Christmas with Adelies

Friday, 25th December - at sea towards Cape Hallett: It’s Christmas morning, and out on the bow after breakfast, we don’t see Santa and his sleigh, but we do spot some blows from a pod of Orca.  Bob and John are able to convince the Captain to slow the ship down and the Orcas pass close by our starboard side.  Just beautiful and so graceful!

The weather is starting to close in a little when we arrive at Cape Hallett.  Shane and Aaron take a helicopter to the preferred landing site to see if it will be possible for us to land.  As they return, we notice that the ship is turning and starting to move back along the track we’d created in the sea-ice.  

It’s not looking good for a landing, and Shane soon confirms that there is water between the landing site on the sea-ice, and the penguin colony on the shore.  A Zodiac landing is not an option because of the amount of ice.  However we are able to fly and watch the ship breaking the ice.  

Six of us take off in the blue helicopter and fly around the ship.  We each have window seats, and with the windows cleaned, we’re up and away to see the sights.  Lots of fun!

Saturday, 26th December - penguins galore at Cape Adare: Literally hundreds of thousands of them!  We’ve been garaged at Cape Adare since about 3am, and all is white when I first look out through our porthole.  Then I see a couple of Adelies walking by.  Moving closer to the window I see a few more.  When we open the window and I lean out, there are masses of them up beside the ship – black and white dots on a pure white landscape.  And as the cloud starts to lift, we can see the high mountains of Cape Adare in the background.

The ship is moved out into the sea so that we can Zodiac onto the shore and visit the largest Adelie colony in the Antarctic.  There are 250,000 breeding pairs here, and as we glide across the glassy water, we pass penguins in large groups dotting small icebergs, penguins lined up across the shoreline their curiosity piqued by our arrival, and masses of them at the base of the mountains in the background.  

The colony feels like a penguin resort.  Queuing in lines, they wait patiently before plunging into the sea; others are swimming in small pools of water that have formed between the shore and the main colony; those on small icebergs float by as if on rafts.

There is a background hum, almost like a crowd chatting before a football match or concert. Chicks can be seen in nests, closely guarded by mum or dad.  Two Skuas are fighting over the remains of a chick, and I see one Skua on a small iceberg enjoying its lunch.  

Nearer the shore, I sit on some stones and ice watching the colony and hoping for some close encounters.  After a while they become used to my being there and come close, but not too close.  One is preening itself within arm’s length.  The sea-ice is moving passed quite fast, and seems to be closing in.  Suddenly we hear the ship’s horn and this means that we need to quickly get into the Zodiacs and go back to the ship.  It has been a wonderful, although brief visit.

The Captain takes us back to the ice to a safe garage so that we can walk down onto the ice. Just like their cousins at Cape Washington, the Adelies are soon back near the ship and using our entry point as a swimming hole.  It’s just wonderful to watch them dropping into the water – some take a run, others literally flop over the edge and others wait and ponder before gracefully diving in.  Their return is entirely different – they fly out of the water in single file and land on the ice, either tobogganing or waddling away.

This has to be a feast for Leopard seals and Orca, but we don’t see any patrolling the area – perhaps they’re well below the ice.

Walking amongst the penguins in the afternoon is a joy.  I stop along the "path" laid out for us on the ice, and wait for an Adelie to pass by.  He comes over to me and the two of us stand quite still looking at each other carefully.  He comes a little closer and is now a foot length from my boot – oh for a small peck.  But he turns away and waddles back to his friends and family in the colony.  

All too soon we’re back on the ship.  And while we’re at dinner, the KK quietly backs out of our parking space, and we are bidding farewell to the Antarctic.  This was out last landing.

We raise our glasses to the old explorers and to the Antarctic.  It has been a wonderful visit, and I know I’ll be back!