Antarctica - Yalour Islands

Our first morning in Antarctica, we dropped anchor near one of the Yalour Islands, in the south part of the Wilhelm Archipelago.  I was up on deck before breakfast to soak in the otherworldly landscape - it was absolutely stunning.  

After breakfast, our group was the first one called to the zodiac where we were taken on a short ride to the landing area.  The landing was not too bad although hiking up the hill in thick snow was not easy.  On the island were colonies of Adélie penguins, the smallest species of penguins in Antarctica.  They look cute and a bit clumsy on land but apparently are quite feisty and would even take on predators.  They are vulnerable to climate change because they are not as adaptable to warmer climates.  There were many nests already with young chicks.  We had quite an amusing morning watching their behaviour and interaction.

There were giant icebergs in the bay - I have been asked before how do icebergs in the Arctic compare with icebergs in the Antarctic in terms of size.  I'm no scientist so can't really compare although first impressions are the ones here seem quite big so close to land.  I've seen big ones in the northern part of Greenland but these ones here are really huge.  

We also had multiple whale sightings while on the zodiac, some of the whales must have been barely 20 feet from our zodiac, one even seemed to have gone under it.  They treated us to many dives showing off their tail fins. On the way back, I was lucky to have the expedition leader driving the zodiac I was in. He is from BC and has accumulated a ton of experience with whales. He could see much better than we do where the whales were and gave us a blow by blow description of what to expect next from the whales. Too bad I only had my phone out - would have liked to capture the tail on a still. I have attached some screenshots from the video clips since I still have trouble posting videos on this blog.

It was quite a morning but there is more to come after lunch!  The routine for the next four days - breakfast, zodiac landing or zodiac cruise, repeat after lunch.  

Iceberg and the MS Expedition

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The only Gentoo penguin couple on the island

A gruesome scene with a brown skua - but that's nature...

Icebergs galore

See how close the whale got beside the zodiac!

Whale tales galore!