the photographers who launched it. Looking out on the extremely bright white glacier surfaces and snow covered areas all of a sudden they created somehow opposite sceneries. For example an icy gale with penguins that can hardly stand in the wind, with their contours being blurred by drifting snow. They themselves on their bellies and getting the perfect shots of it.

Lemaire channel was still blocked by this big iceberg we saw the day before from the other side. Inspired by the view from Petermann Island on these numerous icebergs we decided to do some cruising with the Polar Circle Boats close to the Southern end of Lemaire Channel. There too lots of icebergs formed a kind of labyrinth which we wanted to explore. And guess, even though the sun was shining all the photographers joined in…

Cruising was the new highlight. We found Weddell Seals, Crab Eater Seals, Gentoos and other wildlife in the ice labyrinth. Some icebergs had tunnels, arches, holes and remains of crevasses where we could see all the way through to the other side. Many of these structures were shining blue as if someone had switched on pure blue light inside.

A couple of hours later when we were ready to continue our trip the iceberg in Lemaire Channel had disappeared. Wind and current had moved it out southward giving us free passage northward.

We can look forward to hear about the photographer’s dreams tomorrow morning because the sun is still shining…

Almost in Paradise

“Sliding into the arms of Paradise” was the motto of the first half of our day. The snow covered slope behind the Argentine station Almirante Brown in Paradise Harbor invited us to walk up and slide down. Some wanted more of paradise, walked up once more and … “juhuuu” with hands up in the air. Of course, all that again in bright sunlight and literally no wind. Towards the end of the landing a Chilean Twin Otter flew by, greeted us, and again lots of hands were up in the air waving back.


Out of Paradise Bay we headed straight to the Neumeyer-Channel. This very scenic channel led us to Port Lockroy. The staff of the base on Goudier Island welcomed us very friendly and had museum, post office and shop open for us. A part of the island was surrounded by icebergs and icy bits with fantastic shapes.

Later in the evening a big iceberg really blocked our planned way. It was placed like a cork in the narrow part of Lemaire Channel. The late evening sun was shining into the channel and let the steep mountain flanks, up to 1000m high, aglow. There was absolutely no way around this iceberg possible, so we had to turn around, leave Lemaire Channel to the North again and take a different route outside the islands to continue further South.