Diary of a Journey under the World – Part 18 – Cape Hallet
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…
After departing from Coulman Island, the Le Commandant Charcot began to cruise deeper into the glacier tongues branching off from the Antarctic continent.
It makes for some incredible scenery, with ice shelves on either side of the boat. These waters are actually uncharted – there are no depth soundings. Still, the captain was able to navigate up this ‘fjord’, after which they enjoyed the scenery and spun the ship around to sail slowly back through during dinner.
After some rest they woke the next morning to a new objective, Cape Hallet. The planned landing for that day, a major Adele penguin rookery, was aborted as the path there was blocked completely by pack ice.
But as always there is a plan B, push forward through the ice to find fast ice where the ship can be parked. David notes that if you look carefully at the bottom left of the large dark rock, you can see where the glacier ends and forms an ice shelf (the small jump up of ice) and where the sea ice begins.
Unlike the last time they parked in the fast ice, this ice is far too thin, with the ship cracking it making it too unsafe to walk off. This means they have to take a Zodiac ride to the safer ice. The expedition departs first as usual to secure the landing site, note the cracks in the ice, that section broke away shortly after the photo.
Due to the slippery ice all passengers were fitted with snow shoes.
They then trek off, watching carefully for cracks in the ice. David reminds us that they are on sea ice, so they are literally floating on the ocean. If you stand on either side of a crack, you can feel the slight swell of movement as one side rises higher and the other side down.
After a good walk they head back to the ship, now in the late afternoon the original plan to visit the penguin rookery has been re-examined. The weather has changed, pushing the ice off-shore, allowing them to take Zodiacs off-shore from the rookery, with the possibility of a short landing.
continued in Part 19 coming soon…