Antarctica - Day 12 - Part 1

MONDAY, DECEMBER 9TH

Breakfast was served at 07:30 again this morning, and once again I decided to skip it because I still can't adjust to eating when my body think's it's 2:30am. LOL

Our first landing today was at 9:00am at a location called Brown Bluff.  When you see the photo, the name will make perfect sense. :)  Brown  Bluff  is  an  ice-capped,  flat  topped,  745m  high  mountain with a prominent cliff of reddish-brown volcanic rocks. It is part of the northernmost continental extension of the Antarctic Peninsula, and home to thousands of Adelie Penguins, a few hundred Gentoo Penguins  and  a  mix  of  Kelp  Gulls,  Skuas,  Snow  Petrels,  and Pintado Petrels. It is located by the Antarctic Sound to the east of Hope  Bay.

Today was the first day where the weather finally looked and felt like what I had always Antarctica to be like.  The sky was grey, the wind was blowing pretty hard, and it was cold out there.  In fact, before we headed to the land, we were told that our stay may have to be short because the ice was already beginning to move back in.  The captain said he would stay as long as he could, but if the conditions got much worse, he would blow the ships horn twice and we all needed to get back to the ship ASAP.  

As we headed to land, things didn't look too bad out in the bay even though you could see a few huge icebergs way off in the distance.  We were met on the shoreline by lots of Adelie Penguins and right away you could see how different their behavior was compared to the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins we had been seeing up until now.  For one thing, these Penguins were so much faster on land than the others, and they behaved differently as well which became so very entertaining to watch. The first thing I noticed is that ran up and down the beach in single file, and you couldn't help but kind of laugh as the would go running past you or up close to you where they would stop and check you out.

The other thing that was very different was the way these guys would all gather together at the shoreline. While the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins would go into the water a few at a time or even by themselves, the Adelie seemed to only work under the assumption that there was safety in numbers.  A few of them might actually go up to the water's edge and appear ready to go in, but they weren't going anywhere any time soon.... as they insisted on waiting for much larger numbers to come join them before even attempting to jump in.  It was so funny...  to see the way they would bunch up and then seem to wait for one brave, or extra hungry member of the group to be the first to jump in, after which the rest would suddenly dive in behind him until yet another penguin in the group would freeze up, causing the penguins behind him to stop as well, and even run away from the water for a second until they realized they should have gone because this one dummy only got cold feet and now they were all stuck again, waiting for the whole process to start over.  LOL

You can't really see all of that in action  in the photos, but this gives you a little idea what it looked like.  LOL

As we were all sitting there enjoying watching these silly penguins run up and down the beach, and watch them struggle to decide if they wanted to risk diving in to the water to eat, it started to snow and the wind began to pick up.  We suddenly got the call that we had to get back to the ship right now, and everyone was good and rushed back to the Zodiacs.  I think it might have been the fastest they have ever gotten everybody back on board and as soon as I got up on the ship, I could see why the captain made the call that we had to get moving, and now!

Where the bay had been fairly free of ice when we first left the ship, this is what it looked like as we got back on board.

The ice had seriously moved in on us, and the last thing we wanted was to get stuck here in all that ice for who knows how long if it froze up all around the ship. 

So, the visit to Brown Bluff was cut short, but we finally experienced just how fast the weather and conditions here can change, and we got to feel what the weather in Antarctica probably feels like more often than not.  Up until now we've had spring like temperatures... this was more like it!  :)

LAT. 63° 32’ 00” S, LONG. 56° 52’ 00” W

Weather Conditions
Wind (direction & force): South | Fresh Breeze (17-21 Knots)
Weather & Sea: Clouded | Smooth
Temperature: -2ºC | 28.4 ºF

Antarctica - Day 10

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7TH

Today was a very interesting day.  Our first stops of the morning were at Port Lockroy and Jougla Point. 

The entrance into the harbor was just stunning and might have some of the most beautiful scenery seen so far. Little did I know what I would be seeing later this afternoon.  Here were the views on the way into Port Lockroy.

This was looking out the back of the ship as we cruised into the harbor.

And then this was the view looking forward to see where we were heading.

A Zodiac was sent out to pick up two of the volunteers from Port Lockroy who were going to come and give a talk on the history of the base, and answer any questions people may have about what they do here, what life is like being almost stranded here for months on end, etc.

Before heading to Port Lockroy though, I went with the first group of people to Jougla Point.

Jougla Point  lies at  the  southwestern  end  of  Wiencke  Island  and  juts into  the  small
harbor  of  Port  Lockroy,  a  protected  anchorage  entered  between  Flag  Point  and Lécuyer
Point. This point is a rocky peninsula indented with small coves, a point forming the west side of
the entrance to Alice Creek in Port Lockroy, in the Palmer Archipelago. Snow cornices, glaciers and
extensive, steep, and highly crevassed snowfields surround the Harbour. It was discovered and named by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1903- 1905, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who considered it to
be a peninsula.

I won't bore you with more Penguin photos but yes, there were more penguins here but not as many as we have seen at some of our other landing spots.  The weather was great and it was just nice to get out and walk around taking it all in while waiting for our turn to head over to the base.

Port Lockroy at Goudier island was a previous British Base, known as “Base A”, and now designated as Historic Site and Monument #61 under the Antarctic Treaty System. It is operated by the United
Kingdom as a living museum. In addition to Bransfield House (the main base building), there is a
boat shed, building foundations and a number of associated artifacts on Goudier Island. It was
built by the ending of the WWII, to prevent from further nazi settlements.

It also houses the only operational post office in Antarctica as well as a small souvenir shop. I think everyone on the ship was looking forward to the chance to mail off postcards from here, that would actually come with a stamp that was canceled in Antarctica.  I know I just had to mail a postcard to myself to have something to remember the visit and to keep as a memento.  I also was happy to find out I could keep up my tradition of buying a hoodie from everywhere I've traveled as they actually had a hoodie for sale here.

You can see the base here in this photo. That really is all there is to it.  A very small island, with no boat, no running water and no plumbing.  Yeah, you read that right and now can imagine how hard life here must be.  :)

Okay, so I'm going to share a funny story here.. I bought a postcard for myself and one for my daughter and wrote each of us a short little note to mail from here today. I quickly learned that sleep deprivation really does effect brain function as when I went to address the postcard to myself, I honestly could NOT remember my home address!  I sat there totally blank trying to remember it, and to make things even funnier, I forgot I had my wallet in my back pocket which has this little thing inside it called a driver's license.  On that license is my address.  Did I remember that?  Nope! After about 5 minutes the address finally came to me, but I think this was the first sign that I really needed to start getting some sleep on this trip.  LOL

I thought the view this morning was one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen and couldn't imagine anywhere else on this trip beating it.  Little did I know how wrong I was, and just how short the wait would be to see what might be the most beautiful place on the planet.  And yes, I still think so even now that the trip is over.

This afternoon, we made our way to the Lemaire Channel, which is a 11km long and 1600 meters wide strait off Antarctica between Kiev Peninsula in the mainland’s Graham Land and Booth Island. It's been nicknamed “Kodak Gap” by some because of its scenic views and once you see it, you'll totally understand why.

Instead of posting a bunch of photos here to try to give you an idea of just how beautiful this place was, let's try something different, here is a link to a timelapse video on my website that is about 5 minutes long, and kind of let's you get a feel of the experience of sailing a ship through the Lemaire...
https://www.jamesmiller.photography/Videos/i-rtzNJ5D/A

When we get close to the end of the channel, there is a huge iceberg and sheet ice in front of us, blocking the rest of the way through. You can kind of make it out when the ship slows and starts to turn around.  I'd say I was disappointed we didn't get to go the rest of the way through, but I'd be lying because having to turn around, meant we got to witness this beautiful place a second time and have even more opportunities to shoot photos that might hopefully capture it's beauty.

Today's Weather Conditions
Weather & Sea: Partly Clouded | Calm
Temperature: 3ºC | 37.4 ºF
LAT. 65° 11’ S, LONG. 64° 10’ W

Antarctica - Day 8 - Part 1

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5TH

There was a very early wake up call this morning.  At 4:00 am the wake up call came across the intercom to get everyone up and moving around and ready to make our second landing of the trip.  This morning's landing was in Mikkelsen Harbor, a small bay on the south side of Trinity Island between Skottsberg Point and Borge Point, in the Palmer Archipelago.

The weather conditions were actually pretty nice, with a small breeze (17-21Knots) and a Temperature:  of -3ºC | 26.6 ºF at the time of the Zodiac ride across the harbor.  The morning was beautiful and the sunrise that was still happening lit up the area all around us with the most beautiful light. If I hadn't already packed up all my gear into the dry bag, I would have been taking pictures like crazy.  I just hoped we would get to the land before the light went away!

The Zodiac ride over to the landing spot wasn't very long this morning and the water was much smoother than we had on the ride yesterday.  I don't think there were many big splashes this morning which made me regret not getting my camera out earlier but it's always better to be safe than sorry.  There are still way too many days of photography ahead to risk shorting my camera out now.

Here is a look back at the ship where you can still see the way the early morning light is just touching the mountains around us.

The following photo shows how beautiful the light was even more... I just wish the photo could also let you hear how quiet and peaceful it is here!  The penguins are even being quiet this morning compared to the loud group we saw yesterday. It's truly an amazing place.

The first, huge difference in today's landing is that today we have tons of snow and ice around us compared to that muddy mess we had to walk around in yesterday.  I have to say that the smell today isn't nearly as bad either which was a nice surprise. I think the snow really helps keep everything a little fresher.  I know I certainly enjoyed walking in the snow a lot more!

One of the first animals I saw was this Skua just laying in the snow near our landing site.  It didn't seem bothered at all by me as I got closer to take it's photo. It just laid there watching me. These are one of the biggest threats to Penguins on land, as they like to feed on Penguin eggs and chicks.  Maybe this one had already gotten its fill of eggs this morning.

There was also a seal nearby just lounging in the snow down by the water.  I waited and watched it for a while to see if it would move so I could get a better shot, but turns out... seals don't do much of anything once they find a spot to snooze.  I finally gave up and realized this would be the best photo of this seal I was going to get today.

 The penguins here are all taking advantage of the few places without snow, to build their nests and lay their eggs.  There were only a few spots on this island with bare land visible and most all of it was taken up the the mating pairs. I have to say, they sure have some amazing views from their chosen spots!

There would be these little rock outcrops here and there and on every one of them, you'd see a few more Penguins.  They don't seem to let much open ground go to waste this time of year.  Once again, this nest just has some amazing views. 

Another thing I've learned is that Penguins aren't the quietest creatures around.  They are constantly squawking and calling out. You can see one of them here doing it.  I think I was able to get some good video footage of them where you can hear what it sounds like. I'll have to post that later when I get a change to go through all my video footage. 

It was fun wandering around in the snow and just watching these few groups as they woke up to start their day.  They weren't nearly as active right now which made watching them easy, but made getting any kind of interesting photos a lot more difficult.

When it was time to head back to the ship, I just had to stop and take one last look around.  This entire bay is surrounded by amazing Mountains, with Glaciers and snow packs that have to be seen to be believed. I can't even explain the scale of how big these things are... but hopefully the photos can give you an idea.  Look at the way all of that snow and ice just goes right down to the water's edge!

Oh, and just for grins, here is a picture of TWO seals that joined the beach party .. and yep, they were just as exciting as the first fella I saw this morning.  I guess they are better at doing rock imitations than they are at looking like active animals.  :)

This post seems like it's getting pretty long so I'm going to break it into two parts.  Watch for part 2 later today :)

New England Fall - Part 4

I think I left off my story at the point where I was packing my camera gear up and calling it a night at Sleepy Hollow Farm.  As I was putting the last of my stuff into the car, one of the locals came by and started up a nice conversation about the farm and telling me a little about its history.  They told me how the farm used to be owned by Joe Perry of Aerosmith who actually grew up in the area.  I think I had heard that story at some point,  years ago but had totally forgotten about it until now.  I could totally understand why he would have loved living there as the area is beautiful and the farm is far enough out of the way that he would have been afforded plenty of privacy while not out on the road touring with the band.

He eventually got around to asking me where I was from and asked if I traveled all that way just to take photos of the farm.  I told him it wasn't the ONLY reason I had made the trip, but it was certainly high up on the list of places I wanted to see when I finally got out to Vermont.  I mentioned that I have the worst luck in timing my trips and how I had really wanted to be there during peak fall colors, and that's when I found out I'd actually only missed them by 4 days!  He told me how the colors were amazing just the week before, but 4 days ago they had a really heavy frost in the area and that overnight most of the trees had dropped their leaves.  *sigh*   I was SO close!  LOL

It was getting really cold out and I said a quick goodbye and headed to town for the night.  I found a little motel tucked away on the edge of town and called it good for the night.  I was planning on being up super early to get back out to the farm for sunrise anyway, so it was really nice that I was dead tired from a very long day of travel.  I was fast asleep in no time.

My alarm went off 5 minutes after I fell asleep (okay, maybe it was more like 6 hours later but it sure didn't seem like it!).   My body was thinking it was 2am and I was trying to trick it into thinking it was really much closer to the time I would be getting up back home anyway.  I don't think it fell for my trick and demanded some caffeine before I hit the road again.  I grabbed my stuff and opened the door to my room and was hit with a blast of cold air and a view of snow covering everything in front of me.  What month is this???  LOL

Well, now I felt I really needed to rush back to the farm as I have the chance now to photograph it in two different seasons, within a 24 hour period.  All I kept thinking was that this will totally make up for missing the fall colors!  I just had to make sure I got there before the snow melted away as the sun came up.

I was really happy I was able to find a place fairly close by and think I was back to the farm in about 30 minutes.  I got all my gear out, set up my camera and realized that my hands were already frozen from touching all that metal in the freezing cold air!  Okay, I'm realized I wasn't going to be hanging out there for an hour shooting a lot of photos as it was just way too cold for that.  Luckily the light and the snow were all great and I got what I think was my favorite photo on the whole trip within 15 minutes of getting out of the car.

I did fight the cold for another 10 minutes and took a few more photos just to make sure I didn't mess something up or not have the photo in perfect focus or any number of other mistakes that are easy to make when you're still half awake and freezing your tuckus off.   Everything looked great though and I rushed to pack my stuff into the car just as a van full of photographers pulled up.  I couldn't have timed the morning better if you ask me.  I was really happy with this shot and those of you that know me well, know I don't say that often.

The trip was now officially a success in my book.  I mean heck, I got a Fall and Winter photo of the place I wanted to photograph most in New England... all in one trip.  :)