Another beautiful Day in Paradise

Just when you think the environment cannot get better, you round a corner, and there’s another breathtaking vista!

I should have anticipated a change of plans for Sunday,as the ships motion through Saturday night did not help me have a peaceful sleep! Enough said!! Change of plan was confirmed early Sunday morning as weather conditions, high swells and wind meant nobody was leaving the Ship. What’s not to like about a lazy Sunday morning, in comfortable surroundings, drinking coffee (and a bloody Mary) in an Observation Lounge and soaking in an environment of snow blanketed landscapes and colossal ice sculptures on Earth’s least explored Continent.

There are 194 passengers on board from all the other Continents, all with a deep interest and love of Nature and tbe Environment. I thought I was reasonably well travelled but….I am a novice compared with some of my fellow passengers! Most have interesting and quixotic anecdotes to recount, but as with any group..yes, you have guessed it, the bores and the boasters!!! Quote, ” My longest journey was A to B”….”Not at all, that’s not long, mine was longer, X to Y” . “Did you use the First Class Lounge in Singapore?” Oh, you must.” …..and on it goes!! Its quite amusing actually to earwig in on some of these conversations from grown men trying to score points of one another! And it’s usually the Men!!! I wish I had Maeve Binchys ability, as there is so much material for a book, a TV series and perhaps even a movie!!!

Enough of the lounging, back to Action! All hands on deck in tbe afternoon, as the wind had died down and we were off to Brown Bluff. This is an ice capped flat topped extinct volcano and at the base, divided into two distinct colonies ,are up to 200,000 pairs of Gentoo and Adelie Penguins. Now, up to a week ago, a.penguin was a penguin to me, but now….I could bore you with the description of at least 5 different species! Suffice to say, that it is so entertaining to watch these creatures waddling along their paths ( and you must get out of their way quickly) the younger ones cackling away to get mother’s attention for food! At this time of the season, the young are moulting their fur as they grow, but until that fur is gone, they cannot swim, so are dependent on mother to feed them Krill, which she fishes in the water and then drops directly into their kouths. How clever is Nature? I also learnt today the collective name for penguins on land is a Waddle and when in the water, their collective term is a Raft! Remember that for your next Pub quiz and you will astonish the other players!!!

We returned late evening to the Ship and after dinner whiled part of the night away singing to Elton John and Billy Joel music, unaware of the turbulent night ahead of us, but more of that anon!