Paulet Island, Antarctic Sound
"Glittering white, shining blue, raven black, in the light of the sun, the land looks like a fairy tale. Pinnacle after pinnacle, peak after peak, crevassed, wild as any land on our globe, it lies unseen and untrodden."
Roald Amundsen 1911, Norwegian leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole.
Raven black: Our day started with "raven black" but Paulet Island hasn't always been that color, it once was red. The embers now cold, remain from this former volcano. Stark and imposing, it rises dark and steep from the surrounding gray seas. New snow atop made the island appear as though powdered sugar was sifted down from unseen bakers above. What a remarkable event to gain the shore and realize the salt and pepper wasn't just the land and snow, but 100,000 pairs of nesting Adelie penguins (give or take a few hundred) decked in their black and white finery. No penguin sports a tuxedo quite like an Adelie. The sheer number of them was staggering. After several days of blustery winds and freezing temperatures, it was almost warm. A glimpse with binoculars confirmed that those tiny specks on the highest ridges of Paulet Island were also penguins. Amazing to think those little birds could also be mountaineers.
Glittering white: The timing was perfect. Just as the National Geographic Endeavour was leaving her Paulet Island anchorage, the pack ice was moving in and the sun was coming out. This was the "glittering white" part of our day. You couldn't have been outside without sunglasses. Mile after mile, we slalomed through ice of every imaginable description. Just like children who find shapes in passing clouds, our ice bergs resembled swans and ducks, ships and turtles. The thin plate layers of floating sea ice were pancakes, scalloped potatoes, fish scales, and my personal favorite, lotus flowers. It was mesmerizing and trance-inducing. There wasn't much talking on deck, mainly clicking cameras, followed by lowered lenses and quiet spells of contemplation.
Shining blue: We could see the huge tabular iceberg long before we reached it. After a quick lunch, it was time for "shining blue." Although there is a perfectly good scientific explanation for why an iceberg appears blue, there's no way to adequately capture the color in mere words, so I won't try. You've got to experience it for yourself, first hand. Our fine and friendly Captain Olaf Hartmann favored us with a complete circumnavigation around the most magnificent iceberg of our voyage. And finally, as if our day wasn't idyllic enough, at least sixteen orcas appeared for a fabulous few minutes.
It was the perfect Antarctic day: penguins on land, seals on ice, bergs on the sea and whales on the horizon. In short, we had the fairy tale.
"Glittering white, shining blue, raven black, in the light of the sun, the land looks like a fairy tale. Pinnacle after pinnacle, peak after peak, crevassed, wild as any land on our globe, it lies unseen and untrodden."
Roald Amundsen 1911, Norwegian leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole.
Raven black: Our day started with "raven black" but Paulet Island hasn't always been that color, it once was red. The embers now cold, remain from this former volcano. Stark and imposing, it rises dark and steep from the surrounding gray seas. New snow atop made the island appear as though powdered sugar was sifted down from unseen bakers above. What a remarkable event to gain the shore and realize the salt and pepper wasn't just the land and snow, but 100,000 pairs of nesting Adelie penguins (give or take a few hundred) decked in their black and white finery. No penguin sports a tuxedo quite like an Adelie. The sheer number of them was staggering. After several days of blustery winds and freezing temperatures, it was almost warm. A glimpse with binoculars confirmed that those tiny specks on the highest ridges of Paulet Island were also penguins. Amazing to think those little birds could also be mountaineers.
Glittering white: The timing was perfect. Just as the National Geographic Endeavour was leaving her Paulet Island anchorage, the pack ice was moving in and the sun was coming out. This was the "glittering white" part of our day. You couldn't have been outside without sunglasses. Mile after mile, we slalomed through ice of every imaginable description. Just like children who find shapes in passing clouds, our ice bergs resembled swans and ducks, ships and turtles. The thin plate layers of floating sea ice were pancakes, scalloped potatoes, fish scales, and my personal favorite, lotus flowers. It was mesmerizing and trance-inducing. There wasn't much talking on deck, mainly clicking cameras, followed by lowered lenses and quiet spells of contemplation.
Shining blue: We could see the huge tabular iceberg long before we reached it. After a quick lunch, it was time for "shining blue." Although there is a perfectly good scientific explanation for why an iceberg appears blue, there's no way to adequately capture the color in mere words, so I won't try. You've got to experience it for yourself, first hand. Our fine and friendly Captain Olaf Hartmann favored us with a complete circumnavigation around the most magnificent iceberg of our voyage. And finally, as if our day wasn't idyllic enough, at least sixteen orcas appeared for a fabulous few minutes.
It was the perfect Antarctic day: penguins on land, seals on ice, bergs on the sea and whales on the horizon. In short, we had the fairy tale.
