Reaching Antarctica

A yawning Elephant Seal

An Adelie Penguin

Finally after what seemed like an eternity at sea, we made it to Antarctica. Navigating through the South Shetland Islands and around the Ice covered peaks of King George Island, where many of the Antarctic research stations are based; we landed at the appropriately named Penguin Island. Once again the wind and waves provided too much for our kayaking plans, so we jumped into a zodiac and bounced across the surf to the rocky beach. Welcomed by our first sighting of Weddell Seals we managed to avoid the huge Elephant Seals and solitary fur seal as we hiked across the snow to the Chinstrap Penguin colony. We spent several hours watching the Penguins (including some Gentoo and Adelie) as they returned from their big swim and waddled across the snow up to their nests. Oblivious of our company they shuffled along past us often less than a metre away. To transverse slopes they would flip onto their front and gracefully slide down, before standing upright once more and shuffling across the snow. The Elephant Seals had a larger problem, occasionally finding that their huge mass would lead them to unexpectedly slide down the slope causing frantic self correction using their front flippers. From Penguin Island we continued south through to the Peninsula.