Emper­or

Wed
21 Jan
2015

Of cour­se you are not coming wit­hout hopes and wis­hes on a big trip like this. And of cour­se it will be safe to say that a num­ber of the­se wis­hes are shared by all of us here. Anyo­ne here who does not want to see an Emper­or pen­gu­in? Unli­kely. Cle­ar­ly, both chan­ces and exci­te­ments were rising as soon as we had the first bits of drift ice in view. Bino­cu­lars are curr­ent­ly in fre­quent use here.

Yes­ter­day evening then the big moment – the first of seve­ral! – some in the bar, others in the cine­ma, but some tire­less obser­vers on the bridge. Only moments later, all of us out on the open deck, in the cold wind, to admi­re the Emper­or in his very realm. A lonely, juve­ni­le Emper­or, the yel­low on the sides of his neck not yet real­ly yel­low, rather whitish-grey­ish, stan­ding the­re on his litt­le ice floe.

Always gre­at to see how such a pre­cious moment lifts the spi­rits imme­dia­te­ly.