Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Hydrurga Rocks and Portal Point


 Mountains of Ice, January 18.  

We moved south to Hydrurga Rocks. Landing by Zodiac was easy but the short hike  required crossing a jumble of rocks before trudging up a snow covered hill. As I was a little unstable, the guides helped keep me from falling. The penguins had no trouble at all.

I, Joanne, caught a respiratory bug right before leaving home and have been fighting it with some over the counter meds that I got from a friendly pharmacist in Buenos Aires.  I needed more rest so for Day Four, Richard went out without me.




Landing on Hydrurga Rocks




Walk on Hydrurga Rocks

I was a little nervous stepping on the towels but these penguins had no problem.


Orange cones mark the way through snow.



                                   

Penguins on Hydrurga Rocks


Penguin and Weddell Seal

Later at 2 PM, we both went out together in the Zodiac to cruise around Portal Point but right before we saw a Weddell seal on an iceberg below our cabin balcony.





                                           Weddell Seal


 The ship is now in the white snow- capped Arctic and it has stark beauty with the clear bluish water and white growlers and other size icebergs that float by.  The highlight was a whale sighting. We heard the whale blow as he swam among the Zodiacs actually bumping the bottom of one.  We got some great pictures and were very exhilarated by it all.




                          Antarctic Shag or Imperial Cormorant 




                                         Brown Skua





                                     Humpback Whale


ICE!

No comments: