The Antarctic Peninsula: Cuverville Island & Neko Harbor
After our two remarkably clear, sunny, and eventful days in the South Shetland Archipelago, the National Geographic Explorer crossed the Bransfield Strait to reach the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Here, moist westerly winds from the Bellinghausen Sea are deflected upward by the mountains of the Peninsula. They drop much of their moisture as snow, which accumulates as ice, and voilá, we find ourselves is a scenic white wonderland of mountains and glaciers. We are in an area that was first explored by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-98, the first expedition to overwinter in the Antarctic (whether by choice or chance will remain forever in debate.) We turned up the narrow Errera Channel to reach our morning destination of Cuverville Island. Here, taking advantage of the bright sun and wind-free conditions, everything that floats was deployed: our fleet of Zodiacs and our inflatable yellow kayaks. While half the group took to the kayaks, the rest landed on Cuverville Island, and then we switched. Cuverville Island is home to a colony of breeding gentoo penguins ... or, they will be breeding but now they are standing over their soon-to-be nesting sites waiting for the snow to melt. There also was a good deal of penguins coming and going through crystal-clear water, which included a mad, porpoising dash past leopard seals waiting in ambush. Conditions were perfect for photography as we all tried to catch the perfect moment of penguin and seal, prey and predator, animation.
Over lunch we moved to Neko Harbor, off of Anvord Bay, for a landing on the Antarctic Continent proper - for many our seventh continent - with more gentoo penguins watching over the occasion. Our time was divided between a climb up the snow slope to gaze out over the most remarkable landscape, and Zodiac cruises among the icebergs that are calved from the myriad of glaciers bringing ice down from the steep mountain slopes all around us. And then we left, heading southward, wondering what more could possibly await us in the wonderland that is Antarctica.
