The alarm went off at 6:20am, which was pretty rude after the late night and slog we did yesterday. We looked a bit like shit. But made our way to the Freidheim restaurant for a continental breakfast - it’s the only one open that early. We spotted another couple people from our humpback whale group in there.
We were supposed to go kayaking this morning but it clashed with our Petermann island landing. Everything we had heard was that Peterman island was amazing but also - normally the kayaking clashed with zodiac Cruises not landings. The night before, when we realised, we raced to reception but no one was there (no one noticed us - I didn’t want to flag those on the computers out the back). Dan chatted to reception and cancelled for us, hopefully we haven’t wasted €300, but I think we got to it in time. The landing looked so much more interesting than kayaking, so we made that tough decision and stuck to it.
Back in the room Dan and I donned our waterproof gear again, struggled into the moon boots and fretted over how many layers to wear. Outside was grey and overcast, but not cold or windy. I decided to stick with the thermal and one layer beneath my hurtigruten jacket, no snood, and switched the deer stalker hat for the smaller beanie when I realised how much warmer it was doutside. No gloves were needed. I mean, it’s 0-1C, but when you’re moving around you get warm quickly.
We were not the first down to deck 3 but we were ahead of schedule, and not too long later we were on a zodiac over. Landing was tough - crew members were up to their waists standingin the water guiding the zodiacs in, and one could only jump off when the driver pushed the boat roughly against the rocks, giving you less gap to have to jump over.
Todays landing was rather spectacular. The small briefing took place on a little rocky inlet, the ice around us visibly and audibly melting cresting streams through the rocks. We collected our stocks and were told to be back at 9.05. We weren’t to follow the original path they laid out as in the meantime a big weddell had decided to lay out and watch its penguin lunch. It was a bit pissed off with us being there and gawking at it, and by the time we had done the round trip it had gone.
There was an abundance of penguins just as we got off the zodiac but we had to move along to let more boat loads land, so we made our way up a bit of an incline to view the wege of a rocky outcrop. Here, Adélie penguins coexisted with the gentoo penguin and apparently also some chinstraps could be found (we didn’t see them), and also coexisted with comorants! Looking back on my photos it’s amazing to see the fully black Adélie penguins, gentoo penguins and comorants all in the same frame. Many skua were hanging around, apparently waiting for an opportunity to steal eggs. I didn’t see this happen but others on land did. After being overwhelmed by what was going on on one side with all the different penguins and other birds, we shuffled our way around to the other side where the was a beautiful iceberg bay, filled with giant blue chunks bobbing gently.
On the way, a curious penguin joined our people highway while his friend stood to the side like “what are you doing?” The views were almost too much, my camera had a hard time with the white sky and the white snow, it was stunning. There was amazement everywhere we looked. We were glad we had foregone the kayaking in the end.
Only a few minutes late we returned to the starting spot and joined the queue to get on the zodiacs back to the boats. It was moving very slowly, and we were surrounded by rockeries so it was a brilliant place to be waiting! We watched the little penguins wander this way and that, jump, slip, shout at each other, gather pebbles for the nests. There was constant movement. One would set off along the penguin highway, meet another penguin, squeeze past each other on the narrow path and continue on. All the while under the watchful gaze of the predatory skua…
Back on the Nansen we chilled for a while, and looked at our pictures. I lamented that we hadn’t seen any chicks on this landing, when I zoomed into one of my wide shots and realised it was full of fuzzy potatoes!! And we also saw a lot of cormorant chicks too, nestled amongst. I was so happy, can’t wait to edit these photos up.
Because we started so early and it had been pretty strenuous on the land, by thr time 11am rolled around I was STARVING. We donned our gear and did a lap of the ship to help stave off my hunger. Always constantly so many little penguins jumping and diving like tiny dolphins.
Lunch was in lihdstrom - carpaccio, seafood spaghetti and chocolate brownie that was really just a sponge cake. While we sat at the window we saw some more humpback whales gliding past. Dan suggested I try filming them with my zoom lense on my canon. It doesn’t have a stablizer so I have to be very still. We watched and filmed as a family of two big whales and a little one eventually fluked in sequence and dove. It was beautiful.
Saw whales during lunch - videoed them on
Time for a nap! While I was doing this, Dan saw a Yugoslavian made ship from the 70s so he hung around outside to photograph that. Soon it would be time for our afternoon cruise on the zodiacs - the hardest part is just waiting around for our group to be called. We knew we would be first again so we put our gear on and meandered down the level 3.
By the way I don’t think I’ve explained the gear. The outfit goes like this (for me, anyway. Dan were more layers than I do as I am prone to overheating).
Thermal tights, thermal long top.
Normal pair of socks, then thick woollen socks.
Next on go the waterproof pants and I instantly start heating up. I don’t put any of my top layers on until closer to time.
As the isssued boots are a bit of a process to put on, I’ll often put these on pretty early. The first day I had an issue with one rubbing and bandaids didn’t seem to help, but haven’t had the same problem since. Actually since it’s been more about the different points where the boots bend and stick in, but I only notice this while I’m in the room once I’m out there - all is forgotten. So the giant waterproof shoes go on and I tuck the inside layer of the ski pants into the top of the boots. My pants are too long so by doing so it helps to make them shorter. My knees get a bit bulgy but that’s ok. Then another outer layer - fleece, or a skivvy, then the hurtigruten waterproof jacket. The life vest is next, complete with an extra strap between the legs to stop it floating off over your head in an emergency. Beanie, sunnies, gloves. I’ve tended to go sans gloves oddly enough, I’ve been warm enough and my camera and phone are touch screen.
Overheating on level3, we met brian and Suzanne down thrrr already. They’re in minke, but I think they’re getting a bit bored hanging around. We had a good chat while more humpbacks arrived. We hadn’t been called but we were all impatient. About half an hour late(r) humpbacks we’re called and Dan and I were at the front of the queue.
This meant we could sit at the back of the zodiac and have room to swivel a bit, rather than being a bit trapped in the middle. We sat opposite each other so we could get footage on our GoPros of the other.
Our cruising this afternoon was around høvgaard harbour through and past many icebergs. I couldn’t hear our crew leader super well, but it was nice still to sit back and rift around. Because I couldn’t hear I wasn’t sure why we were circling a small chunk of ice. Eventually I realised it was black ice and he wanted to show it to us - as well as get it out of the way for the other zodiac drivers. Between him and Dan they managed to fish it out of the water and plonked it unceremoniously onto the boat. It was about the size of w basketball,Crystal clear, and dangerous for zodiacs as you can’t see them low bobbing in the water. The High oxygen content makes them extra clear and and in the water all you can see is the bottom of the ocean.
While out here we Saw a little penguin doing an interesting way of swimming - later on we decided he was probably eating. We also Saw red and green ice algae, which left big stains through layers of the ice, and Some big gulls tried to swoop us!
A seal was spotted sunbathing on a rock - at first the leader thought it was w weddell seal but it turned out to be an elephant seal which was apparently a bit out of character, alone on a rock. he wasn’t super interested in facing the camera and frankly from a distance just looked a little bit like a brownish turd. He did look up at one point and I got a funny little photo where he has a fin up, and looks to be saying “please, no photos.”
It was peaceful and serene and soon enough we were heading back to the Nansen.
After disembarking Dan and I went straight to our room and got into our bathers. We wanted to try out the sauna and figured while people were waiting for their cruise there might be less competition. As we entered another couple stopped talking - we thought they were German but shortly after entering they asked if we minded more steam, to which we said of course that’s fine. They were American, and he said
“I’m guessing by your accents that you didn’t cross the equator?”
“Actually” Dan said “we crossed it twice! But yes we live in Australia. “
Ended up having a good chat while sweating and watching the amazing scenery outside - little zodiacs against the towering icy land.
When we were very sweaty and dehydrated we jumped out of the sauna, had quick cold showers and headed outside. We gave the pool a go - was delightfully coolish and surprisingly salty. We did a few laps then the spa came free, so took the opportunity to Hop in.
Too hot! Especially in the sun.
Because we had such an early start we decided to at last have a look at our wine collection in the room. We popped the bottle of honeymoon bollagers while we got ready for the esrly briefing session. We filled a mug with fancy champagne and giggling made our way downstairs. Everyone else had their mugs of coffee and tea (we presume), and we kept joking we had our camomile. We learned that tomorrow will be a bit of an easier day-just one landing as we had some very scenic sail to do through the Lamaire Channel. We learned about some of the digits to see, including the aptly named Una’s Tits.
“This is a landmark to look out for tomorrow,” Bruno said.
“Two landmarks!” Someone quipped.
After the early briefing it was dinner time. I had the carpaccio, followed by the seafood risotto and the lemon tart. The seafood risotto had a large prawn, de shelled but with the shell placed back as a feature. It was quite unnecessary and a little off putting! When we finished we raced to tonight’s tiny talk about 10 interesting facts about Antarctica. Bruno let the session and we sat with our friends Heidi and Marianne (complete with another glass of wine, this time white, in our mug). Bruno is always good value and his session was very interesting! Most of the facts have escaped me now unfortunately.
We chatted with Heidi and Marianne after the tiny talk had ended. Soon enough it was time to pack it in so we returned to our beautiful room yet again. We spent some time chatting and drinking wine until I noticed the time. 11:50pm.
“Let’s go outside for midnight” I said.
Dan looked at me incredulous. “Why?”
“Coz I want to see how bright it is at midnight in polar day.”
Begrudgingly, but also unable to fault my logic, Dan agreed and we donned minimal amounts of warm clothes and ran outside. We did have our wine windcheater on, so that kept us warm at least!
No one else was out on the deck, and so we ran around generally being quite stupid watched From the bridge above. Not long after midnight we saw two humpback whales go past - as there’s no night/day/circadian rhythm, life just keeps going no matter the time. It was glorious and so bright outside still.
NOW it was finally time to go to bed. A bit of a more relaxed itinerary on the morrow!
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