Day 9 - Cuverville Island and Wilhelmena Bay

I saw a group of Penguins out swimming when I first woke up.  Nice way to start the day. 



After breakfast, we were taken to Cuverville Island in the Gerlache Strait.  It is much colder today although the wind is light.  The zodiacs had to go very slowly to avoid the large number of icebergs in the bay.

The walk was much flatter than the others although the snow was soft so was a bit of a trudge rather than a walk.

There were a lot of Gentoo Penguins at the landing site making their way in and out of the sea.

Gentoo Penguin

Icebergs around the Fram


                                            

The snow looks pink in some areas.  This is an algae that grows at about 0C and is an important part of the food chain.

Algae growing in snow

We walked to the Gentoo Penguin Colony where the smell was quite strong.  The higher rocks looked quite green because of lichen growth.


Penguin Colony and lichen covered cliff

Penguin Colony


Gentoos with chick

Penguin Highway 




We then climbed up to the viewpoint which looked out over the bay and we got a better view of the icebergs some of which were larger than the ship.

Iceberg Bay

Skua


We then made our way back to the landing site and watched the Penguins on the rocks before getting the zodiac back.  Scientists were on the beach collecting sea water and were also sending out the drone.

Whalebone on the shore

Paul with penguins


We sailed to Wilhelmina Bay where it was very misty.  We went for a zodiac cruise around the bay and saw a lot of Humpback Whales.  It was snowing quite heavily at times and there was a lot of sea ice.  The mist gradually lifted to reveal some more high snow covered mountains.  Before landing we collected some sea ice for the scientists to analyse.




Wilhelmena Bay

Wilhelmena Bay

Wilhelmena Bay

Wilhelmena Bay

Wilhelmena Bay

Tonight we leave the Antarctic Peninsula and will be making for South Georgia.

Comments

  1. JustSteph12 February 2022 at 12:14

    This is all very nice but have you managed to find me an Antarctica badge yet? 😀

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ann13 February 2022 at 12:00

    Love the penguin highway.

    ReplyDelete

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