Journey to the South (Part V)

December 28^th. Overnight we had sailed to the South Shetland Islands, of which we made preparations to land on King George Island. It was a 20 minute walk around the bay where we reached the Chinese research base, Great Wall Station. Visiting Great Wall Station is extremely unique, and this was the crew’s first time ever landing there. The only reason we were allowed to tour Great Wall Station is because one of the passengers had connection to one of the original expedition leaders of the Chinese team.

Great Wall Station was completely different from Base Orcadas – it was big, and didn’t feel so isolated. This is because King George Island has one of the higher densities of the research bases in all of Antarctica. Great Wall Station even had a gym where they hold miniature Olympics between the other bases on King George Island.

In the afternoon, we stopped at Yankee Harbour (62°32 S, 59°47 W) on Greenwich Island (also one of the South Shetland Islands) where there was a gentoo penguin colony. The interesting part of this site was seeing the pebble exchange. Part of the pair bonding behavior between penguins involves the male penguin adding pebbles to the nest (which is made of pebbles). Sometimes though, they will steal pebbles from other nests and the neighbouring penguins will begin to squawk and hit each other with their wings. So what is more valuable than gold, diamonds or anything in the world to a penguin? Pebbles. I have a video of this behavior, it’s rather cute.

We also saw a Waddell seal lazing on the cold beach until it wiggled (like a giant caterpillar) into the ice covered bay. The wind was picking up and it was quite cold. By the time it was time to leave Yankee Bay, I was just about ready, and had already abandoned photography for the sake of keeping my fingers warm.

On December 29^th we sailed through Bransfield’s strait, which is filled with ice bergs, including tabular ice bergs that are not found in the Arctic because their creation comes from large ice shelves that only exist in the Antarctica. The lighting was amazing these several hours matched the amazing memory and experience of climbing dune 45 in Nambia to watch the sun rise and the orange-red sand like a fire in my heart. Through the shifting ice bergs, the Antarctic peninsula – the main land – came into view. Sadly, due to wind and weather we never made it ashore. Brown bluff on the Antarctica sound remains unconquered in our journey. Although a disappointment, there’s nothing we could have done that would not have compromised safety. At least, this is a great excuse to one day return to the Antarctica. Although we were unable to land, we still had a fairly good view of the penguin colony from the ship. Through the day we had observed Waddell seals, Leopard seals and penguins on ice bergs. Now, there were plenty all over the ice and land – more penguins that we had seen anywhere else. A few sheath bills also landed on our ship, which is the only non-aquatic bird that exists this far south.

The Antarctica sound is located at 63°32 S, 56°55 W). This is the furthest south our journey would take us. We sailed past Bransfield’s Strait into the Waddell sea, as far as we could go until it was time to turn around. On the way back we discovered a new island and landing site that the Fram had never stopped at before. In the end, it was not the peninsula, but we still had a great experience with the penguins. A lot of the non-snow country citizens decided to toboggan down the mountain, but we decided to enjoy the penguins instead since snow isn’t really that special to us Canadians.

The journey is coming to a close, and we made one more stop before braving the Drake’s Passage. On December 30^th we made our last on Deception Island (62°57 S, 60°37 W)). This island is volcanic and the bay is the sunken volcano. Instead of being a rocky/pebble filled beach like the other locations, this beach was made of black volcanic sand that reminded me a lot of Oreo crumbs. Even the texture seemed to match. We did our second and final hike on this expedition, up onto the ridge. We also took the opportunity to do a bit of tobogganing. Due to the heat from the volcanic activity this area is often foggy. As we reached the top of the ridge, the fog became so thick that we could barely see in front of us. When the fog finally cleared, a bright green peak came into view with our final penguin rookery. As we approached, I realized that of course the green was not grass (as there is no grass this far south), but instead was a small moss ground cover plant. The hiking experience is always rewarding.

In the afternoon, we visited Half Moon Island, which is sheltered by glacier-covered Livingston Island. There is a large chin strap penguin colony and in the distance is the Teniente Camara Argentine research base, a red building. We also saw a lone macaroni penguin, which looks quite similar to the rock hopper penguins we saw back at the Falkland Islands. Down at the bay, we also saw Waddell seals up close and personal.

Then, it was sadly time to return back to the Fram for the last time.

For the next two days, new years eve and new years day, we were at sea on the infamous Drakes Passage – the roughest passage of water in the world. The currents are strong and water must squeeze through the small area between Antarctica and South America. We were lucky and the Drake was forgiving, although we still spent much of our time drugged up on Gravol. During one lunch, the dishes flew off the table top as we approached a 30 degree angle. As long as you’re not feeling too sick, it’s quite exciting.

We had our lectures as usual, this time about ice, cormorants, and fossils. That evening we celebrated the New Year with our special dinner of Mulligatawny soup, fish, chicken and panna cotta which follows the famous European comedy skit, Dinner For One. It was funny and we didn’t realize that they had arranged our whole dinner menu surrounding this skit. It was the theme of the evening and the crew re-enacted the skit that evening at the party. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 1, 2011. Our last day at sea – Drake Passage part II. Again we spent most our day at lectures, however they were quite infuriating as the topics were regarding Climate change, in which one of the members of the expedition proceed to offend anyone who did not share his opinion calling them “stupid”. Now normally I don’t mind a good debate, but I do not overly appreciate being called stupid by a biologist working on a luxury cruise line. But nonetheless I ignored his comments and we carried on with the day and had our last dinner, the Captain’s Dinner.

The next morning we left the Fram on the shore of Ushuaia, where the whole trip had began. After a short walk, my sister and I caught the bus to the airport for the several day trip home while my parents checked-in to their hotel in Ushuaia where they would spend a few extra days exploring South America. About 2 days later, we arrived in Calgary. The next day I drove back to Lloydminster. One of the longest journeys of my life.

Journey to the South (Part IV)

Apparently, a large part of the world actually celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve. So, after leaving the Drygelski Fjord, we headed to the dining hall for our “Christmas” dinner. It’s extravagance was thrilling. They had food carvings and displays made of food, including a whole roasted pig, a 3 foot long boat made out of watermelon, yuletide cakes that looked like real logs with meringue mushrooms and chocolates and a present cake. Our set dinners were seated with Gerald and Young from Arizona, a retired couple.

After dinner we headed to the observation deck to make Christmas ornaments for the tree. Then, we headed for bed and waited for Santa to come :P

Christmas day was a “regular” day on the ship. Except that Santa had left some MS Fram Antarctica t-shirts J Other than this, we attended our 4 lectures and after-dinner briefing on our next destination, the South Orkneys. I must say, Christmas in Antarctica is much more pleasant than Christmas with the relatives! And much more exciting as well. Normally we open our presents before Christmas because we go to Vancouver so it would be logistically illogical to cart wrapped presents there just to bring the un-wrapped ones back. My cousins from California on the other hand seem to have the opposite idea and most often spend several hours on Christmas morning opening each individually wrapped gift. No, this year we instead learned about penguins and seals and ice.

Boxing day is one of my favourite Commonwealth holidays because for the most part it’s a day of rest and you get to go out and just enjoy the peace and the Christmas season in an inner-reflective type of way. This Boxing day however, is spent in Antarctica on the Argentine islands, the South Orkneys at (60°35′S 45°30′W). Here, we toured the one of the Argentine research bases, called Orcadas that was established in 1904. This was one of the first stations to be set-up and does basic research on weather, such as daily temperature as well as basic measurements on the magnetic field. The magnetic pole moves over time, so it is bases like this that help to monitor the shift in magnetic field.

Orcadas is of course run by isolated generation. There is redundancy in all of their systems, as this is one of the few stations with year-round occupants. Researchers, doctors and military personnel typically stay on the base for a year at a time. They have radio telegraph and giant antennae that look like large wire spider webs suspended from metal posts (there were 2 antennae). Their contact with the outside world is minimal, although they do have a helicopter pad (keeping in mind that the nearest Argentine city is 1502 km away to Ushuaia). The base is surrounded on two sides by the ocean and one side by a rocky and ice covered cliff soaring upwards into the sky. A small cemetery marks the memories of those who were lost. Some of those people disappeared, and were never seen again.

A few stray penguins ran along the rocky beach. We also saw our first Adelie penguin, which probably runs the fastest out of all the penguins we had seen so far.

Despite the desolation, Base Orcadas welcomed us (in Spanish) with open arms. They have a small museum about the research they conduct there and a little bit of the base’s history. In their kitchen, they had a miniature gift shop, which is strange when you think about how few of visitors they have each year. There was also a TV and cookies and coffee that they had prepared for us guests. I don’t know how anyone could have taken any of those cookies! They need them! They live on a life-less, barren, isolated island beyond the edge of civilization. We did buy some badges from their gift shop though, each for about $10 USD.

On December 27, the weather became dark and snowy. It’s a strange feeling to watch the ocean while it is snowing and seems to defy a bit of logic. You may not understand this until you’ve been at sea when it’s snowing hard. This is a day at sea with lectures on Shackleton, penguins, adaptations and whaler history. In late afternoon, the Fram crept up to the rocky Elephant Island. This is not an island that is easy to land on. Elephant Island was named after elephant seals and is located at 61°5 S 55°11 W and has historical importance to the Shackleton journey. After Shackleton’s men abandoned ship they were left stranded on unstable ice flows. One night, the ice cracked in the middle of their camp and they had to rush and move everything to the larger flow. Eventually they decided to take the lifeboats and attempt to land on an island. When they missed their target due to the Waddell current, Elephant Island was their last hope before they would be swept off to sea.

They managed to land on Elephant island, which is hostile rock, ice and frozen ocean spray. There is no shelter, and the caves that were visible fill with water on high tide. By this time, many of the men had gone crazy and many were no longer functional as crew men. 22 marooned members of Shackleton’s crew survived there for 4 and half months while they waited to be rescued while the remaining 6 men left with Shackleton is the larger of the life boats to make a journey across the open ocean to South Georgia where they eventually made it to the whaling station. With the help of the whalers, Shackleton was able to rescue the remaining men at Elephant Island after several failed attempts. We watched Elephant Island in the snow storm from the safety of the Fram, remember those of Shackleton’s crew and their amazing survival story.

Journey to the South (Part III)

It was time to leave the Falkland Islands for the next exciting adventure. Our next land destination was South Georgia Island, which is owned by Argentina. South Georgia is another sub-Antarctic island. We are re-tracing the explorer Shackleton’s footsteps, albeit in reverse order. At the end of Shackleton’s push to be rescued they sailed a lifeboat across the open ocean from Elephant Island to South Georgia. However, they docked on the wrong side and 2 of Shackleton’s men hiked with him with their torn and tattered clothing and worn out boots in which they put old nails from the lifeboat through the soles for grip on the ice and hiked for 36 hours to the other side where there was a whaling station – the Southern most point where people could be found that could rescue them. They did the hike in winter. Even to this day professional hikers and mountain climbers cannot beat Shackleton’s record across the glacier covered island. In fact, there are around 24 glaciers on this small island.

So how did Shackleton make it across the island so quickly? Tom Creen had fallen through the ice in a lake and was pulled out. They were on the verge of death and hypothermia so they had no choice in their next action.

They decided to slide down the mountain on the final stretch of their journey, which is much too dangerous to do for recreational purposes.

For our day in South Georgia we landed in Fortuna Bay on a beach of angry, bloody (scary) fur seals where we closely followed the expedition leader to a less bitey place. Up onto land at the base of a glacier was a large rookery of king penguins. Baby king penguins are brown and fluffy and look like English Guard hats on feet with beaks.

In the afternoon we landed in a different area of Fortuna Bay and hiked along Shackleton’s route to Strømness Bay, where there are still remains of the abandoned whaling station. We passed Creen’s Lake, where Tom Creen fell in and past the waterfall that the men slid down. It was a delightful and extremely windy hike. On the other end of the ridge near Stromness Bay, we saw a herd of reindeer that were originally introduced by the Norweigans.

Once again the beach was covered in angry fur seals with the odd penguin dispersed here and there. The rusty ruins of the whaling station also decorated the beach in their brown and orange hues. It had begun to rain this point so we humans likely looked like a giant flock of penguins all huddled together waiting for the cruise ship and the polar cirkle boats to pick us up.

That afternoon and evening on the ship we spent napping and relaxing as the brave non-hiker group from our cruise ship ventured out into the rainstorm to see the whaling station.

It’s Christmas eve, and the scenery is not like normal Christmas eves. In fact, there isn’t even any snow! What kind of place is this, to call it sub-Antarctic? Grytviken is another old and abandoned whaling station on South Georgia. In fact, it was the original whaling station on South Georgia conceived and built by the Norweigans. We land in a beach full of fur seals again, but they are slightly less numerous and interspersed with large-eyed elephant seal pups, which are just as large as the male fur seals (with the scary bitey teeth).

The colour palette of Grytviken includes crystal blue water, vibrant green grass, warm greys and browns of seal bodies, colder grey mountain peaks capped in white snow, white picket fence, blue sky, and oranges of rust and meadow flowers.

Sir Ernest Shackleton is buried there in the cemetery (where you can pay your respects by splashing whiskey on his grave). Walking past the whaling station ruins we reached the white church, where we had Christmas mass, lead by the captain, and a fellow passenger who was a Lutherian pastor. It was nice, and my first Christmas mass. Music was accompanied by Catherine on the pump organ and Manuela on violin, where people sang in at least 3 different languages all at the same time (most confusing caroling, Ever).

There was a small museum and gift shop at Grytviken as well, which was crowded with other cruise passengers. They had a life-sized model of the James Caird, the life boat that was used by Shackleton and his men to sail between Elephant Island to South Georgia. The museum also had artifacts pertaining to whaling and life at the whaling station. It was quite interesting but we didn’t have much time to look around at everything. We ended our special trip at Grytviken by walking around the bay (past all the sleepy seals) to our Polar Cirkle boats and return to our home, the Fram.

That evening, we sailed along the coast of South Georgia (going around the southern tip of the island) and took a side trip into the Drygelski Fjord, where the mountains jet straight up into jagged points, lifting the glaciers toward the sky. We enjoyed sunset there before another two days at sea.

Journey to the South (Part II)

On the days at sea we mainly spent our time at lectures (there were 4 per day) on penguins, whales, seals, birds, history, geology, about Antarctica or the sub-Antarctic islands we would visit. The lectures were given by the Expedition Team, who were biologists, historians and many multi-degree type people. The only lecture which was unsatisfactory was the one on Climate Change were Miguel called people who didn’t believe in what he was saying stupid. Never tell your clients you’re stupid.

The first islands we visited were the Falkland Islands, which are British islands east of the Cape Horn. Historically, there had been a war between the Argentines and the British over the territory which really was not so long ago (30 or 40 years ago I think?), so the people are still rather bitter. Our first landing was on West Island.

To get off the cruise ships you must board zodiac-like boats (ours were called Polar Cirkle boats) and then either land on some sort of pier or right into the water/beach. At West Island, the weather was perfect – sunny, warm but insanely windy. I had to wear a toque plus a hood at some points to prevent getting an ear ache. We had a 30 minute walk to the other side of the island where we looked down upon a slope/cliff of nesting rock hopper penguins and black-browed albatross. Rock hopper penguins are highly entertaining because they literally hop up cliffs to get to their nesting grounds. They can climb cliffs that are difficult for humans to climb. It’s really quite amazing (entertaining). The albatross are also beautiful birds, with their natural eye make-up (or maybe it’s Maybelline?).

The next day, we visited East Island at Port Stanley, a nice little British town. Off the pier we got into our 4x4 SUV’s and took an off-road trail past the mine fields (left from the war with Argentina), helicopter ruin, radio tower, and through the wilderness with short vegetation and abundance of salt-water inlets from the ocean. Herds of sheep ran madly around. I never knew a sheep could run so fast!

Rules of off-road driving:

1. Be nice to your drive
2. Always travel in groups (so that you can tow each other out)
3. Avoid the bright-green stuff. It’s mossy which means it’s squishy and sinky and you’ll get stuck.
4. Don’t bump your head on the roof/wall/seats/other passengers
5. Keep your windows mostly rolled up. It’s muddy and dusty!
6. Carry lots of rope, or even better –
7. Travel with a guy with a winch.

Finally we reached the sandy beaches of Volunteer Point. We came here to see the penguins. There are magellanic penguins in their sandy burrows, king penguins huddled in large groups and a few gentoo penguins running around. The scenery was amazing and we all decided not to waste time with lunch and to watch the penguins waddle, slide on their bellies and porpoise through the ocean. We also spent a small portion of time glaring at the people from China who are completely disrespectful to wildlife and rules. *death glare*

We spent only a few hours at volunteer point, but even now this place left me with some of my most vivid memories of the trip. On the way back, we got stuck once and attempted to tow others out. One lady had never gone off-roading before and she was constantly getting stuck. At one point she was driving towards a small pond (which you could not see at any distance) but got stuck nearly in front of the pond when she tried to turn. The rope broke when we tried to tow her. Luckily winch man came to save the day (for at least the 2^nd time). Due to the angle we had to pull (because of the pond), her car began to move when we soon realized that her car was tipping. Her SUV reached approximately 40 degrees. Winch man knows what he’s doing however (he’s almost like an off-roading superhero), and slowly lets the line out and in and out and finally she’s free with no casualties.

Back in Stanley, we went souvenir shopping and walked along the quiet streets. By this time, it was extremely windy. We also saw the church with the whale bone arch. The arch is actually not part of the church structure, but is made from 4 large whale points that make an arch over the sidewalk. It’s very beautiful, and something you don’t see normally.