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hyarrowenIt took two days to reach our destination, the South Shetland Islands, just off the Antarctic Peninsula. We were travelling at about fifteen knots all the way. Shackleton and his men did this journey in sixteen days, presumably at about two knots. I absolutely take my hat off to them. It was pretty wild even in a small cruise ship.
The South Shetlands are separated from the Peninsula by a spreading ridge, under the Bransfield Strait, and just beyond them is a subduction zone. So they’re quite lively in themselves. We landed on the originally-named Penguin Island, which has a small dormant volcano, and colonies of Magellanic and Chinstrap penguins. There was time to climb the volcano or tramp along the bouldery beach to see the penguins. We didn't fancy clomping up a six hundred-foot volcano in wellies, so we visited the penguins instead. Chinstraps are particularly cute.
Somehow, I managed not to get my own pic of either the penguins or the volcano - the wind was fierce, and I had a lot of faith in the expedition photographer by then. But those are elephant seals lying on the beach, and that's Antarctica itself across the strait.
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Date: 2023-01-31 07:23 am (UTC)I really appreciate the elephant seals.
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Date: 2023-01-31 07:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-31 06:14 pm (UTC)Aww, that view of Antarctica across the strait is lovely—I especially like the matching stripes of land/sea and cloud/sky, that's very pleasingly neat.
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Date: 2023-02-01 12:29 am (UTC)The clouds were quitre fascinating. I don't know if it was due to heat from the volcano or what, but it was certainly striking.
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Date: 2023-01-31 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-01 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-01 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-01 11:23 pm (UTC)I read somewhere that the brindled grey-brown colour is a kind of default colouring for mammals, so it might be that, I suppose. But it's probably something that's going to be quite obvious once it's been worked out.