The heart of any of our expeditions is the ability to get ashore almost wherever we want to via our fleet of Zodiacs (motorized rubber rafts). This morning strong winds made the Zodiac operation more of an adventure than usual, and wetter, but we made it ashore at Carcass Island for a wonderful series of short and long hikes among Magellanic and gentoo penguins (lower right and upper right), beautiful beaches and rolling coastal moorlands.
At the end of the hike we were invited into the home of Rob and Lorraine McGill for late morning tea and cakes. A wonderfully delicious way to finish the outing. Returning to the ship via Zodiac (main picture) we ate lunch while relocating to Saunder's Island. There we wrestled the wind once more to Zodiac ashore for a special outing to one of the few groups of breeding king penguins in the Falklands. Pictured are four adult birds standing on the beach near their nesting area.
At one meter tall the king penguin is second in size only to the emperor penguin. It breeds in large numbers on many subantarctic islands, but the Falkland colonies total only around 250 pairs. We were most fortunate to get the great looks we did at this bird, our fourth species of penguin thus far! (Magellanic, gentoo and rockhopper are our other three).
