The South Pole Part Deux: The Penguin poo express
photo: Osama Muhammed
Where did we leave off. Oh yes, we just got through the infamous Drake Passage. When we finally hit gentle waters everyone began to feel much, much better. We began to discover passengers that we had never seen before.
Throughout our trip through the Drake we had 6 or 7 (1)hour long lectures by the Expedition Staff. The staff was extremely well informed and entertaining. So, by the time we made our first landing we were well equipped with the knowledge of the history of Antarctica, the flying birds of the Antarctic, penguins, dog sledding, Antarctic rocks and glaciers, and the river of krill (krill makes up the bottom of the food chain that sustains almost all Antarctic life). We even had an extensive briefing on the different shapes and colors of penguin poo we would see.
Sidenote: Penguins can shoot poo farther than any other animal in the world. It is quite astonishing to witness and one of their finest qualities.
———————————————————————————
The first day we did three landings: Danco Island, Neko Harbor on the Antarctic mainland, and Paradise Bay.
To do an actual landing, you have to wear rubber boots, a waterproof coat,and waterproof pants. Passengers line up and disembark down a 20 step gangway to get onto a zodiac boat.
When we arrived on Danko Island we were greeted by thousands of Gentoo Penguin Chicks. For the most part, their mothers and fathers were out at sea trying to eat enough krill to sustain them. Late in the season–when we were there The chicks are almost double the size of the parents.
Penguins are agile and smooth in the water. They move through the water like little torpedoes. Penguins on land are a completely different story. They waddle like little footballs waiting to be punted. Did I really just write that? That’s a horrible thought. Its just that if you wanted to punt them, it would be a really easy thing to do. Anyway, I better stop talking this way now before they ban me from Antarctica. For the record, I never actually considered punting a penguin chick and the idea to me is appalling.
Although I can not help but wonder how far they would go?
The number passengers over the age of 65 plus is significant. More incredibly, there were probably a dozen people over 80 on the trip. There are many, many rules as to how you must behave in Antarctica with regards to wildlife. For example, you are not supposed to get closer then five meters to a penguin. However, if you are sitting on a rock minding your own business and they decide to come up and start biting your boots that is OK– as long as you are not the instigator. I guess when you are over eighty years old you stop caring so much about the rules.
On the first landing, while walking up a sizable hill through a penguin colony. We stumbled across a Brown Skua nest. The Skuas role in the Antarctic is to pick off the sick baby penguins and to eat the dead ones. They are pretty big and look like a cross between a hawk and a sea gull. So, as we are walking up the hill, a little American old lady made straight for the Skua nest and started shooing them away…
Here is how it went down:
—————————–
Little Old Lady: “Go away Birds!!! Go away!!!!”
Skuas proceed to Dive Bomb the little old lady in a dramatic fashion ala Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.
Little Old Lady starts to panic and run, I try to help her away from them.
Little Old Lady: “I did not want them to eat the baby Penguin”
I look over and see that there is a baby chick behind at the base of the rocks
Dave: “Lady, thats not a baby penguin, thats a baby skua” (The baby penguins were easily 10 times the size of the skua chick in question)
Little Old Lady: (Pauses, then looks up at me with her eyes wide open) “Oh, well that explains everything”
Neko Harbor
We landed at Neko Harbor after lunch. I was sort of grouchy on this landing. Probably due to the late night ######### with the staff and new friends the night before. Neko Harbor was one of our only stops on the mainland of Antarctica. Most of the stops were on surrounding islands. The harbor was basically a giant lake at the base of a 100 meter glacier. The glacier was not as big as Perito Moreno in Argentina, but close.
We had the pleasure of having a real live Antarctic wedding on our boat. Katie and Jason of San Diego California had the most non traditional wedding I have ever experienced. They married on a giant cliff, half a mile up a mountain overlooking Neko Harbor. They looked like specs from our viewpoint below. I really admire their style. The total attendance was 8 people.
As I mentioned before, I was pissy and miserable at this point. So I decided to sit down on a rock and write in my journal to work through whatever it was going on in my head. As I was sitting, a mother and baby Gentoo penguin approached. The baby started chasing its mothers around vigorously demanding a feeding. They almost ran into me and I had my own personal penguin show.
I started feeling even better when we heard the screams from above indicating that Katie and Jason were officially married by their friend Jackie. She had obtained an online ministry certificate. I pulled out my camcorder to record them from below when the unthinkable happened.
Immediately facing us, a piece of the glacier the size of the U.S. White House crumbled off and crashed into the lake. The penguins all began to scream and head for higher ground. They formed a tight knit circle together. It was stunning how even baby penguin chicks have such natural instincts. We just stared blankly ahead, mesmerized by the once in a lifetime experience. Its hard to describe in words how big, thunderous, and amazing this was. Fortunately, I caught the whole thing on video. Between the crew and the expedition staff, nobody had ever seen a Glacial calving that big and that magnificent.
An older Greek man, who apparently did not hear the part of the shore briefing that instructed us to stay off the beach, enjoyed the sight from the waters edge. The first wave that was created from the calving came up to about his knees. Conversely, the second wave completely took him out. I did not see it first hand, but from what others said it broke completely over his head. He was unhurt, but very lucky he did not get sucked out and finished off by the mini tsunami–this might be a good time to reference the instinct of the penguin chicks again.
Without question, my overtly shitty mood had vanished, never to be seen again on this trip. It was twenty minutes before I heard a word uttered by any of the 40 people immediately around me. The first thing my Australian bar mate Brandy said to me was, “Mate, I am absolutely speechless”.
This all happened right after Jason and Katie tied the knot, less than 20 seconds after the kiss that sealed the deal.
After hanging for a few days I fell in with an international group of like minded individuals. We ate lunch together, rushed to the decks for whale watching false alarms together,and stepped in Penguin poo together. I find that it is easy to form extremely tight bonds after spending so much time with people placed in similar situations.
My established crew:
Regis(35) and Carol(30)- A delightful Brazilian couple on their honeymoon. Regis is a commodity trader in the beef business. If you need 7500 pounds of ribs, he is your guy. Carol is a green engineer. Together they make up the happiest couple I have ever had the pleasure of being around. They are putting me up in Florianapolis in a few weeks in their island beach house paradise. You will hear much more in the coming weeks about Regis´ Brazilian barbecued ribs.
Osama(31) and Noha(29)- A very cool Egyptian couple from Cairo. Osama runs his own computer consulting firm and Noha works with Egyptian nomads helping to bring their goods to the world markets. They both took great photos throughout the trip and ate lunch with us every day. I am using a lot of Osama´s photos (because I have decided my camera sucks).
> Ray(76) and Dean (PHOTO BELOW LEFT)(45)- Father and Son from Sydney Australia. Together they are in a family business supplying uniforms to all of Australia. Ray was the one of the most popular older gentleman on the boat–along with Sen from Japan. He and I talked much about our disdain for the bartender. Dean and I hung out quite a bit on the landings. Once, we got in trouble by the staff for wandering off course. This is where the old women and the baby penguin story came in handy.
Allison (Right) (29) (Scotland) and Anika (middle)(25)(German and lives in Ireland)- We hung out quite a bit over cold Beagle Stouts. These two also just came from Torres Del Paine which they found “quite easy”. They did the 9 day circuit–twice the amount of time I spent there–and encountered none of the problems that I did. I guess this means that they were in better shape then me. The bruise on my ego has still not fully recovered. Allison, was one of the first targets of the Russian Officer in search for female companionship. She declined his invitation to join him for a tour of the Bridge.
Bill and Suzanne (late 30ish) from San Diego- Bill delivers babies for the Navy, Suzanne makes maps. She GPSed our entire trip. Hopefully, I will be able to upload it.
Expedition Staff Profile: Jamie Watts from England (35) Marine Biologist
PHOTO Below with Jackie (below left) the Internet Minister
Before joining the Quark Expedition Team, Jamie spent two years on the remote wildlife enriched island of South Georgia working for the British Government. He was there studying the fisheries of the coast, which included the krill and fish at the bottom of the Antarctic food chain. His most memorable moment involves a time when he was snorkeling off the coast of South Georgia. He was taking in some wildlife when a Leopard Seal suddenly appeared and darted right for him, turning off a few feet from his face.
The previous year a Leopard Seal had taken a British female scientist 100 meters below the surface and drowned her while she was snorkeling. This is the only second death by Leopard Seal in recorded history.
The Award for the “Worst job on the boat goes to”…..
“The guy that cleans the Penguin shit off of everyones boots”!
One of the Russian sailors has the delightful job of scrubbing and wiping all of the excess penguin shit off of the boots of the passengers as they return from shore. Surprisingly, this guy did not seem to like his job. He would ask each person to raise their right foot, then he would say “OK”, then left foot, “OK”. The trouble is that it was not always “OK”. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of penguin poo to contend with in Antarctica. He had to check over 200 boots after every landing.
Note to self: Never be a Russian sailor
——————————————————————————–
Notes:
> I realize that I am writing a small miniseries here. But, I have to get all of this down while its fresh in my mind.
John Wynn–my friend from home just took the bar exam. The results will determine the future of his life as lawyer. We are crossing our fingers John arrives in Buenos Aires tomorrow at 10am. ´He will be traveling with me for 3 weeks. He is doubling as my own personal pack mule and is easily bringing me 30 pounds of crap that I need. He does not know it yet but I am sending a bunch of stuff home with him as well.
> I met and hung out with a million other amazing people on the expedition. I can not possibly profile them all. So, if you are reading this from the Antarctica trip, and I did not write anything about you. Its because I love you and I would not be able to do so without being instantly reduced to tears.
- March 6th
- If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed for new blog entries or new comments.
Leave a Reply