Enter­pri­se Island – 26 Janu­ary 2018

Fri
26 Jan
2018

The idea was to spend a full day at Enter­pri­se Island. Making a nice excur­si­on and fin­ding some ant­ar­c­tic quiet­ness and soli­tu­de. Initi­al­ly, it appeared to be quite grey out­side, so we made a rela­xed start in the mor­ning, but then we went out with the din­gies. Wil­hel­mi­nay Bay was flat as at table cloth, the clouds beca­me thin­ner and thin­ner and the sun was warm­ing us noti­ce­ab­ly. So we spent quite a while drif­ting near a big ice­berg and enjoy­ing life in the Ant­ar­c­tic.

After a while, we spot­ted three Hump­back wha­les a bit fur­ther north. Actual­ly, it was a good bit, but we gave it a try any­way. After a while, we got clo­se to them and as it tur­ned out they were now in deep sleep mode, just han­ging under the sur­face, occa­sio­nal­ly sur­fa­cing to take a good, noi­sy breath. Again, we spent a long time drif­ting quiet­ly, enjoy­ing the pre­sence of the­se three gre­at crea­tures, until we said good­bye to them. A litt­le pie­ce of polar hea­ven.

Gal­lery – Enter­pri­se Island – 26 Janu­ary 2018

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

Short­ly befo­re we rea­ched our good home again, the Anne-Mar­ga­re­tha, we pas­sed by a litt­le island and we just deci­ded to go for litt­le landing. It was always nice to touch solid, ant­ar­c­tic ground, and now, given the nice, warm wea­ther and the stun­ning sur­roun­dings, we just couldn’t resist. The migh­ty snow cliffs and ice walls of Enter­pri­se Island were pret­ty clo­se and pro­vi­ded a stun­ning bit of sce­n­ery for an exten­ded rest.

Up on the rocky hill, a cou­ple of Kelp gulls and their chicks kept screa­ming at us, so we stay­ed near the shore and enjoy­ed the ant­ar­c­tic silence for a long time.

As it tur­ned out, our litt­le excur­si­on of two hours had beco­me quite a trip of a solid 4 hours dura­ti­on, so we enjoy­ed rela­xing the later after­noon on board. Mar­vel­ling at the views around us, pho­to­gra­phing the Ant­ar­c­tic terns on the wreck of the old wha­ling ship next to us, sort­ing all the pho­tos we had taken.

In the evening, Rolf, Franz, Marei­ke and Samu­el went out again with the din­gy to see if the­re were any wha­les near­by. This was not the case, so we could hap­pi­ly finish the day on board.