Port Lockroy & Dallman Bay
Seemingly just as National Geographic Endeavour’s Expeditioners have begun to master the language of Antarctica…being able to tell the difference between brash ice and grease ice, judging the relative hatching dates of penguin chicks at the many rookeries we have visited, quickly distinguishing the silhouettes on passing ice floes as leopard seals versus crabeater seals…our expedition time in Antarctica is over. Tonight we will enter the Drake Passage for the journey home, but not before experiencing one final day of offerings from the Antarctic treasure chest.
We awoke in the Peltier Channel, a narrow ice-lined passage between Doumer and Weinke islands, the Seven Sisters of Weinke looming overhead, their snow-capped summits looking like whipped cream-topped desserts.
The Peltier leads us directly to the door of the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s Port Lockroy museum, which captures the flavor of Antarctic living in the middle of the last century, when British researchers overwintered with few amenities and only their imaginations to pass the time. Like so many of the very few places on the Continent where people can make their way ashore, Port Lockroy has seen and continues to see other uses. Once whalers used this bay as headquarters for their local operations, and whalebones litter the beaches, a reminder of a time when we mistook the bounty of the earth as unlimited. And today, gentoo penguins make their home here, taking advantage of the hospitable shelter of this bay.
But the final show was saved for last, as we approached the Melchoir Islands, noted for their high concentration of whales. Watching humpback whales for several hours at close range, thanks to the patience of Captain Kruse who simply let the whales come nearly alongside the ship, we were amazed at the gentle grace of these largest of our friends. Our final treat was a humpback ballet, as four of the krill-stuffed leviathans performed the finale to “Antarctic Dreams,” executed with the entire ensemble crashing to the surface in a display of lunge feeding that seemed to go on forever.
Nearly as dramatic, the two of us, Steve Forrest and Melissa Rider, onboard researchers with the U.S.-based nonprofit Oceanites, were today once again afforded an opportunity to visit a heretofore uncatalogued penguin rookery. Our documentation of the number of penguins at Pye Point, made possible through the generosity of National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions, and great help from the crew and staff of the National Geographic Endeavour, will further our collective understanding of the dynamics of penguin populations on the Antarctic Peninsula.
We leave the Peninsula behind reluctantly, knowing there is so much more to discover in this ever-surprising place.
Seemingly just as National Geographic Endeavour’s Expeditioners have begun to master the language of Antarctica…being able to tell the difference between brash ice and grease ice, judging the relative hatching dates of penguin chicks at the many rookeries we have visited, quickly distinguishing the silhouettes on passing ice floes as leopard seals versus crabeater seals…our expedition time in Antarctica is over. Tonight we will enter the Drake Passage for the journey home, but not before experiencing one final day of offerings from the Antarctic treasure chest.
We awoke in the Peltier Channel, a narrow ice-lined passage between Doumer and Weinke islands, the Seven Sisters of Weinke looming overhead, their snow-capped summits looking like whipped cream-topped desserts.
The Peltier leads us directly to the door of the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s Port Lockroy museum, which captures the flavor of Antarctic living in the middle of the last century, when British researchers overwintered with few amenities and only their imaginations to pass the time. Like so many of the very few places on the Continent where people can make their way ashore, Port Lockroy has seen and continues to see other uses. Once whalers used this bay as headquarters for their local operations, and whalebones litter the beaches, a reminder of a time when we mistook the bounty of the earth as unlimited. And today, gentoo penguins make their home here, taking advantage of the hospitable shelter of this bay.
But the final show was saved for last, as we approached the Melchoir Islands, noted for their high concentration of whales. Watching humpback whales for several hours at close range, thanks to the patience of Captain Kruse who simply let the whales come nearly alongside the ship, we were amazed at the gentle grace of these largest of our friends. Our final treat was a humpback ballet, as four of the krill-stuffed leviathans performed the finale to “Antarctic Dreams,” executed with the entire ensemble crashing to the surface in a display of lunge feeding that seemed to go on forever.
Nearly as dramatic, the two of us, Steve Forrest and Melissa Rider, onboard researchers with the U.S.-based nonprofit Oceanites, were today once again afforded an opportunity to visit a heretofore uncatalogued penguin rookery. Our documentation of the number of penguins at Pye Point, made possible through the generosity of National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions, and great help from the crew and staff of the National Geographic Endeavour, will further our collective understanding of the dynamics of penguin populations on the Antarctic Peninsula.
We leave the Peninsula behind reluctantly, knowing there is so much more to discover in this ever-surprising place.
