In the morning
we landed at Astrolabe Island. This small island, was discovered by the French
expedition, 1837-40, under Capt. Jules Dumont d'Urville, and named by him for
his chief expedition ship, the Astrolabe. In the summer it is home to over 4000
breeding pairs of Chinstrap penguins but also very convenient haul-out for
various seals. Today the Weddell seal took over the place. We counted 14 of
those creatures resting on the beach, and few more were spotted in the water. Small
number of Antarctic Fur seals were also resting ashore as well as one Leopard
seal was watching us from his iceberg.
Afternoon
we were inside caldera of an active volcano – Deception Island. We landed in
Whalers Bay. The bay was so named by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1908-10,
under Charcot, because of its use at that time by whalers. Shore-based whaling
operations began here in 1910 and ended in 1931. In 1944 Brits built here, as a
part of so called “Operation Tabarin”, Base A. After the Second World War ended
the base was transferred to British Antarctic Survey.
Volcanic
eruption of 1969 destroyed some of whaling era remnants as well as forced BAS
base personnel to be evacuated. The main building of the Base – Biscoe House, is
still standing, but it was severely damaged by the ash.
More than
40 of us, instead of just roaming around landing place, decided to make extended
hike to Baily Head. Not an easy, the three and half hours round trip took us to
the biggest Chinstrap penguin rockery in the Antarctic Peninsula area. There
are 150,000 breeding pairs of penguins there. Including their chicks it could
be over 450,000 individuals!
