As we had quite a storm during our crossing from South
Georgia to the Peninsula we had a delay of half a day. Our first landing that
had been planned at the Polish Arctowski Station, we could not manage. But the
weather changed from wind and storm to beautiful sunshine and so we enjoyed our
morning on board, looking for seabirds, whales – and at least we saw some blows
– and of course we made hundreds of pictures from our first view of the
Antarctic Peninsula.
Around 16:00 we reached Half Moon Island and then the moment
came when we could set our first step in Antarctica. As there has been no wind
and lots of sunshine it was so warm. Nobody expected this and so nearly
everybody was dressed up too warm!
Chinstrap Penguins were waiting for us and welcomed us in
their huge colony. A Weddell Seal was sleeping directly on the beach next to
our landing site. The whole landscape was covered with snow. We got the feeling
that we and the penguins, and of course the Weddell Seal, have been together
with some gulls and skuas the only living creatures on earth.
The lecture staff flagged a route into the snow that we
could follow easily. And then you could hear the clicking of our cameras all
over the place. Thousands of pictures were done from the magnificent landscape
and the Chinstrap Penguins.
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| FriedaPhoto |
On one place in the penguin colony we could find a Macaroni
Penguin sitting in the middle of hundreds of Chinstraps. Everybody tried to get
at least a view on this “generally” sub-Antarctic bird.
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| FriedaPhoto |
At the same time our kayakers started their first kayak round
in Antarctica. Congratulations to all of them. To see them alone in front of
this amazing glacier scenery was incredible.
In the later evening our Captain Rune Andreassen gave us a
special plus. As we had still some daylight he went through “Neptune’s Bellows”
into Deception Island, this amazing caldera in a still very young (out of a
geological view) and active volcano. In the caldera we have been able to get a
little impression of the old whaling station in Whaler’s Bay. Thanks to the
captain to give us this unexpected experience.
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| Photo: Joe Decker |
The evening ended with a fruit- and ice carving show done by
our very creative galley crew. It is amazing how they can change fruits and ice
into amazing art!
