The excursion this morning was to Half Moon Island. It is an old volcanic caldera. There were remains so an old whaling water boat on the beach. There were fur seals and a colony of chinstrap penguins that were on a hill.
After a while, Gonza told us that we were invited to the Argentine base on the island called Camara. On our way to the station, one of the naturalist spotted an Emperor Penquin of the beach. This was a rare occurance since Emperor are normally found much further south. I tried to get a good picute of him. I am hoping someone else in our group got a better one.
Reboarding the Corinthian we headed further north to Deception Island. This too was made by volcanic activity. In fact the volcano erupted in 1967 and 1969 so that the base was abandoned at that time. Whalers Bay was the site of a big operation to extract whale oil. Huge oil drums are still on the island. Whaling was big here up until about 1930. At that point, whaling ships had the machinery to process the whale on the boat thus ending the operations here on the island.
This is also the traditional place to take the polar plunge. I brought my swimsuit but choose to be a spectator rather than a participant. (Frank didn’t even bring a swimsuit. He refused to even consider the option.) It looked mighty cold and I just didn’t want to travel back to our ship on the Zodiac soaked.
What great memories were made today! Tonight our ship begins the journey back to Ushuaia. Time to put on another patch!
Did you have to walk up that hill with those people? Your pics are great!!!!!
Sure did. Actually walking up that snow path was easier than walking on the rocky ground.
Your photos from this trip are amazing, I am also going on a similar cruise early next year – SUPER EXCITED!
Do you have any tips on which tours to take and thing one must do?
additionally what type of camera were you using as you seem to have pretty close up photographs of the animals? Will i need a super zoom camera???
Thanks 🙂
We were on a Grand Circle
Cruise. All of our excursions were included. We took zodiacs for the landings. I used a small Canon Power Shit for my pictures. You don’t need to make super zoom. Antarctica is a nature preserve so the penguins do not run away from you. I. Fact the chicks are very curious. You will love this pristine frontier.