"We are travelling through some of the most dramatic scenery seen anywhere on earth... in the cool clear Antarctic air, it seemed that we could see forever.
Imagine yourself at breakfast in the spacious, bright dining room of Fram. Looking out the large picture windows you watch three Humpback whales surface as the ship turns towards our first landing of the day, Cuverville Island. Lots of penguins porpoise in the water. Majestic mountains rise around you. Icebergs are everywhere. Could there be a better way to start your day? I think not.
You don't realize the difference a sunny day makes until you've had a few days of cloud. Here in Antarctica, on our adventure vacation of a lifetime, blue skies mean that we can see the snow and ice covered mountain peaks. It makes a huge difference. We are travelling through some of the most dramatic scenery seen anywhere on earth often much of it is obscured by clouds but today, in the cool clear Antarctic air, it seemed that we could see forever.
Shortly after 9:00 we started our landing operations. Cuverville Island is the site of the largest Gentoo Penguin colony on the Antarctic Peninsula and perhaps the largest colony in Antarctica with approximately 5000 pairs. It seemed as if penguins were everywhere. That is quite typical for this time of year because the chicks are off the nest, wandering around. Penguins took up most of the beach on the west side of our landing area preventing us from going further along the beach. Too many darned penguins!! An amusing challenge. Instead of going along the beach we went up. The climb wasn't too difficult and it was well worth the effort. The view over the Gerlache Strait was magnificent. From our lofty view point one of the lecturers spotted a Leopard Seal hunting penguins. With binoculars it was possible to see the seal successfully capture at least two penguins. At first the seal was more intent on playing with its penguins than eating. It was a very dramatic event to watch. The seal was like a cat with a mouse. It is never easy to watch a top level predator at work.
In the afternoon we set our course for Port Lockroy. Port Lockroy is a restored British Base and now serves as a small but very interesting museum and like museums everywhere, it even has a gift shop. The money we spent in the gift shop goes to the
United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust which is the organization responsible for restoring Port Lockroy and other historic sites in Antarctica.
