With the frivolities of the night before 4 members of our party did not make it out of bed in time for the first landing of the day, and unfortunately Dave was amongst their number. Having said that I only made it by accident.
I got up late and thought they had already left. When I walked out on to the deaprture deck there was still one boat to go so I ran back down, grabbed my boots, pants and lifevest and bolted back up to be the last one aboard.
When I say the last aboard I mean the last aboard a rather private boat tour. There were only 3 of us on the zodiac and we had a maniac driver (read good maniac - not bad). The other 2 on the boat were the 2 Dutch friends from across the hall (Linda and Rob) and they spoke Spanish so were egging our driver on to greater and greater speed for our tour of the glaciers. I thought I was going to be sick. It was a case of yes, yes go faster, oh no, please make it stop!! The glaciers themselves in Paradise Bay were pretty amazing with lots of Antarctic Cormorants nesting on the cliffs, icicles hanging from the overhangs and and huge walls of glacial ice and snow just waiting to calve. Unfortunately we only saw a small calving but it was still pretty cool.
The walk onto the continent itself involved a visit to a closed station (Brown Station - Skontorp Cove) and a look at some more gentoo penguins.
This was our coldest morning yet with overcast skies and a slight hangover did nothing for the weather. I was pleased to get back on the ship, my toes were too numb to feel through the boots.
Having said that the frosty reception from those that missed the mornings activities made the return less warm than expected. Apologies and explanations aplenty and seemingly forgiveness was granted across each group.
The afternoon landing was a spot called Niko Harbour, Anvord Bay where we were invited to watch a glacier in the hope it would calve. Dave and a dozen or so others of the group took the opportunity to gain some high ground for viewing and they made an awesome sight as figures walking a white line against a white sky. Fingers crossed but those photos should turn up next time I have the hard drive plugged in (sorry I am so disorganised photo wise).
I didn´t see the glacier calve as I was busy playing with the penguins - adelie this time - but I heard it. The crash is amazing.
This landing was really rather pleasant as we all seem to be taking a bit more time away from our cameras to just sit and watch. Not so snap happy, more of a connected observer. Instead of taking heaps of photos I decided to take a few movies instead which I need to figure out how to post. They are amongst the funniest things I have from the holiday. Penguins are truly amongst the most character filled birds in the world.
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