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January 27, 2000 |
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pinch me, i must be dreaming |
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Position: Cuverville Island Selvick Cove Petermann Island Today's Bird Sightings: Mammal Sightings: Today's Reading: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Copyright © 2000, Janet I. Egan |
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Wow, what a day! Our first landing is at Cuverville Island right after breakfast. I'm really here surrounded by penguins. Gentoo penguins. They have that distinguished-looking white patch on their heads, hence the Spanish name "corona blanca" altogether more descriptive than gentoo. There's zillions of them here. So much for entering detailed counts into my bird list notebook. Zillions of gentoo penguins and one chinstrap penguin. Did he take a wrong turn somewhere? There are plenty of skuas here too, flying around over the penguin colony just waiting for a vulnerable chick to devour or something. Cuverville Island is one of the most visited sites in
Antarctica - my Lonely Planet guidebook lists it as number
four in the top ten. Cuverville was named after a
vice-admiral of the French navy, Vice-Admiral Cavalier de
Cuverville. So named by the Belgian explorer Adrien de
Gerlache (after whom the Gerlache Strait, which is what
we're cruising in, is named). Seems like explorers of all
nations Our second landing is a 10 minute or so Zodiac trip from Cuverville to the Antarctic continent! I actually set foot on the continent of Antarctica! Not that I'm doing that "set foot on every continent thing" but it's still a thrill. I'm surrounded by penguins, a few seals, and whalebones. This spot is about 3 nautical miles from Cuverville Island, and is called Selvick Cove.
After lunch and a lecture by Bob on his favorite
Antarctic heroes (besides Shackleton), we sailed through the
Lemaire Channel, which is reputed to be one of the most
photogenic spots in Antarctica, through the Errera Channel
and Paradise Bay and on to Petermann Island where we were
greeted by Adelie penguins as well as gentoos. The Adelie
looks the most penguiny to Wow, three species of penguin all in one day. And sheathbills too. Not to mention the seals... and the icebergs and the sheer cliffs. It's the intensive Antarctica experience. |
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And
so, ladies and gentlemen, here we are ... in Antarctica!
had a field day naming places in Antarctica. I wonder if
there's any place without a name.
I
saw my first sheathbill at Selvick Cove, white and barefaced
scavenging around the penguin colony. They're carrion eaters
so having no feathers on the face helps them avoid getting
contaminants from the dead meat stuck to their feathers -
can't stick to 'em if you don't got 'em. Sheathbills are
very bold to say the least. They'll walk right up to you and
peck at your shoes or your backpack, or in the case of
Lucretia who was sitting on a rock sketching when the
sheathbill came to investigate her, your pockets.
I
keep pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. This is
really Antarctica. I look around me and see ice, penguins,
skuas, fur seals, weddell seals, sheathbills, people in red
parkas to match The Little Red Ship...
It
was cloudy in the morning for our landings at the gentoo
colony and the continent and it got cloudier later in the
day. It got a little colder too, but still above freezing
and well above the deep freeze temperatures I left behind in
Boston. There was snow on the ground and the penguins would
flop down and slide on their bellies just like kids on
sleds. Penguins have a very high cuteness quotient. It's way
too easy to anthropomorphize them.
me, all formal in black and white with no extra frills. I
think it's the white eye ring that does it for me. For some
reason, the sight of an Adelie penguin waddling across the
ice in front of me as I got out of the Zodiac is what really
made me feel like I'm here. It started to snow a little bit
at Petermann Island and got a little cooler. Summer in the
far south. The snow didn't bother me and certainly didn't
bother the penguins.