Apparently there are restrictions on how many people can make landfall on an Antarctica site at any one time, and that number – I think – is 100. So, our group of 150 or so guests was divided into two groups. Each group would have two “landings” per day (assuming a landing was being made and, of course, schedule permitting) – one in the a.m. and one in the p.m. One group would go first in the morning, then return to the ship, and the other group would head-out. Then lunch, and then repeat in the afternoon, with the groups switching which one went first.
Prior to the first landing of the day, A&K team members went to the landing spot first – to scope it out, identify the best landing spot, and then mark what pathway we, as guests, would be allowed on. Each landing involved our putting on boots and pants (loaners from A&K), and our red-parkas (“gifts” from A&K), then waiting in line to – first- clean off our boot bottoms (so as not to bring bacteria onto the continent) and – then – load into our zodiacs (these sturdy little inflatable boats with 60-mph outboard motors, each of which held about eight passengers). Each zodiac was driven by one of the A&K team members.
Thus – on December 12, 2019, we would make our first landing on the frozen continent. Not only would we be touching ground, but we’d be seeing a big – really really big – like thousands -of penguins in a colony.
There are three main breeds of penguin that we’d see; the first one here is an Adelie. The second photo shows two Adelie penguins going through a dance before one of them moves off of their nest for the other to replace them. We hit the Antarctic while they were hatching, so we saw lots of eggs and chiklets. This colony would have 20,000 pairs or more of penguins. Lots of squawking. Lots of guano. Not the best smelling air if you were downwind.
The nests are comprised of a pile of rocks surrounding the eggs. So – penguins always are on the hunt for new rocks, and the effort to get them sometimes includes stealing them from another penguin nest. In the third photo, who knows if this Adelie has stolen this or not, but it sure has likely been stolen a few times over the years.
Part of the excitement being here was the ice, which was endless in its variation, and in a few of the pics you can see the ice below the surface. You obviously get the best sense of scale when you see the zodiacs alongside the ice formations. The boats themselves had six different air compartments, so if one was damaged, there were still five to keep it afloat. And, um, we had human penguins too. You can see one of the single travelers I hung around with, who had her own penguin suit. Alas, she never took it on shore.
And that’s Brown Bluff – the place we made our first landfall on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Made it to my seventh continent! I asked the reception desk for a Sharpie and some paper, but they offered to make this sign for me. Upon landing, I asked one of the tour staff to take a few pics of me. Someone else from the boat saw me with the sign, and asked if they could borrow it, but I readily gave it up at that point – I was done! Very emotional landing, after 3 1/2 days (DC to the Antarctica Peninsula) to get there (or 58 years, depending upon how you count it). Can you think of anywhere else in the world it takes that long to get to?
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