Baily Head, Whaler's Bay and Pendulum Cove, Deception Island, South Shetland Islands
Traffic was heavy on the Penguin Interstate this morning with all the white chinstraps going one way and the black chinstraps going the other way. The on-ramp was gentle surf on a dark volcanic beach, back-dropped by the snowy profile of Livingston Island. Traffic stalled where commuters preened and cleaned before hitting the fast lane up to the nesting colony. We behaved like penguins ourselves as we moved about in an orderly fashion, taking photos on our knees, breaking out tripods, lining up like so many soldiers intent on capturing the best possible image. Upslope, we followed a small meltwater stream that coursed through the penguin colony, winding below neighborhoods of birds, the mates greeting one another with ecstatic displays, their chicks no more than a week old, begging for food. All in all a remarkable sight, not unlike entering a penguin amphitheater, or better yet a coliseum, with the birds as boisterous spectators and we visitors their entertainment, gladiators dressed in red. Latest estimates put this colony at 60,000 breeding pairs. Add the chicks and non-breeding adults and you have a quarter million chinstraps, each one more exuberant than the next.
Just prior to lunch we slipped through Neptune's Bellows into the flooded caldera of Deception Island. A couple hours later found us on shore at Whaler's Bay, the site of an old whaling station (1911-1931) and a British Antarctic Survey base that operated until 1970, when the scientists were evicted by a volcanic eruption. Walking among the old rusty tanks and boilers, the dilapidated buildings, and grave markers of men who never made it home, provided a marked contrast with our morning outing at Baily Head, the bounty of life against the brevity of life. Those of us who hiked up to Neptune's window, a low saddle in the caldera wall, were treated to views of humpback whales, and the musical notes of nesting pintado petrels.
Late in the afternoon, still inside the caldera, many of us went on a Zodiac trip to some ice cliffs laced with swirled patterns of volcanic ash and cinders, while others - the most intrepid among us - went for a swim in the thermally-heated waters of Pendulum Cove.
Traffic was heavy on the Penguin Interstate this morning with all the white chinstraps going one way and the black chinstraps going the other way. The on-ramp was gentle surf on a dark volcanic beach, back-dropped by the snowy profile of Livingston Island. Traffic stalled where commuters preened and cleaned before hitting the fast lane up to the nesting colony. We behaved like penguins ourselves as we moved about in an orderly fashion, taking photos on our knees, breaking out tripods, lining up like so many soldiers intent on capturing the best possible image. Upslope, we followed a small meltwater stream that coursed through the penguin colony, winding below neighborhoods of birds, the mates greeting one another with ecstatic displays, their chicks no more than a week old, begging for food. All in all a remarkable sight, not unlike entering a penguin amphitheater, or better yet a coliseum, with the birds as boisterous spectators and we visitors their entertainment, gladiators dressed in red. Latest estimates put this colony at 60,000 breeding pairs. Add the chicks and non-breeding adults and you have a quarter million chinstraps, each one more exuberant than the next.
Just prior to lunch we slipped through Neptune's Bellows into the flooded caldera of Deception Island. A couple hours later found us on shore at Whaler's Bay, the site of an old whaling station (1911-1931) and a British Antarctic Survey base that operated until 1970, when the scientists were evicted by a volcanic eruption. Walking among the old rusty tanks and boilers, the dilapidated buildings, and grave markers of men who never made it home, provided a marked contrast with our morning outing at Baily Head, the bounty of life against the brevity of life. Those of us who hiked up to Neptune's window, a low saddle in the caldera wall, were treated to views of humpback whales, and the musical notes of nesting pintado petrels.
Late in the afternoon, still inside the caldera, many of us went on a Zodiac trip to some ice cliffs laced with swirled patterns of volcanic ash and cinders, while others - the most intrepid among us - went for a swim in the thermally-heated waters of Pendulum Cove.
