December 13th 2007

 

Polar Star’s Wake

After spending a night on the “hook” in calm and peaceful Neko Harbour, we pulled up anchor before breakfast and headed back into Gerlache Strait and into Errera Channel for a landing on Danco Island. Again, while on route to the next new destination we encountered Minke whales flagging their dorsal fins and flukes at us from afar. To bad, this is when I really wanted a longer lens!!….Oh well…there was no room in my pack and there was a weight restriction on the airline coming down here. Just the same it would have been nice to get a chance to capture one of these ocean giants for my collection of images on this trip ( Debbie, has some, maybe I will post them later ). The Antarctic is just overwhelmingly full of life, in the air, in the sea and on the land. Nowhere that you looked, did you see true desert-like desolation. True, it is a very harsh environment 75% of the time but life has flourished despite these difficulties. I had no idea to what extent this was to be the case upon embarking on this adventure. I would recommend this trip for any of those wishing to see land in it’s rawest form and those who want to get a true sense of the natural vibration of the world undistorted by human influence. This experience is a rare opportunity and I am not too sure how long it will last.

Tim Schumm,      Neko harbour

 

There is this awareness within me as well, that my very being here is shaping things to come. More and more tourists (30,000 this summer) and ships will be coming here, this being the new tourist frontier and the profits are good I imagine. Then of course, there will be the accidents such as the “Explorer” sinking mere weeks before our arrival. This has got to have drastic effects on the nearby landmasses and shorelines. Never mind, deep below, where our eyes remain shrouded from the true under sea effects. I am torn between my deep interest in exploration and my understanding of its ramifications. The fact is as humans we are the only ones that have the capacity to see and comprehend this conundrum. Hopefully this bodes well for the wisdom that we need to develop and to survive our own ignorance.

 

Big Little

Once arriving here in the Bay next to Danko Island we began the usual preparations for disembarking to the next penguin rookery. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we would never get the chance to land…

For photographic purposes I wanted to get a better look at many of the stunning shapes and sizes of the icebergs lodged in this bay, while others were keen on seeing more penguins and seals in their natural habitats. Generally the ships crews do a great job of accommodating the various levels of interest and managed to devote different zodiacs to different pursuits. This one, however, was going to experience its own unique adventure long before reaching land. Pierre, the zodiac operator from South Africa, was a marine scientist and had his own interests, which came into play not long after zooming in the direction of shore zigzagging around here and there through huge Icebergs to reach our goal. About midway we became aware of a large Leopard Seal coming our way and showing an uncommon interest in us and our INFLATABLE Zodiac. This female was far from small, approximately the same length as our skiff which, incidentally, felt very small now. She probably weighed in at over 1 ton and swam as though she was weightless. Her effortless maneuvers toward us were fascinating in itself, much like an underwater ballet. “KEEP YOUR HANDS IN!!!” yells Pierre! “This is a carnivore! She will take your hands off in a flash, if you’re not careful!” She did not have any observable fear. In fact, she was VERY curious….What kind of curious I wonder? Meal Time!…..I hope not!….. Pierre was very skilled at keeping the large seal close for us but not so close that it had a chance to jump on board and have some snacks for lunch. 

 

 

Two Friends

Leopard Seal,                                                                        

by Debbie Garside

Leopard Seal Lunch…..faster the better!

He backed up, did circles and zoomed forward when the time deemed necessary. Not that the seal couldn’t keep pace but more to keep our actions less predictable and less likely a platform for mounting. She was tricky too, she would zoom straight at us aware that we could see her, then zoom underneath seemingly to the other side…..but nooooo… while under there, she would come out from the same side she had approached us from and quickly come to the surface to catch us unaware, hopefully.  We were being sta
lked and tested. There was no doubt about it. Pierre, being the marine scientist, was caught up in his own interests, as were we, so the game continued for close to a hour. Like two dogs play biting. At the end of the hour the Leopard Seal was familiar enough with us to try taking a test snack of our INFLATABLE BOAT. Below you will see a shot just before the test bite.  Finally she managed to catch us right in the rear, leaving a small hole, well really more like a pin prick.

 

 

Bite Me!

Teeth and more teeth                                                    

by Debbie Garside

That was it, we thought it was a good time to head back, the fun time being over……oh yeah…..that was my kind of experience….a little dangerous! So in the end, we never reached land and the ice bergs would have to wait for the next day!

 

 

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