Our Travel Stories

After a long stretch of sea days, and nothing but the vast ocean for company, we finally sighted land. Not many people have visited this island and therefore it was a little bit of mystery on what we will find. We were all very excited and knew that it didn’t matter what was there, we were going to be thrilled with whatever we do find.

The birds were the first harbingers that the land was so close by. Then we started seeing icebergs, and then the island emerged shrouded in clouds and fog.

We all gathered on the observation deck admiring the glaciers on rugged land, numerous birds flying around, while the expedition team evaluated the conditions. The swell was high, winds gusty and overall didn’t look promising for even zodiac cruising.

Decision was made to find a spot in the lee of the island away from the winds coming from the northeast.

The expedition team found relatively calm spot and sent out a scouting team. Unfortunately there was no possible landing site as the cliffs came straight down to water. However, we will be able to do zodiac cruise.

We got into the very first zodiac piloted by our expedition team lead Howard and lo and behold, the weather gods had smiled on us, and we had sunny skies and a beautiful day.

What a beautiful place. The iron in the cliffs was so red, and the reds of iron oxide, the black of volcanic rocks, and the white of ice made for a dramatic scenery. The place was full of glaciers and icebergs that had calved from them.

To top that we soon found chinstrap penguins (new species of penguins for us) and antartic fur seals (again new for us).

The place was also teeming with birdlife.

We did get very close to some rocky shelves off the cliff and managed to touch our feet to them. It is supposed to count as a landing.

We also tried getting close to some humpback whales, but they eluded us and we only saw them from a distance.

Overall, it ended up as an amazing day. We were sad to wave goodbye to Peter I Island. As we were moving away, clouds started gathering again and before we knew it the island was again shrouded in clouds and fog and felt as mysterious as it did in the morning.