Neko Harbour Continent Landing & Cuverville, Antarctica

January 5

A half hour before the wakeup call this morning came an announcement that there were Orcas at the front of the ship. We opted for the extra sleep and the warmth of the bed. If they had been Minke whales we would have gone since we have not seen any.

zodiac waiting for their group to be called

 

In the morning we visited Neko Harbour, which marked our 3^rd Continent landing of this trip! We have been so lucky with weather to make so many of the landings. It also was a warm sunny day!

Neko Harbor is an inlet on the Antarctic Peninsula on Andvord Bay, situated on the west coast of Graham Land. Neko Harbor was discovered by Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache in the early 20th century. It was named for a Scottish whaling boat, the Neko, which operated in the area between 1911 and 1924.

The scenery was stunning. The huge glacier has its calving front just a few hundred meters from the stony landing site. The bay is often filled with brash ice. We were warned if we heard it it calve, we were to move up and away from the coast quickly (or towards deeper waters if you are in a boat), otherwise you will be in deep trouble soon due to the wave that follows every major calving. It essentially creates a Tsunami. So, we were told to get to higher ground and not linger at the landing site, just in case.......

We saw tons of Gentoo Penguin eggs and chicks at this stop and of course more jaw dropping scenery. We also saw a lot of empty egg shells just lying around as well. Probably not a good thing as Skua have probably raided  nests and stole the eggs.

We climbed a steep hill to look down onto the fabulous glacier in the bay. It was so warm everyone was stripping off layers. 10* celcius. (about 50* F)

 view of the ship from shore

 I'm a dirty, dirty pentuin....

 penguin highway

 yep, another long hike

 Gentoo

 at the top

 Greg filling back in the boot prints (where you fall through and leave a big hole that could be dangerous for the penguins if they fall in.

 brash ice & bergy bits



 

 I HAD to do it.......

 

There was much rock stealing of other penguins' nests and some newly nesting birds just starting their nests. It was hilarious to watch two penguins on either side of the one on the nest distract her in one direction while the other one stole a rock. One male penguin went quite a ways to look for just the right rock to bring back to the nest. (he wasn't stealing any) It was also funny to watch him lay it down just where he thought it should go and of course the female promptly moved it where she wanted it. One penguin had the Taj Mahal of nests. Her mate was stealing as many rocks as possible to make theirs better. Since they nest on the ground the nests made of rocks keep it dry if it is high enough up.

 chick being fed, they really get their heads way up into the throat of the parent



One pair had a bright white egg that appeared to be just laid, as the pair looked at it they lifted their heads in song and then did the bowing behavior of courtship or celebration. Most penguins sound a bit like braying donkeys or geese and it's quite noisy in the colony. The King Penguins sound prettier with their musical multi-note bugling. (kind of a three note whistle)They also make brief contact notes at sea and soft cooing sounds on land.

 celebrating their egg

 I'm sure he's thinking "what a beautiful egg!"



 

After we were finished on land we had a choice to go back to the ship or take a short zodiac cruise. Of course we took the zodiac cruise around the iceberg field.

 whale blow

arriving back at the ship

In case you have been wondering "Why is the ice blue?" It's because its so dense that it traps all but the thinnest of wavelengths of light, which happens to be blue. As ice ages and is exposed to air it becomes more white, making it easy to spot the youngest bergs and the places on glaciers where they've recently broken free.

We had a few hours for lunch and viewing the scenery en route to our next stop. We had the treat of seeing The World cruise ship. The World is the largest private residential ship.  It has 165 residences and continually travels around the world. Wow, we did not expect the reaction of the fellow passengers on our ship. They used words like disgusting and what a horrible way to see the world. They complained it was ruining their photos. I think it was gone in less than 15 minutes. I do understand that it is no way to actually experience Antarctica as they are not allowed to get off the ship but they were looking at the same scenery we were. Of course in every other destination they get off and explore just like a "normal" cruise ship. They seemed to think you never got off.  

In fact a couple we had been sitting with several times at lunch or dinner remarked how appalling it was and we disagreed explaining how it really worked on board. Hmmmm. We did find it interesting that most people on board have never been on a cruise before. Since it's considered "an expedition" ship it really isn't a traditional cruise, but not that far from it. I think that's why so many were seasick as it never entered their mind how rough the seas can be. They had to have read the brochure that stated that the Drake Passage is the roughest seas on the planet. (or not) Another lady that we met  likes to cruise and she said she encountered the same thing out on deck when they saw The World. Different strokes for different folk I guess.

 The World

 Humpback

 

Cuverville was our afternoon stop, and it has the largest colony of Gentoo Penguins on the continent of Antarctica with over 6,500 breeding pairs. There were even more empty egg shells here.

Shane said this would be our last time in snow for the trip.

 where's the snow?

 getting the kayaks ready

 guides getting things ready on shore for us

 zodiac to shore

 shell

 beautiful rocks

 Skua

 more empty shells

 Really? Last time in snow?

 window in the iceberg

 Gentoo Penguin tracks in the snow

 Dr. Fey

 surfs up dude.....

 penguin highway

 Skua eating what appeared to be young penguin chick

 on the zodiac cruise we checked out the window from all sides



I have no Daily Program for this day as the ship's photographer who was uploading them for some reason forgot to include that one.

We then traveled over 130 k to Deception Island for our last day of landings.