Strong winds caused the Expedition Leader, Karin, to modify
our morning landing at Cuverville Island. Our expected landing site had strong
onshore winds and the shoreline was too choppy for a landing. Instead we
circled the Island and we were able to land at a more protected location.
The most striking feature of this landing site was the green
snow. From our botanist Rudolph we learned that this tiny green algae belongs
to a group called ‘snowalgae’ and the nutrients for its survival are provided
by the penguin guano from the nearby colony. Also nearby there was a large
amount of water running out from the glacier front and onto the beach.
To climb up to the level of the Gentoo rookery the
Expedition Team cut a staircase into the snow and ice. This enabled us to walk
over the frost fractured rocks and guano goo to view the Gentoo Penguin colony.
Cuverville Island is perhaps the largest penguin colony we will visit and
interestingly most of the penguins we saw were not adults but were very hungry
chicks who pestered the few passing adults for food.
The Argentinian “Base Brown” was our afternoon visit. The 10
Argentinians in residence were welcoming and we hope they enjoyed our visit as
much as did. While there were not many penguins around the Base we enjoyed
ourselves by sliding down the slope of the hill behind the base. On leaving we
carried away the knowledge that because Base Brown is on the mainland, we had
visited the continent of Antarctica.
Our day closed with dropping 21 campers who will be spending
the night, or as dark as it gets, in tents on Leith Island.
