The campers arrived back on deck about 6 am so the ship headed to Danco Island where we did a zodiac cruise and a hike. The cruise consisted of meandering around icebergs and spotting various seals, birds, a jellyfish, and also saw an avalanche sliding down a valley. Our guide thought it was probably about a 2 or 3 on a scale of 5. We did see where some recent calving of glaciers were in the cold water. Older icebergs look dirty and some continue to move and roll. We saw a couple of large chunks rolling ever so slowly. We were never very close to where an avalanche may take place. If perchance there was one that crashed into the water, there would be a tremendous wave.
We landed on a pebble beach this time, but not one you would consider for walking in flip flops. We stepped into water from our zodiac onto the pebble beach and headed upwards to the top of the mountain by following some snowy slippery trails. We did grab at least one ski pole to assist in making the climb. Walt's Fitbit said that after this climb we have done 62 flights of stairs. I guess we did go up quite high. We saw numerous Gentoo penguin colonies and also their highways. The penguins have worn paths in the snow that are quite deep in order for them to get down to the water. It made us think of the Oregon Trail ruts that are also worn in deeply. We also had a terrific view from the top where we were overlooking our ship, icebergs, penguin colonies as well as other yellow jackets (hikers). The view was phenomenal and looked so peaceful and pristine. We just never realized that Antarctica was so mountainous. These mountains are also lava formed.
This cute couple enjoyed a nice hike with a lovely background of mountains and penguin colonies. This was way up on the mountain, but it doesn't really show how high it really was.
Theses penguins are in their colony sitting on the rock nests protecting and warming either the eggs or chicks.
This is a penguin highway that they continuously go up and down all day long up to their colonies which are up quite high up in the mountains. This highway was about a foot deep into the snow and ice.
This is a Chinstrap penguin since it looks like it has a little strap by its mouth. It also has more black on its head than the Gentoo penguin.
In the afternoon we landed on the continent once again. This will be our last time on the actual continent. We had quite a hike up from the large rocky landing spot. We had a switchback trail going up to quite a view. We were not able to get and ski poles since they were all gone by the time we go to land. We made it anyway and did enjoy seeing the chinstrap penguins colony. It was quite a trek and we were a bit warm after that hike even after zipping down our jackets and removing our gloves. According to Walt's Fitbit we did about 47 flights of stairs and this one was steeper than the one this morning. Either way we enjoyed the view and the movement. This was absolutely beautiful with the bright sunlight and tall pristine mountains and cold water beneath. Wow!
Our ship looks so small out on the water. The area is so massive that it is hard to show on a photo.
We cruised around the icebergs and ice flows with seals resting in the sunshine. We viewed a number of seals both Chinstrap and Gentoo. We did see several penguins porpoising in the water all around our zodiac. We were getting quite chilly by the end of the ride with the wind in our faces.
We had a nice B B Q on the deck of the ship with glasses of Gluhwine. It was a yummy meal and great wine. You can see the kayaks in the background.
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