Antarctica 2-13-22

This morning we were at Deception Cove, South Shepherd Island   Coming ashore on our zodiacs we landed on the very desolate land of Whaler’s Bay.

I found the land formations above very interesting as we came onto the land. 

 This is an old whaling village from the times when whales were killed by the thousands.  The beach is covered with old barrels, equipment and debris from the whaling and research period.  It sits below a still active volcano and the land is all volcanic rock and gravel.  

There was a fur seal inside this structure and another outside and it was like they were playing hid and seek!

The seal is peeking out of the larger opening 

I think we all disturbed their playtime!!

The volcanic soil and all the broken down structures made this landing very ghostly. 

The larger barrels held water and the smaller were whale oil. 

These large tires were mostly submerged in the volcanic gravel 

Below was the plane hanger:

We did a very high climb here in really cold and windy weather.

But I did make it up and down!!

There were thermal springs by the shoreline. This picture below was taken by fellow passenger, Foppe van der Heide.   I love the way that he captured the eerie emergence of the thermal springs

In the afternoon we went to Paradise Bay and  explored Half Moon Island in South Shetland Islands.  Here we discovered many chinstrap penguins, fur seals and one huge elephant seal. This island was known to whalers as early as 1821.  

Chinstrap Penguins have pink feet with that distinctive black “chinstrap”.  Penguins main diet is krill, small shrimp-like marine invertebrate animals.  

This cute guy was molting.  They look so comical when molting.    After the chicks completely molt they head out to sea.   

Penguins walking on land is a wonderful and fun sight to see. They hop, waddle and tumble along.  Penguins are much more agile in the water.

We walked to the other side of the island where there were a bunch of penguin chicks in various stages of molting which was very cute to see!

This dude was using a rock for a pillow!

There were also a lot of fir seals that were very verbal!  

Back over on the side to catch the zodiacs back to the boat where a bunch of male fur seals playing or fighting or both on the beach !!

This was our last landing site.  Now on to two days crossing the Drake Passage!