Argen­ti­ne Islands – March 11, 2017

Sat
11 Mar
2017

The Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la! We had final­ly rea­ched it, and I think that ever­y­bo­dy here will agree when I say that we were real­ly loo­king for­ward to see­ing and step­ping on land again.

The Argen­ti­ne Islands were the per­fect first stop for us, con­ve­ni­ent­ly loca­ted, the first place we natu­ral­ly rea­ched, calm seas, litt­le wind – the­re was no time to lose, and we went out as soon as we could in the after­noon. Ice­bergs were drif­ting ever­y­whe­re in lar­ge num­bers, both bet­ween the islands and in the more open waters sur­roun­ding them. Some steps up a snow field are enough to yield an ama­zing view over this icy sce­n­ery, and a Zodiac crui­se bet­ween the islands pro­vi­des all sorts of scenic insight.

Ever­y­bo­dy could cho­se bet­ween eit­her visi­ting the Ukra­ni­an Ver­nad­sky Base, which is kee­ping some of the lon­gest meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal records of Ant­ar­c­ti­ca, or Wordie House, the for­mer Bri­tish Base F, used from 1947 to 1954 and now part of Antarctica’s his­to­ri­cal heri­ta­ge.

Gal­lery – Pen­o­la Strait – March 11, 2017

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

The evening light in Pen­o­la Strait, south of the Lemai­re Chan­nel, was a true high­light. The scenic back­ground unbeata­ble, the ice­bergs count­less, the light gol­den and warm. I guess the only peo­p­le who did not like it so much were the guys in the gal­ley, as it was exact­ly din­ner­ti­me 😉