King Penguin or New Zealand Fruit?

We all had a great chuckle on our Antarctica journey when Photographer Rod Planck did a slide show on penguins and his lead-in shot was a close up of a kiwi fruit. The next shot was one of these guys.

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

Do you see any resemblance?

Your journey to Antarctica - the "Great White South" will be one of your wildest dreams - it was for me anyway. Save up your money and do the whole circuit. Do not miss South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. They not only make the travel across the open ocean more pleasant but the photo opportunities are endless. And the moderate temperatures will blow your mind! Oh, and the 1/2 million pairs of King Penguins on one island might stir your interest a bit as well!!

I chose to celebrate the "Real" Millennium rollover from 2000-2001 on a boat in the southern oceans. Cheeseman's Ecology Tours offered the best tour at the time and I enjoyed every moment and almost everyone on the tour. We had a few interesting travelers to contend with, but don't we always :) The boat held over 100 passengers which is a much larger crowd than I tend to like to travel with, but the antics of the Russian crew and the entertaining staff were worth the lines for the zodiacs to shore.

The on-board lectures by noted photographers, geologists, ornithologists, whale researchers, artists, the list goes on - was a truly educational experience. The time on shore to witness the behaviors of the penguins, seals, birds coming in for a landing, etc. was exceptional. Especially the frisky sea lion pups who stood their ground, trying to keep us out of their territory. The photo ops were limitless.

Everyone thinks Antarctica is this god-awful, cold, deserted place. It is not - it is the true icon of the little bit of isolated wilderness left on our great planet. It is one of the crispest, clearest, most refreshingly beautiful places I have ever visited. Even the scientific research stations are a humbling place to visit. Imagine living there through the -100 degree winters!

Luckily we visited in the summer (Dec-Jan) and I dressed in layers, just as I would for a day of skiing in the Colorado high country and felt just fine. The only time I was ever really cold was during a zodiac ride through a bay of "bergy bits" - but that was just for a few hours and my rubber boots were not insulated enough to keep my toes from freezing. But the experience was surreal and worth every nippy toe! The ship itself was actually almost too warm most of the time.

By the way - that cute little kiwi fruit king penguin chick shown earlier goes through a fairly complicated stage of losing his/her feathers .... the feathers they shed line the beaches of the islands they inhabit. The goofy results of shedding are sometimes worth a chuckle or two ...

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

But the king penguin chick eventually turns out to be not too bad looking and worthy of a mate!

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

What more would you like to hear/see about Antarctica?

Stay warm!

Antarctic-jan