Cuverville Island was our morning stop and the Gentoo penguin
colonies were rampant with squawking chicks. There were so many adults and
chicks at the colonies that we started calling it Penquinville.
Our afternoon and evening was spent at Danco Island. Again
these rookeries were rampant with chicks, in fact bigger, probably older,
chicks than we saw earlier in the day at Cuverville Island.
The north side of the Island is an array of penguin highways
and the busy little creatures were plodding upward while a few slid down toward
the water on their bellies. Sometime when watching the penguins come from the
sea and take 100’s maybe 1000’s of their small penguin steps up to the nest and
chick, one has to wonder does it take more energy, in calories, to climb the
hillside than the bird obtains by feeding on krill in the sea. But clearly
there remains food and energy for the rapidly growing chicks.
Our Polarcirkle boat cruisers were treated to close-up view
of a pod of Humpback whales feeding on swarm of krill. In addition there were
several Leopard seals were sighted both in the sea and on ice-floes.
Tonight is a camp-out night. We started by going ashore
through some beach boulders and carrying our sleeping bags. This was
accomplished without any trouble as we are now well experienced as we keeping
our balance in moving from the Polarcirkle boats to the aluminum steps to the
wet rocks to the beach. Setting up the tents and placing the floor insulating
mats went quickly and after a ‘good-bye’ briefing from Karin the Expedition
Leader. We were free to crawl into our tents and unroll our sleeping bags for
as much rest and sleep as the wind whipping the tents would allow.
