Between Neko and Paradise
Gentoo
Gentoos
Neko Harbor gentoo
Snowy Zodiac rideFriday, December 16th, 2011
We awoke this morning to another rainy day. Expedition leader Larry Hobbs, who has been coming to Antarctica for more than 25 years, has never seen two consecutive days of rainy weather in Antarctica before. “It’s another sign of how rapidly things are changing in this part of the world,” Hobbs said.
In spite of the light showers, we had a wonderful time at our first stop in Neko Harbor. When you are dressed properly, the weather is taken out of the equation. We were welcomed ashore as we set foot on the Antarctic Continent for the first time. (All of our other landings were on islands to this point.) For some passengers, this was the milestone “Seventh Continent.” Others were able to say they had gotten the most difficult journey out of the way first, hoping to eventually travel to the remaining continents on their life lists.
Another gentoo rookery is located at this landing site and we enjoyed the antics of these birds from several different vantage points. Some birds were incubating eggs and aggressively defending their nests from rock-stealing neighbors while others were busy keeping an eye out for marauding skuas. It was especially fun to watch the penguins at this location bathing in the clear waters near the shoreline. They would clean their feathers and splash around before zooming away underwater for their morning meal of krill.
Several huge, blue blocks of ice across the harbor appeared as if they break loose at any time. Our guides asked us to stay away from the beachfront in case that happened. If it would have, a sizable tidal wave would have been generated that could have had bad consequences. So when a large cracking sound was heard, virtually everyone looked across the harbor. Higher up, a pretty big piece of snow and ice was cascading down the jagged mountain face. From a distance it didn’t look like much, but I’m almost certain that tons of snow and ice were involved in that small avalanche. I got video of that crash and one that followed about a half hour later.