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.
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.
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.....
