Datum: |
28.12.2023 |
Positie: |
64°54.45’S / 62°56.2’W |
Wind: |
W 3/4 |
Weer: |
Overcast |
Luchttemperatuur: |
+1 |
Some passengers woke up today without the traditional “good morning, Ortelius” from Marcel, because it was camping near Brown station. We got up at the campsite at 5:30 in the morning. One after another, people began to wake up and get out of their warm sleeping bags into the fresh frosty air. The morning greeted us with good weather. Not far from the camp, a Weddell seal was sleeping. It stayed there for more than 8 hours. All night long it made funny noises from time to time.
After a delicious breakfast, we landed on the territory of the Argentinean scientific station, Brown Station, not far from the ship all night. A colony of gentoo penguins is here; they are the real owners of the station. Penguins continue to incubate eggs; this has been their main activity for more than a month. A Snowy Sheathbill was sneaking around, collecting everything that could be eaten between the nests of penguins.
After lunch, the ship moved a little from its morning mooring point. There was Zodiac cruising around the area. In search of wildlife, we examined the nearby shores, and suddenly one of the guides informed everyone by radio that they had discovered a leopard seal. All the Zodiacs rushed towards him. A leopard seal rested on an ice floe among a whole field of ice chips.
The leopard seal lay peacefully on the ice floe, at times raising its head, glancing at the people in the boats that surrounded the ice floe, yawning, and showing its huge mouth. Judging by the markings on its belly, it was a female. There were many birds flying around: Giant petrel, Wilson's storm petrel, Snow petrel. Then a humpback whale was spotted among the ice; its huge head appeared several times among the ice chips. All the attention of the Zodiacs was now directed to him. In open water, he disappeared, but a Minke whale with a calf was discovered very close to the boats.
MOUNTAINEERING
The target for our morning mountaineering was Canessa, an attractive dome of snow to the north of Brown Station in Paradise Harbour. The landing was quite complicated, with Mal and Andy needing to drop us off on a rocky shoreline and anchor the Zodiacs further away. We had a steady ascent on snow, passing close to some crevasses, and below us were humpback whales and gentoo penguins clearly visible in the clear waters. Views from the summit back towards Ortelius were breathtaking.
Retracing our steps to the landing spot, we found the Zodiacs aground on the falling tide. A team effort eventually got them afloat, and then it was a matter of weaving through a maze of brash ice. We were learning to expect the unexpected on this adventure. More surprises awaited us in the afternoon at nearby Point Sofia.
We landed on a rocky promontory, and EL Marcel left to join the other passengers for a Zodiac cruise. We donned snowshoes but then immediately found the exit from the promontory blocked by a pair of nesting brown skuas. There was no way to circumvent them without disturbing them but fortunately for us it was low tide, and we could walk along this unique shoreline. Huge cliffs of ice towered above us, and at our feet were jellyfish, amphipods and starfish. Wandering around were gentoo penguins and a special treat of an Adelie penguin coming very close to us, seemingly unperturbed by our presence. A Weddell seal lounged on the ice just a little further on.
KAYAKING
CAMPING
On the night of the 28th of December, our second group of campers was preparing to overnight in Antarctica. Also, for the second night, the weather looked promising. So everyone got geared up in the heli-hangar with the black bags and left Ortelius on Zodiacs to our chosen spot. It should be Kerr Point on Ronge island.
The ride to our location was stunning, with mirror-like waters and magnificent icebergs. On shore Andi was welcoming us and Paolo instructed us in the right shovelling technique. After we found our spot, we started to shovel our pits. The snow was soft, so it was quite easy to do so! The camping guides built a path to walk a little bit uphill so we could overlook the whole scenery. It was stunning.
We spotted a Minke whale surfacing a few times and stayed in the area for half an hour. Eventually we got tired and crawled into our warm sleeping bags. During the night, there were sounds of avalanches and glacier calvings in the area, giving us a special atmosphere combined with the pristine view. When we woke up around 5.30am, we started to fill in our pits, but this time the snow was frozen, so it took more power to do so. But it was a decent morning workout!