Day 5: Whales, icebergs and camping!

So after a night of convalescence we were ready to face the coming day.  And since the sun was shining brightly, it looked like things were looking up, except this time we were way past penguins and seals – it was time for whales!  I won’t pun on the “whale of a tale/tail”, but I will say that everything they say about whales is true.  So picture it – Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctica, 2012, and there we were buzzing around in the Zodiacs looking at icebergs and discussing how they change form (incidentally, they rotate and flip and turn as they melt – just watch an ice cube melt in a glass) when all of a sudden ,off the port bow, whales!  Humpback whales!  And they were close – arcing beautifully over the surface of the water, their giant fins cutting through the glassy surface.  Sometimes they went across our line of vision, sometimes they were coming towards us,  often mere metres away.  Now not to sound clichéd, but they were so gentle and graceful and seriously huge!  When they came up towards the boat, I couldn’t help but have visions of Jaws and Orca in mind.  But that quickly dissipated as they disappeared under the Zodiac only to reappear just as our expedition leader asked, “Where did they go?” and right on cue, blowholes spouting  and backs curving almost right under our noses – and then the piece de resistance – the tail flip!  It got a bigger “Ahhhh!” than fireworks on Canada Day.  But wait, there’s more.  Just as our leader told us that Humpbacks hardly every breach (jump up above the surface of the water), just to show him up, both of the whales breached, and not once, but 2 times each.  The pictures don’t do any of the experience justice – just to be in such close proximity of such massive creatures is awe inspiring, humbling ,exhilarating and a little terrifying. 

                              A breaching Humpback whale

So after the whale watching it was back to the ship for lunch, a short break, and back in the Zodiacs and on to Cuverville Island.  By this point the trip is great, and the scenery and wildlife are beyond compare, but seriously getting in and out of our gear is beginning to take a toll.  Here’s how it goes – first layer, socks, polar long underwear, T-shirt;  second layer- more socks, pants, polar fleece ; third layer- waterproof pants, more socks, another polar fleece; fourth layer- zip fleece; fifth layer- parka, rubber boots, hat, gloves; sixth layer- another set of gloves and the lifejacket which doubles as a Chinese puzzle since we can never get them on properly.  Finally we are ready to go.  Originally it practically took us an entire morning to get suited up – now we do it in about 10 minutes.  Ta da! 

So, Cuverville Island: more penguins and then a Zodiac tour of the surrounding bay – the glaciers and ice bergs which dot the water around the entire area.  And they are everything you imagine.  They look just like in the movies.  Huge, white, blue, with parallel grooves from where the salt of the melting water has etched lines.  I think of this area as Mother Nature’s art studio – the sculpted icebergs, the incredible shades of blue: the deep navy of the water, the electric neon within the icebergs, the soothing blue of the sky – incredible! Apparently the reason the icebergs have this blue colour is because as the light is refracted through the crystals of ice, the reds, oranges, yellows and greens of the prism are absorbed into the iceberg while only the blues and indigos pass through the ice enough for us to see.  Fantastic! (P.S. to you scientists out there, that was the short and simple explanation of that – I neither caught nor understood the longer version).

                              Breathtaking glaciers

So then it was back to the ship for another lovely dinner.

Now, the next part of the day and evening still remains a bit of a mystery to me since Push has never camped and I don’t like the cold.  Maybe it was Sue’s presence that caused it.  Let me explain. 

                             Kevin and Sue preparing for camping

We signed up to camp overnight – that’s right, we paid good money to sleep outside, on the ground, in the Antarctic!  Call it a lapse in judgment, or more likely, it was a desire to do something we had never done (and perhaps would never do again);  but I also think it was because we had heard great things about the experience and didn’t want to finish the trip thinking, “I wish we had...”  So, after the afternoon meeting of picking up our equipment – and this is where it gets interesting – Sue with her sleeping bag and tent (sounds reasonable) and Push and I with our sleeping bags and Bivi bags – what’s that you ask?  Basically it’s an outer bag that you sleep in while in your sleeping bag, and it has an extra insulation that keeps you warm while also having a little hood you can pull up over your head.  Okay, the reason is starting to dwindle.  But it gets better – Push (and now I too, I have discovered) are just a little claustrophobic.  So the idea of stuffing our overly layered selves into what amounts to a large sausage casing wasn’t exactly going to help us get over it.  Now to be honest, the expedition leaders were excellent – very clear in their explanations, organization and execution of the outing.  And even after we helped Sue set up her tent  (see photo above) and went for a beautiful walk to watch the sun cast a pink glow over the mountains while setting, we still didn’t really realize what we had gotten ourselves into.  Even after sliding into the bags while simultaneously removing our rubber boots and parkas and water proof pants and trying to find room to stuff them down into the bag along with our bodies and the remaining 9 layers we still had on, we still had no clue.  It wasn’t until after we had finally gotten ourselves into our down-filled caskets (I don’t know how vampires do it.  I guess it’s the threat of sunlight and impending death) that we began to realise this might be a problem.  On the positive side, the view was stunning – the night sky darkening, and literally one by one , the stars showing themselves.  And this is a landscape where the stars actually sparkle.  It was enough to keep us still for at least an hour.  And in the distance, the great boom of the glacial ice cracking and breaking.  It was like the sound of faraway gunshots echoing off the mountain sides.  And the water lapping at the edges of the icebergs.  The cawing of the gulls.  And the snorts of the seals (did I mentions there were two seals sleeping a mere 15 metres away?) And then finally, once we decided it was time to turn over and sleep, we realised we couldn’t turn over.  Not only that, we realised, each of us in our swaddling, couldn’t move a limb.  So we debated for a few minutes and then decided to take the extremely competent and prepared expedition leaders up on their invitation to use the extra tent that was set up for campers in just such a situation.  So we moved to the tent, and from there had a more or less pleasant sleep.  All I can say is, check that one off the list.

Morning came early.  We packed up, went back to the ship for a much needed shower and breakfast, and then it would be off to Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay.  As long as there is no camping required, it should be good.

Until then.....