Recounting some of my adventures while not on the road. I traveled through Argentina on my way to Antarctica in early 2015. After camping in Antarctica we so ready to continue our journey
I woke up super early when I heard the voices of my fellow campers through the bivy sack. As I re-familiarized myself to where I was, the first thing I felt was how sore my back was. In my haste to dig an appropriate “grave”, I didn’t take too much care in flattening out the bottom and it hardened through the night. By morning it had turned into this ice lump at my lower right side. To make matters worse, with the varying temperatures inside and outside of my bivy, a good amount of condensation had formed inside my bivy sack and my toque was damp. Sufficed to say it was not the best rest I’ve had.
Pleneau Island
Back aboard the Ioffe and after a hot breakfast and shower I felt human again and was ready to tackle what the day had to offer. Our first stop would be a landing at Pleneau Island. Pleneau Island is pretty small and we got to explore a good chunk of it. On it were a few penguin rookeries and lots and lots of penguins! While they were slightly cautious at these large “red” creatures walking amongst them, they weren’t totally threatened and at times quite curious about who/what we were. Because of this they actually got quite close to us, making for some great encounters! (We were instructed not to approach penguins, but if they got near you it was ok as long as didn’t make aggressive movements causing them distress)
Petermann Island
Back aboard the Ioffe we settled in for lunch before embarking on our afternoon excursion to Petermann Island. This was a much larger Island then Pleneau and we spent a bit more time here, but it was worth it. We got to explore and hike around more and it was at this point in my trip where I took some time to simply sit down and let the significance of where I was and how blessed I was sink in. Putting down the camera and taking it all in was a very spiritual and meditative experience. How untouched this part of the world was, and how beautiful it is, really weighs on you. This world is such a amazing place and to experience and see it in this way is simply awesome!
Oceanites
I wanted to take the time to recognize a group of Oceanites researchers that was aboard our expedition. They are affectionately called the “Penguin counters“. While us tourists were to keep a distance from the penguin colonies and penguins. The Oceanites staff had special permits to approach and enter penguin colonies for the purposes of counting penguins to help track and monitor populations year over year. It was so cool to have them and their expertise aboard, we got to sit down with them during meals and down times and chat with them about what they do and the interesting stories that they’ve accumulated over the years! (Like falling into penguin poop)
Lemaire Channel
Sadly, we would need to return to the Ioffe to continue our voyage. The afternoon saw us cruise through the Lemaire channel which is a narrow North South passage filled with ice bergs. Sometimes vessels are unable to go through the Channel, but we were fortunate enough to sail through without incident.
Tomorrow we would make our first Antarctic continental landings, so we were all very excited to check this continent off our list!