Sunday 1 March 2009

Petermann Island and Port Lockroy

Those passengers and staff who were up just after sunrise were rewarded by a magnificent passage through the Lemaire Channel. The later in the morning, we visitedPetermann Island and here in front of our landing site, a Leopard seal enjoyed seven Gentoo penguins for brunch! We returned to the FRAM and enjoyed our lunch as we headed for our afternoon landing at Port Lockroy.
There, the penguins are everywhere right now. Unimpressed by visitors, they stand in the middle of the path from the landing site up to the southernmost post office in the world, making everybody walking a penguin slalom. At the post office, we learned that the last ship of the season which was to take out the mail has been cancelled. As a result, our mail is going to stay in Antarctica until next November, and it will arrive around next Christmas!

The pictures of the day were taken by Michael Mittmann and Daniel Blundell.