Our travellers are now on the Antarctic Peninsula. Below you can read an extract from one of the days.
13 November, Cierva Cove & Cuverville Island
Dreamlike morning: rising light lit the snow and ice covering the landscape, and virtually no wind. Smaller and bigger lumps of ice glittered on a silk sea, the sky almost cloudless. Wee early a pod of minkies ploughed the the water – everything breathed a smiling Antarctica, and freed from the wind we soaked our souls in the atmosphere on deck.
On our way to our landing it happened again: wind and waves picked up, and the plan was changed. Noone is sad about that! A zodiac cruise on ice-littered water off the station Primavera was a highlight: lee, icebergs, the dramatic mountains of the Peninsula framing the scene and chinstrap and gentoo penguins working their steep highways to their nesting sites high up - it was all best seen from the water. A leopard seal engaged in its brekfast meal was an unbelievable bonus! All of us didn’t see the full show, but having her swimming between our zodias and watch us was a real treat! A crabeater resting on an ice floe was the final to a flying start in Antarctica!
Plans are there to have something to deviate from: flexibility! The wind handed us the reason for another improvement of the plans, a more southern landing among the gentoos on Cuverville after dinner. A finer light caressing the landscape you couldn’t wish for: the snowfields turned yellow, deepening into a golden redish, the sea took on a soft yellow hue. What an evening the penguins were offered – and we with them!
