We have landed on the Antarctica continent!

A big day for our guests! Today, we made our first landing on the continent of Antarctica. Setting foot on the mainland means a lot! However, being here so early in the season, ice can constitute a real challenge. Fortunately, as we have been so many times this trip, the weather and ice conditions were just perfect. MS Fram anchored at Andvord Bay and the Expedition Team made everything in order to land at Neko Harbour, named after a Scottish whaling vessel from the early 1900s.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

On shore, we were able to visit a few Gentoo penguin rookeries. It is extremely fascinating to see how the penguins have made so-called ‘highways’ for commuting between their colonies and the sea. On the hills down to the sea, they often just slide on their bellies. And after a successful fishing trip, they jump up from the water as acrobats and land on shore. Some fantastic jewels of glacier fronts formed the backdrop of this landing. The guests were given the opportunity to hike up to a view point and watch out over the bay, surrounded by blue ice and penguin rookeries, while the MS Fram down below looked minuscule in this majestic scenery.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

It didn’t stop there today. The Fram continued through the beautiful Errara Channel, where snowcapped glaciers pump huge amounts of enormous icebergs into the sea. Our ship had to zigzag to avoid them. Going ashore our second landing site, Cuverville Island, was also a little challenge, but our skilled crew got us safely around the icebergs.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Cuverville Island is identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of about 6,500 pairs of Gentoo penguins, the largest for this species on the Antarctic Peninsula. The surrounding scenery of looming mountains, coated with a thick layer of glacial ice, contributes to the forgetfulness of it all.

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

little island in Antarctica

So after three days in the Scotia Sea, we arrived at our final goal- Antarctica! To be specific, at about 11:00am today we sighted King George Island at the northeast corner of the South Shetlands Archipelago. After two quite rough days at sea with Beaufort 8-9 winds and seas, it was very comforting to sight land! And, although indeed we were seeing land, most of it was covered in a thick layer of glacial ice and snow.

After several hours of cruising down the southeast coast of the South Shetland Islands we turned to the starboard and entered the McFarlane Strait between Greenwich and Livingston Islands. From there we sailed to our first Antarctic landing of Half Moon Island. The conditions were ideal for the landing with calm conditions and nice light. There was a small swell at the beach, and together with the chucks of ice, these made the landing a bit more challenging than normal.

Excitement filled the air as we came ashore and started to really experience Antarctica. Almost the whole island was covered in a thick layer of ice and snow from the last winter. As we approached the black dots on the ice above the landing site we realized that they were Chinstrap Penguins. The breeding season was just getting going and much courtship was going on. Snowy Sheathbills ran around the colony eating anything they could find.

Our snowshoers were able to travel over the covering of snow with ease, and really see a lot of the island and its surroundings. And our kayakers explored the whole offshore area. Our first landing was a huge success and put smiles on everyone's faces and it was a great start to the last segment of our expedition cruise.

Our first icebergs!

Our next stretch to the South Shetlands, crossing the Scotia Sea, gave us two quiet days to 'digest' all those impressions from our hectic, but spectacular time on South Georgia. When we say 'quiet', this doesn't mean the sea is quiet. On the contrary: Scotia Sea gave us 25 meter per second winds, which whipped the ocean's waves up to eight meters high. It is a good thing the MS Fram has fantastic stabilizers: they really reduce the movement of the ship. 

Today, we crossed latitude 60 degrees, and are now approaching the Antarctic Peninsula. The captain and officers are doing a fantastic job on the bridge navigating around the icebergs that float around. The icebergs come in all different shapes and sizes and have been fascinating our guests today, whether they were relaxing in the panorama lounge, or brave enough to withstand the weather elements, taking pictures on our outside deck (it is about 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) outside).

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Picture by Johannes C. Apon

Grytviken

After a great but cloudy day yesterday, we awoke to bright sunshine as we arrived to Maiviken (May Cove). There we dropped off our intrepid hikers who were to make their way up and over from Maiviken to Grytviken. The hike was spectacular with sun and little wind and an added bonus was the sighting of the endemic South Georgia Pipit at the beginning of the hike.

Image by Verena Meraldi

Image by Verena Meraldi

Image by Verena Meraldi

After the massive rat eradication program that just finished on South Georgia, the pipits are coming back. Rats eat the eggs and chicks of the pipits and many of the smaller seabirds breeding on the island. Although the eradication program has been completed, you can still contribute to the funding shortfall by going to the South Georgia Heritage Trust website: www.sght.org.

Yesterday we visited the whaling station at Strømness, which was off-limits to us because of asbestos risk and because the buildings are very unstable. Today in Gryviken we were able to actually walk through the remains of the Norwegian whaling station there. A few years ago the South Georgia government and the South Georgia Heritage Trust cleaned up the station of hazards with the result that access is now possible. By the way, a 'gryt' is a try pot (from Norwegian): a cauldron used to boil the seal blubber in the early days of Antarctic exploitation. To 'try-out' is render the oil our of the blubber. 'Vik' is a bay in Norwegian. 

Here you can see various tanks and generators in the whaling station and in the distance, the old church dating from 1913.

The chains used to pull the dead whales up the flensing plan lie in a pile.

A Wandering Albatross mount peers out the window of the Carr Maritime Gallery towards the Fram anchored offshore. The gallery is part of the museum at Gryviken.

An Antarctic Tern hunting for food need our landing site.

Some beautiful lenticular clouds developed of the mountains near Gryviken as we left.

And like our Falklands tour, South Georgia has just whizzed by- time has a different meaning in these places. Now we will spend a couple of days sailing in the Scotia Sea south and west to the Antarctic Peninsula. 

South-Georgia

Today, we reached the stunning island of South-Georgia. It took us two days to sail from the Falklands, and we were blessed with calm seas. On our way, we saw the interesting “Shag Rocks”, named after the great number of Shag birds that nest on these desolated rocks in the middle of the ocean.

Some of us got up early to watch the sunrise at approx. 4.30 am. Although South-Georgia is known for its changing weather, we were lucky again and could see the sun rise above the sharp mountain peaks, some rising more than 2,000 meters above the sea. Since we are still early in the season, practically all mountains were still covered in snow.

On our first landing of the day, we visited Fortuna Bay, were we could see a king penguin colony with chicks, fur seals and enormous elephant seals.

23 of our guests signed up for our Shackleton hike and followed the famous English polar explorer’s footsteps from Fortuna Bay to the former whaling station of Strømnes. While Fram left Fortuna Bay, the hiking group ascended out of the valley, through the snow. It really felt like an expedition! The views on the valley and the surrounding mountain walls, Strømnes below, and the bay and sea at the horizon, while Fram appeared again around the corner, were just stunning.

Reunited in Strømnes, all passengers had the opportunity to walk around and enjoy Strømnes, where fur seals and elephant seals were sleeping and loudly snoring on the beach.

Stanley!

The Falkland Islands are so amazing that time seems to run at double speed here. Suddenly, we are on our final day of a 3-day visit and it seems like only an hour ago that we arrived! OK, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point.

So today we were in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands (pop. around 2,500), for virtually the whole day. We arrived around 0800, cleared customs, and were allowed to disembark. Many went on various excursions in or outside of the town such as a trip to Bluff Cove, nature and birdwatching walks and a tour of Stanley. A few lucky guests even got to fly over the area in an aircraft tour! Here are some images from our bird watching tour:

Kelp Gull stretching its wings

Rufous-chested Dotterel

Dark-faced Ground Tyrant

A stay in Stanley is multi-dimensional. You have nature and wildness just outside, and inside you have heritage buildings, shops, pubs, memorials, museums, wonderful local people, who seem always keen to chat, and all the other trappings of a modern town. Of course Land Rovers are everywhere and display very simple licence plates! I wonder what the F stands for?!

The quaint Jubilee Villas dating from 1887

Christ Church Cathedral with the famous whale bone arch

Falkland Islands coat of arms: Desire the Right!

Stanley has experienced an economic boom in recent years. People are moving to the island and offshore oil exploration is on-going. Tourism is growing as well with many ships visiting the islands in the summer months and a regular, scheduled flight from Punta Arenas, Chile continues operation. Once in the Falklands, many of the outer islands are accessible by aircraft. Maybe in the future flights will open up to and from Argentina, a mere 400 km to the west.

One of the FIGAS Britten-Norman Islanders providing inter-island flight service

Hiking, cookies and penguins at the Falklands

After the winds and swells at Saunders Island yesterday, we were happy to see blue skies and calm seas upon our arrival at West Point Island. Locals Kikki and Thies gave us a warm welcome, included one of the most extensive English tea & cookies table you could imagine. The fact that 200 passengers were interested in visiting their lovely house, could not have been less of a problem. After we had taken off our shoes, we could choose among dozens of different kinds of cookies. Enjoying them in the spring sun, while sitting in the back yard among the daffodils, felt like a real treat.

Besides the outstanding local hospitality, the hike to Devil’s Nose was our other reason to land at West Point Island. After half an hour of hiking, we were able to admire this rocky promontory. It is the habitat of approximately 2,100 breeding pairs of black-browed albatross, living together with about 500 pairs of rockhopper penguins. Although the rockhoppers and albatross occasionally seem to enjoy some neighboring arguments, they truly live together in peace, often nesting only centimeters apart.

Our second landing of the day took us a few miles further north, Carcass Island. The hospitality here was just as impeccable, and the cookies even more abundant – although, of course, it is impossible to favorize either West Point or Carcass.

We needed the calories, because the second hike of the day was even longer and took us about 1 hour each way. The stunning views at Leopard Beach were absolutely worth it. Sunbathing on the sandy beach or commuting through the dunes on their way from or to the sea, we were able to experience a whole bunch of Gentoo penguins and an occasional Magellanic penguin.

We made it back on board the Fram just before dark. It truly was nice day, packed with hiking, cookies and penguins. Give us more of the good stuff! 

We are now intrepid sailors!

Well we have been sailing for the past three days in open sea towards the Falkland Islands, and encountered a storm yesterday morning. It was no surprise as weather forecasting is highly sophisticated these days and we had lots of charts showing big red blobs to the south of the islands. No one ever wants to see these blobs, which indicate bigger waves or higher winds, but these meteorological features are a part of sailing in South Atlantic waters and there is nothing we can do about it. Well, I shouldn't say nothing because our officers on the bridge are skilled at navigating to give us the smoothest ride possible under the conditions and this may mean deviating a little from the optimum course, then speeding up to make up the time.

So today we are approaching our goal- the Falkland Islands! And what a goal they are- remote, wild, beautiful, and totally fascinating on many different levels. By late afternoon we had arrived at Saunders Island but the wind was blowing VERY strongly! Anyway, our intrepid expedition staff decided to see what the conditions were like on the beach and we launched two of our Polarcirkel boats and went in. As we approached we saw that much of the landing beach was being affected by rollers, although they were not too high and they were intermittent. This last feature was the key to success because the time between waves was long enough to allow us to land our guests!

The Saunders Island landing was fantastic, even with the wind blowing sand in our eyes! There was so much to see that we didn't care! The theme was wildlife particularly birds with five species of penguins breeding, three gull species and many others present. We will let a selection of images tell the story of this amazing place!

Waves rolling in and being blown back to sea

Part of the Gentoo Penguin colony

Some King Penguins had chicks

A Rockhopper Penguin pair with the Macaroni Penguin behind

A nice Brown-hooded Gull showing a pink breast

Two Black-browed Albatrosses courting

We landed on the beach at the far end

A young Striated Caracara

Some of our guests enjoying the wildlife at Saunders