Diary of a Journey under the World – Part 17 – Coulman Island

David travelled aboard the magnificent Le Commandant Charcot by PONANT Cruises earlier this year on a half circumnavigation trip from Ushuaia, Argentina to New Zealand and what follows are his notes and highlights of a once in a lifetime trip to Antarctica in 2023.

David Heydon has been many things, nominated for Australian of the Year in 2016, the 2012 recipient of the Moore Medal, and a deep seabed mining pioneer. Most days David would be one of the expert naturalist guides aboard a ship, but today he is a guest on the Le Commandant Charcot. 

David is an expedition cruising veteran, one who is uniquely specialized in the Polar. His extensive geological knowledge provides welcome insight into these regions’ many fjords and glaciers. 

The Adventure Continues…

While navigating towards Coulman Island, there were plenty of lectures from the naturalists who spoke on the exploits of early adventurers, as well as the life cycles of seals, penguins and geology.

But, the objective is now in sight. Coulman Island alongside the rest of the Antarctic Content, with plenty of pack ice in the way. The helicopter is deployed to survey the ice conditions, scouting for the best path through the ice, looking specifically for ‘fast ice’. David notes this is a key feature of the ship compared to any of the other Antarctic passenger ships, it enables the Le Commandant Charcot to find passages to remote locations that no other ship like it can.

Now, about Coulman Island. Coulman Island is an ice-covered island in the Ross Sea inhabited by Emperor penguins. It was discovered over 180 years ago by Sir James Clark Ross, considering the sea ice the Le Commandant Charcot had to traverse to reach this location, this tells you how incredible of an achievement that discovery was. The ship used by Ross would have been nothing but a small wooden ship with sails, how they managed to navigate these areas and make it home without everything we use today is amazing.

Coulman Island is mostly composed of shield volcanoes, one is 5km wide with a massive 700m deep caldera. It is one of the most important bird areas in the world, with the largest super-colony of Emperor penguins in the world; during the 2018-2019 breeding season there was approximately 26,000 chicks counted. This means there would be about 30,000 to 35,000 breeding pairs.

This afternoon they will be heading to Coulman Island by Zodiac, while in the boat David picks up a chunk of black ice and shows the rest of the passengers. He says ‘black ice’ is clear as a diamond, it forms on the bottom of a glacier where the air bubbles have all been squeezed out, leaving it with that clarity.

continued in Part 15 coming soon…