Antarctic Finale.

 And so we had nearly reached the end of our 3 week trip, and what a trip it had been.

Before we reached the dreaded Drake's Passage, which is a notorious stretch of water that we had to cross, we had some gorgeous panoramic views of the snowy mountains, with low clouds covering the peaks. This view went on for some time, and many photos were taken, although lots were very similar!!

The Drake's Passage took a couple of full days to get through, covering the vast seas between Antarctica and Ushuaia, the most southern city in the World. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful cities too.

As we first hit the famous passage, the wind was quite strong and we feared we would have both days struggling through it, but it wasn't very long at all before the wind dropped, and we had one of the calmest crossings that the crew could remember. We were extremely lucky, as this was the part of the trip that I had been dreading. 

Our final Antarctic views.

During the crossing we also had some good bird action, with many Prions, Albatrosses and Petrels to photograph. By now I had improved my skills at photographing flying birds. The Prions were the hardest by far as they were extremely quick in flight , and they changed direction all the time. Amazingly, I actually got a few decent shots of them. Prions are very similar and very difficult to identify, as they all look the same. It was assumed that all these are Antarctic Prions, but if anyone can confirm it would be appreciated.

Antarctic Prion.

Northern Royal Albatross.

Black-browed Albatross.

On our final night of the cruise at sea we were treated to a fantastic Drake's Passage sunset. What a fabulous finish.

Drake's Passage Sunset.

The following day we gradually got nearer to Ushuaia. As the light started to go we sailed with land each side of us. Chile on one side, Argentina on the other side. As the darkness arrived we were just a few miles away, docking around midnight.

The following day, we gathered all our belongings, and after our final breakfast, departed from the ship. Lisa had arranged for our luggage to be left in a local travel agents, so we could explore the local area. The city was surrounded by some spectacular snowy mountains, and several nature reserves. Unfortunately, our time was quite limited, but we did walk all along the seafront to a reserve with lakes and damp meadows where we saw some great birds, and even an American Beaver.

A couple of views of Ushuaia.

Only a short walk from the Ushuaia sign we saw our first decent bird, a Black-crowned Night Heron.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

Southern Lapwing were also very evident. They were also a little more approachable than they had been in Puerto Madryn.

Southern Lapwing.

Several Magellanic Snipe were also seen, as well as heard. A very strange call these birds have.

Magellanic Snipe.

Crested Duck

I would have loved to have got a better image of the gorgeous Patagonian Sierra Finch, but they were not easy to get near to.

Patagonian Sierra Finch

Another bird that we had seen in number at the start of the trip in Puerto Madryn was the Rufous-collared Sparrow. Once again here, they were more approachable.

Rufous-collared Sparrow.

A pair of Black-faced Ibis did keep their distance, but eventually we got just about near enough to get some shots.

Black-faced Ibis

After seeing so many South Georgia Pintail ducks, we nearly missed photographing the Yellow-billed Pintail. This one has a much larger bill that the South Georgia version!!

Yellow-billed Pintail.

We then headed back to the main streets of the city, where I had one more lifer to look forward to. My first ever visit to a Hard Rock Café!!  It was very welcome too, with a lovely cold beer with a burger and fries.

It was then collecting our luggage and getting a taxi to the local airport to begin the long trip home!!

Looking back, it was amazing to think we had seen so much in those wonderful 20 days on the MV Plancius. A trip I had never thought I would be able to do. So many memories.

Looking back with 20 days ahead!!

I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts of this amazing trip, as much as I have enjoyed writing the posts.

Penguin Finale.

 Our time in Antarctica was now drawing to a close, but we still had one landing to do, and that was at Yankee Harbour, on Greenwich Island, part of the South Shetland Islands. This also turned out to be my favourite penguin stop of the whole trip. During the 3 hours spent here we had lots of snow falling for much of the time, so much so, that the camera occasionally focused on the snow falling, rather than the penguins!!

As we walked along the spit towards the main part of the island, groups of Gentoo penguins were seen porpoising along the sea by us. Although we mostly missed getting them out of the water, occasionally we did catch them.

Gentoo Penguin Porpoising. (see the penguin on the left about to emerge).

Gentoo Penguin making a splash.

As we strolled along, we kept coming across small groups of Gentoo Penguins making their way to the sea to go on their fishing trips.

Gentoo Penguins in the snow.

When we reached the main colony, we had perfect timing, as we found another mating pair. Once again, it was lovely to witness the tender, mutual grooming and neck pecking that went on as they mated.

Mating Gentoo Penguins.

We also saw our only confirmed South Polar Skua's at this site. 

South Polar Skua.

As we started our track back to where we would pick up the Zodiac craft to take us back to the main ship, we noticed a small group of people looking at a group of Penguins. It soon became clear that one of the penguins was different, and we were delighted to see it was an Adélie Penguin. As mentioned on an earlier post, we were too early in the season to see the large numbers of these penguins returning to their nesting sites, and to this point we had only seen a couple of distant views of them, so to see one close up was totally unexpected and very welcome. Unfortunately, the penguin wasn't too happy with the attention, and it started to head back towards the sea, being chased by a couple of people. Seeing what was happening I spoke loud enough for them to hear, not to chase it, and the penguin very quickly calmed back down again, giving us the chance to admire it at a safe distance. We were very lucky that we were some of the last people to return to the Zodiacs, as many of our fellow travellers missed seeing this beautiful penguin.

Adélie Penguin grooming once it had settled back down.

Adélie Penguin propelling itself along.

Our last view of the Adélie Penguin before it walked further away.

When we reached the Zodiacs we could see a great raft of Gentoo Penguins out in the bay, obviously in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Fortunately, we were taken out to the raft of birds where we could see the penguins under water hunting. The water was so clear we could see them very well. All the time there were plenty of penguins swimming on the surface resting, before they once again dived to hunt further. One of the group had a Go Pro, and they managed to get some tremendous footage of the penguins underwater.

Gentoo Penguins hunting.

Once we had returned to the ship we set sail to Deception Island, which although good to see, and experience snow shoes for the first time, there was very little wildlife in evidence. However, the geography was interesting. We also saw an Orca hunt just before we arrived, as well as several Humpback Whales.  

Lisa with the Snow Shoes!!

After Deception Island it was back to sea for the 2 day trip across the notorious Drake's Passage to land at Ushuaia. The passage and our day at Ushuaia will be my final post from this totally epic trip.

Antarctic Petrel.

 One of the birds that we were all hoping to see on our Antarctic trip, was the Antarctic Petrel. Although this bird is quite numerous in the area, they are rarely seen. Perhaps due to the fact that we were early in the season, we really did get lucky with this special bird.

As we headed further south towards the Antarctic peninsula we started to hit lots of ice. One of the dangers of the trips early in the season, is that if there is still lots of ice about it can be near impossible to venture further into the peninsula. As it was, the captain decided that there was far too much ice to make a safe trip, so we reluctantly turned around to head to more islands just north of the peninsula, but still inside Antarctica. Perhaps this was actually a really good move as after seeing a few Antarctic Petrels at the southern most point we got to, in very poor early morning light, after turning the ship around we sailed into much brighter weather, albeit a bit breezy!!

The wind was high enough for the lower decks to be closed for safety reasons, but we were allowed on the bridge and area around the bridge. Lisa and I were just about to sit down and listen to a talk on the Antarctic explorers, when I noticed a couple of the Antarctic Petrels fly past the window. We quickly forgot about the talk and headed up to the bridge area, only to find 6 of these spectacular birds flying around the ship. They were obviously enjoying the experience of using the winds blowing up and around the ship, and they stayed with us for well over an hour giving us ample chances to get some nice photos.

Antarctic Petrel.

Another bird that was enjoying the ship was the Southern Fulmar. These were a regular sight throughout the trip, but these too were giving us some good opportunities in the breezy, but bright conditions.

Southern Fulmar.

Cape Petrels were also joining in the fun, with at times over 20 of these birds flying alongside.

Cape Petrel.

Penguins In The Snow.

 As we arrived at the edge of Antarctica, the snow started, which gave us some wonderful landings, with epic landscapes and encounters with the penguins.

Penguin Island certainly lived up to its name with plenty of both Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. We also had some great views of the Leopard and Weddel Seals. This even included a Leopard Seal catching a Penguin. As the Leopard Seal is not too keen on eating the feathers on the penguin, they literally throw it powerfully around, which strips the feathers from it. Lisa spotted this bit of action from the Zodiac, and our driver quickly got us in position so we could photograph the grisly action.

Leopard Seal stripping a Penguin.

Following this encounter we landed at Penguin Island and immediately started to see the lovely Gentoo Penguins, shortly followed by the Chinstraps.

Gentoo Penguin looking up at the snow.

Chinstrap Penguin.

Chinstrap Penguin turning left.

Mating Chinstrap Penguins. (no privacy here)!!

As well as the hunting Leopard Seal, Lisa also spotted another Leopard Seal resting on a small floating  iceberg. This was on another Zodiac cruise. By now the snow was falling quite heavily, so it was pot luck if the photos through the snow were clear enough.

Leopard Seal on Ice.

Leopard Seal showing its teeth.

We also had a couple of Weddel Seals with their pups. The pups of this species are adorable and one of them was super sweet with its Mum.

Weddel Seal.

Weddel Seal with Pup.

The skies were also very atmospheric with a fog bank floating about in the distance.

Antarctic Scenery.