Diary of a Journey under the World – Part 9 – Emperor Penguin Trek
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…
The next plan is to attempt to reach fast ice by Mt Siple, recent satellite imaging had shown there is potentially an Emperor Penguin colony active in the area.
By the way, fast ice isn’t rapidly moving ice. David says it gets the name as the ice is “stuck fast to land”. Essentially, sea ice has become stuck or connected to nearby land, as opposed to moving ice floes disconnected from the land. Ice floes are often too unstable to disembark on, but fast ice is stable enough.
However, in between the ship and this fast ice is a massive band of thick ice floes, rather tricky to navigate through. It took nearly all night, but as you can see in the image below taken at 11PM, night-time is rather bright.
In the distance Mt Siple begins to grow larger on the horizon.
At about 1:30 AM the ship has become stuck in the fast ice, it will remain parked for the night, until the morning when the crew is able to test the stability of the ice.
It makes for an incredible view with breakfast, a snow-white volcano sitting behind a field of ice.
The crew begins to test the ice, drilling to test for thickness and strength before passengers disembark.
Finally, the all clear is given to disembark. It might look like water to the left of the ship, but this is actually just the ship’s shadow, the ship is completely surrounded by ice, except for the stern which remains exposed to open water.
A small group of passengers begin the trek towards the penguin colony, a 5km journey along the ice.
At the head of the group is an expert ice guide, they test the ice ahead for fractures, which are often deceptively covered in snow, concealing a crack that could be fallen into. The group is cautious to walk in a single file through the path he has checked, but they are all in capable hands.
As David and the group begins to approach the colony, the first thing they notice is the tracks the penguins have made as they slide along on their breast-bone.
continued in Part 9 coming soon…