You are currently viewing Antarctica – Western Peninsula (Part – 1)

Antarctica – Western Peninsula (Part – 1)

We were originally supposed to cross the Antarctic sound to the eastern peninsula but that did not happen due to the weather condition , so we continued further south along the western side of the continent.

13 Jan 2018

Today morning started with a good note. The sky was crystal clear , though it was still very windy. I woke up early and went outside with my camera. Though there was not much wildlife to be seen but outside scenery was stunning . We were essentially going through glacial landscapes , with broken iceberg floating all around. Our first planned Zodiac cruise was at 11 AM . Accordingly we had a briefing of IOATA guidelines and safe usage of zodiac. Unfortunately due to heavy southern winds our Zodiac cruise got cancelled and we continued towards our second landing site. We had our lunch at 1 PM and then at 3PM Zodiac was launched. We arrived at the beach which has reasonable sized Ghentoo Penguin colony. There was a steep hike up to the colony which was not easy for me because my knee and also because of big lens and tripod. Nevertheless I managed to go up and come down safely with tripod and my huge lens. I captured some amazing videos of activities at the Penguin colony. We spent roughly 3 hours there . It was beautiful but also more refreshing because we finally got some break from the monotony of the ship journey for last couple of days. I came back by the very last zodiac and had a refreshing warm shower . Everybody was in a upbeat mood. A great day finally.

14 Jan 2018

Today was a great day. We finally started having great summer weather in Antarctica. Also I officially set foot to the continent today twice , 1st time Argentinean base station in Antarctica called Brown station and 2nd time Neko harbor in the afternoon.

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Brown Station

In morning I landed in Brown station and did the steep hike up on the hill. There are active researchers located in the station . There are huge numbers Ghentoo penguins here. After spending good couple of hours there we did a Zodiac cruise at Paradise bay and Skontorp cove.

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Paradise Bay

This is most aptly named because a Pradise can not be imagined better than this. The beauty here is simply mesmerizing. Latter in the evening we went to Neko Harbour which is a small bay indenting the west coast of Graham land located on the Antarctic continent. It was named after floating factory ship Neko. It is a place of great beauty . Above the bay there is a very active , deeply carved tilted glacier that frequently fills the glacier with ice and produces huge waves that can wash up to the beach. There is also Gentoo rookery of about 1000 pairs during peak season

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