Curtiss Bay, on the Trinity Peninsula
Awaking to a world of frozen splendor, our eager gazes fell upon the Davis Coast and Charcot Bay, part of the Trinity Peninsula. We had emerged from the Bransfield Strait during the night after rounding the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula we headed southward again, this time on the eastern side. Following a cruise through the Orleans Strait over breakfast, we arrived upon the scene of this day’s perfect adventure. We were blessed with another day of astoundingly gorgeous weather—windless, calm, clear.
It was the rare kind of day in the Antarctic when conditions permitted whatever we desired. Our wise Expedition Leader opted for a kayaking excursion in the previously unvisited Curtiss Bay. From our small and silent crafts we met an inspiring array of wildlife in a scene so quiet that the lapping of the waves on the rocky shores, echoing off the towering walls of ice, seemed overwhelmingly loud. Here no birds had gathered to breed, resulting in an exquisitely peaceful sojourn.
My kayak met a chinstrap penguin emerged on a rock, several kelp gulls, a few skuas, several dozen Antarctic terns, a leopard seal on an ice floe, and a lone resting blue-eyed shag. We also met a floating hot cocoa stand, from which Cecilia and Annika served up the best I’ve tasted. But best of all was the curious Weddell seal we found sunbathing in a small cove, whose curiosity in us produced a great show and communion with nature.
Awaking to a world of frozen splendor, our eager gazes fell upon the Davis Coast and Charcot Bay, part of the Trinity Peninsula. We had emerged from the Bransfield Strait during the night after rounding the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula we headed southward again, this time on the eastern side. Following a cruise through the Orleans Strait over breakfast, we arrived upon the scene of this day’s perfect adventure. We were blessed with another day of astoundingly gorgeous weather—windless, calm, clear.
It was the rare kind of day in the Antarctic when conditions permitted whatever we desired. Our wise Expedition Leader opted for a kayaking excursion in the previously unvisited Curtiss Bay. From our small and silent crafts we met an inspiring array of wildlife in a scene so quiet that the lapping of the waves on the rocky shores, echoing off the towering walls of ice, seemed overwhelmingly loud. Here no birds had gathered to breed, resulting in an exquisitely peaceful sojourn.
My kayak met a chinstrap penguin emerged on a rock, several kelp gulls, a few skuas, several dozen Antarctic terns, a leopard seal on an ice floe, and a lone resting blue-eyed shag. We also met a floating hot cocoa stand, from which Cecilia and Annika served up the best I’ve tasted. But best of all was the curious Weddell seal we found sunbathing in a small cove, whose curiosity in us produced a great show and communion with nature.
