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Day 9 & 10
Nov 27, 2022
After maybe an hour of sleep we found ourselves up and about at 3am. This is summertime in Antarctica so there is 24 hours of daylight. The first rays of sunlight (if you can call it that) were starting to bounce of the snow in the mountains, which gave the entire area a yellowish glow. Since we were up, Eric and I decided to go on a short unplanned hike up a few hills. The hike opened us up to some amazing views and we came across a few solo penguins on a hike of their own. Back to our site and it was time to re-pack our sleeping bags and fill up the holes that we had dug the previous night, so that penguins don’t fall into them and get stuck.
The zodiacs were there by 5am to take us back to the ship, where we were greeted by banana bread and hot chocolate. After a hot shower most campers decided to take a nap, but Pippa had told us about the magnificent views we would be presented in the morning as we sailed through the Lemaire channel towards our next stop. So, I was out on the bow of the ship with a few others admiring the landscape as the ship sailed through the channel. It was a perfectly bright sunny day,
which gave us the opportunity to see the continent in its fullest form. There were mountains completely covered in snow on both sides of the channel and if I have not already said it, it was the whitest white. There were huge chunks of clear icebergs floating all around the ship with long streams of flowing bright white hills as we slowly made our way to Orne Harbor. There wasn’t a wisp of wind in the air, but it was still freezing outside.
After breakfast at 8AM, we got all layered up to our eyeballs again and boarded the zodiacs for another day of exploration. Most of the campers from the previous night decided to sleep in, but not me. I wanted to take advantage of every second on this trip and I’m glad I did. The views were stunning as we saw hundreds of chinstrap penguins clumsily walking up and down the snow slopes. Some were carrying rocks in their mouth to build their nest, while others were engaged in screaming matches with each other and there were others that were jumping into the water from a 2-meter drop. These guys were the aggressive cousins of the gentoo penguins we saw the previous day. As we got closer to their colony, the smell just got nasty, which was the smell of their poop. That’s all the brown stuff that was all around, and it did not seem to bother them as they were waddling about and rolling in it all day.
The penguins were waiting to lay their eggs, for which they need the snow to melt, and to speed up that process they poop. Talk about nature finding a way!
As we kept cruising around, we found ourselves trying to navigate a dense sheet of ice float. In the middle of all that ice there was a single seal taking its siesta after a hearty meal, the remains of which were lying right beside him. This was a leopard seal, a big fella! At another spot a couple of penguins were making their way down to the ocean and as they suddenly spotted a seal napping on the rocks, we could see them stop look at each other and change directions and go back. This was our first real up and close with the glaciers.
We saw the cracks, we saw them breaking off, we saw them come rolling down into the ocean and we heard the loud boom as they crashed into the water. This was more the result of the natural winter to summer melting season.
The massive size of some of these pieces that rolled into the ocean and float there as icebergs is incomprehensible until you get in front of them, or you see another zodiac cruise across them. Massive!! Out of nowhere we got hit with 20 knot winds and we were recalled back to the ship. We got lucky on our way back as our expedition crew spotted a few humpback whales, so we went chasing after them for the next 30 minutes. And they were more than willing to oblige as they constantly kept coming up to
the surface for a blow and fluke up their tails. A magnificent sight to see those signature tail flips of the whales. Even the captain for a few minutes there backtracked on his initial request to come back and started to guide the zodiacs to the right spots to admire these magnificent creatures. One even bobbed its head up to give us a little peak. Not sleeping in was a good call.
It was time for lunch, and as we gathered at our now unofficial reserved booth some of us decided to switch the order and start with desert first. Just a little humor for the day. The lazy ones of the group that took a nap, slowly ambled in and of course we had to make them feel bad for missing out on the morning’s activities and sights. Next up on the agenda was kayaking, so I accompanied a few down to deck 3 to get our wet suits. After a short 15-minute nap I got into the wet suit and rubber boots and gathered at deck 3, where we got our lifejackets and a waterproof shell also. After boarding the zodiacs from the shell door, which was now pulling a row of kayaks off we went to find a calm (calm enough) spot to start the next adventure. Being a tandem kayak, the heavier person sits at the back, and I was the heavier person (hmm...). But it was one of the girls from our solo group in the front, so I’ll own that. We were kayaking first in relatively calm waters around icebergs and then into what seemed like inlets surrounded by some amazing vistas. This was an experience I would never forget as we got up and personal with those icebergs and looking down into the ocean you could follow them down into the dark depths of the ocean. We admired the grandeur of the scenery and location, always wary of possible falling ice. Our onward route was choked by ice, and with no available channels to move forward through, we headed along the coastline between larger icebergs. The blue colors on the ice, were so clear and bright, not a speck of dirt on them as the smooth surface and contours disappeared down below.
The bluer the color of the ice the older the ice is, with some being 1000’s of years old.
The wind progressively increased, creating waves as we reached a protected little cove. With conditions too challenging for an onward journey, we retraced our route and found a new a lagoon among icebergs. This spectacular location was actually a patch of open water set beneath Orne Island’s icy mountain, surrounded by icebergs. It was the perfect place to quietly absorb the powerful silence of this dramatic Antarctic environment. Just sat there on the water to take in both the immensity of our surroundings and the massiveness of the moment. If not for the luck, we had with the weather we would not have ventured into these deep waters. We were surrounded by ice floats, icebergs behind us and huge, majestic mountains in front of us. If the weather turned now, we would be boxed in for sure, but our captain was able to give us the go ahead to continue exploring. As we got out of that place, the waters were getting a bit choppy, and it was getting a bit hard to keep the kayak steady and in a straight line. Looks like our luck was running out. So, we rowed as quickly as possible to the zodiac that was waiting for us.
Just as we were all in, we heard the captain radio in that the conditions were getting very dangerous with the ice was starting to shift and that he would have to close the shell doors of the ship, which meant there would be no way for us to get back into the ship. We started to head back to the ship, but there was absolutely no path for us to get even remotely close as the ice was closing in on the ship and creating high swells that were rising above the shell doors. It was a tricky situation, since the ship couldn’t make any sudden turns as that would push some of the ice out of the way and potentially bring even larger pieces closer. A path to the ship would become available and then just as we tried to hit it, it would close again. This happened a few times, before the captain decided to basically see-saw the ship to make a path for us. We were 3 zodiacs, and it was getting cold, wet, and windy now. As soon as a path appeared we had to rush in quickly one by one. Our zodiac drivers had to match the approach to the shell door with the swells and even after finally making it to the door, getting off the zodiac and into the ship was a careful balancing act. Up from our seats and quickly into the ship as the swell came in. So, one by one we made it in. The plan was to sail on to Orne Island next, but due to the water conditions there we made our way to Cuverville island. Some of the zodiacs went out for a cruise, but I decided to skip this one.
After a shower we returned our suits and joined the group for dinner. We treated ourselves to a few bottles of wines before reminiscing the events of the last 2 days before heading to bed. Some of us were running on just an hour of sleep over the last 48 activity filled hours.
Nov 28, 0222
We woke up to calm conditions at Cuverville Island, which meant the water was not choppy and the temperature was only -2C. We were surrounded by vast mountains and glaciers of the mainland Antarctic Peninsula. After breakfast we got our pickaxe and harness before boarding the zodiacs at
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7:45AM to start our mountaineering activity. On making landfall on the island, we were greeted by our friendly neighborhood friends, penguins. There was a large colony of them just 10 ft from where we disembarked our zodiacs, yacking away as loudly as they could. We were very careful to not step on their tracks or get in their way as we made our way up. We did not bother them, and they did not bother us. Nature in total harmony in the
remotest region of the Earth.
From the landing zone it looked like a steep climb up, but we managed to zig zag our way up without any ropes in our snowshoes. Once we reached a landing area of sorts, we all got roped up and got a quick lesson on how to use our pickaxes and stay coordinated with our ropes as a group. There were 4 in each group, plus our mountaineering guide.
Basically, if you are walking up the switchbacks from a direction of left to right, the axe goes on the right hand and the rope on the left side of your body and then switch both around for the other direction.
The whole thing was a bit challenging at first especially, lifting our snowshoes up and over the ropes at each turn to swap the ropes from side to side. But after a while we got into a rhythm and managed to keep the same pace while still roped up. The entire backdrop was filled with barely visible mountains. Not sure if it was the mist, the clouds or just early morning dew, but whatever it was, it was eerily quiet. No one spoke a word as we were just heads down concentrating on getting ourselves to the top. After the initial climb we had to lengthen the ropes since we now started to hit
the glacial part of the climb and the extra length would give us the best chance of not all getting pulled down into a crevasse if one in the group did fall through. The others would act like an anchor to stem the fall. We got to another little flat patch where we grouped together to take some pictures before heading on up again. From the top we could see the entire landscape, still covered in clouds, but we could clearly make out the massive glaciers reaching out from the top of the mountain to the ocean below. We also heard the thunder of a few breaking off and falling into the water. We were peering down into what looked like an island surrounded by water on all sides, bordered by mountains and glaciers. There were massive chunks of icebergs floating all around the island. After a brief period of breathing, it all in, we headed back the same way came up… long ropes, followed by short ropes, followed by no ropes as we moved from glacier to mountain through the decline. As we started to reach the bottom those penguins took an interest in us and stepped right into our tracks in front of us. Naturally this is their land, so we had to make our way around them.
If that was not enough on reaching the bottom, we were stuck. The zodiac landing area was completely non-existent as the ice floats and the icebergs all came in, making reaching the zodiacs extremely difficult and extremely dangerous. We could see how quickly the ice was moving in and pushing each other as the zodiacs in their approach in were getting rocked. But these guides knew what they were doing and had experienced it all before. Quite ingenious, they used 2 of the zodiacs to maneuver around as they created a counter current to make just enough of a path through the ice for a third zodiac to quickly make its way to shore to pick us up a group at a time. After some prodding and pushing the ice with some paddles we made it out and got lucky to see a lonely seal slumbering on a piece of ice in the middle of the water and for the grand finale another whale waving us off as we left the area.
The weather turned midway through our journey back to the ship. The wind picked up creating rocky conditions for the zodiacs in the water. We were tossed up so many times. And to add to that it started to snow. The combination of the snow and the constant splashing of the ice cold water got us really drenched and freezing. Not a pleasant ride back.
Once back, a hot shower and lunch was followed by the most restful nap I had in a long time. I think I was out for 5 hours straight, probably due to the lack of sleep over the last 2 days and the number of activities that were all packed into them. Woke up around 6:30pm to attend the recap and join our little group for dinner. We ended playing a few rounds of chess and chatting up over by the ship bar before heading to bed. The weather was bad outside and the captain also made it a point to announce over the ship intercom that he was going to be tracking a huge iceberg the entire night as it was slowly starting to head in our direction, and that he might have to make constant course corrections to avoid hitting it. Hondius is the first class 6 ship of its kind in the world that was built to navigate these waters and breakthrough some thick ice, but this one was too big for even her to handle. Pleasant thoughts to go to take to bed indeed!
Days 9 & 10 photos
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