Day Five - 8th December - First penguin colony and camping on the ice overnight

Meeting the Penguins
Another brilliantly sunny day, and virtually flat calm conditions, saw us back in the Zodiacs for a cruise among the Yalour Islands before landing at our first penguin colony. There were hundreds of Adelies nesting here and, as we were to see elsewhere, and in relation to other species, these birds were nesting on the areas of exposed rock.

Adelie Penguin

Their nests are nothing more than piles of stones and there is quite a bit of heated activity as they steal stones from one another. As in other seabird colonies, each bird's nesting territory is just out of pecking range of its neighbours, so they are pretty closely packed on the small areas of exposed rock that are otherwise surrounded by ice, sometimes hundreds of yards from the shore.

They are highly vocal, too, regularly breaking into loud braying calls as they stand with their bills pointing skywards and with their flippers outstretched. Even this early in the season, the colony smelled like a pig farm with essence of fish!

The birds seemed quite unconcerned by our presence and, whilst we did our utmost to keep a respectful distance from them, they didn't seem to mind walking past us on their way to or from the sea.

The Adelie is one of only two species of penguin that are confined to Antarctica and, at about 2' 4" tall, is one of the smaller species. The head and upperparts, including the uppersides of the flippers, and the upper tail are black and the underparts are white. There are broad white rings around the eyes, the black bill is suffused with red and is relatively short and stubby and the feet are pink.

Of course all penguins are fast and highly manoeuvrable in the water, but on land their waddling gait, with flippers held out as if walking a tightrope, is very comical to watch.

Gentoo penguins

Peterman Island
Back aboard the Ioffe lunch was a delicious barbecue served on deck in brilliant sunshine, with members of the crew sporting incongruous Caribbean outfits, as we made our way to Peterman Island. There was a vast majority show of hands for camping on the ice, despite the fact that tents were not involved…

Peterman Island is, quite simply, one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have ever seen. Even if, heaven forbid, you took away the wildlife, you would still be left with an awe-inspiring experience. Standing on top of the glacier looking across the sound to the impressive, glacier-bound peaks of the Antarctic Peninsula in brilliant sunshine was really to experience the Antarctica of the imagination. The moment demanded turning in a complete circle to take in a view that was, frankly, almost too much to comprehend.

As well as Adelie and Gentoo penguins and Blue-eyed Cormorants, we saw our first Pale-faced Sheathbills here. These birds are the only ones in Antarctica that do not have webbed feet and they live around seabird and seal colonies as non-aggressive scavengers. About the size of a domestic hen, they are completely white, with pink skin around the face and a greyish conical bill, legs and feet. They are only present in Antarctica during the summer, flying back to the South American coast for the winter.

Camping

Camping on Ice
As well as kayaking, one of the activities offered as part of Antarctic cruises on the Ioffe, weather permitting, is camping on the ice. Well, let's face it, you're only likely to have the chance to do something like this once, so, this was definitely not an opportunity to be missed.

After dinner we were taken by Zodiac back to Winter Island, where we were given a "bivy bag", a ground mat, a heavy-duty sleeping bag, a cotton sheet sleeping bag, and a snow shovel. No tent.

Camping on ice with no tent!

We had to dig a shallow rectangular pit in the snow and place the bivy bag (like an outsize sleeping bag made from thin tent fabric) in the pit. The ground mat was to be placed into the bivy bag, the sleeping bag was to be placed into the bivy bag on top of the ground mat and the sheet sleeping bag was to be placed inside the sleeping bag.

We were then shown the "facilities", which consisted of a wall of snow built around a blue barrel. In the event that anyone needed to go to the toilet during the night, that was where they had to go, as it is not permissible to leave waste of any description in Antarctica.

We then set about digging our pits and preparing our "beds" as instructed. Having done so, it was then a question of stripping off to the thermal tee-shirt and long john layer as quickly as possible, getting in, and zipping up the sleeping bag and bivy bag. Despite the temperature being below freezing, within a few minutes I was warm and relatively comfortable and, even though it barely got dark at all, was able to get to sleep.

I woke up at half-past one in the morning. It was no good; I was going to have to use the facilities. Having unzipped the sleeping bag and the bivy bag, I managed to extricate myself from the sheet sleeping bag and pull on my frosted wellies. What a dashing figure I must have cut, stomping across the snow in a tee shirt, long johns and wellies (looking like the "Jesse's Diets" character from The Fast Show).

Louise and I managed to last until half-past five, before getting up, packing our gear and being taken back to the Ioffe by Zodiac, by which time about half the participants were left (the last hardy soul was still sound asleep at 7:30 and had to be woken up).