Another World (part 3)

Icebergs

The first view or feeling of Antarctica is always an iceberg… 

Its scientific definition is fresh water ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating in open water. Did you know that 90% of the world's freshwater is found in Antarctica?

To be classified as an iceberg, the height of the ice must be greater than 5 metres above the sea surface.

The largest ones have names which sound like the names of highways, nothing too poetic, and their movements are monitored by satellites… 

Not all floating ice is an iceberg. There are smaller pieces of ice known as “bergy bits” with heights of 1 to 5 metres above the sea surface (the size of a small house!) and “growlers” with heights of less than 1 metre above the sea surface (slightly smaller than your car!). 

Icebergs are also classified by shape, most commonly being either tabular with steep sides and a flat top or non-tabular. The best way to admire the amazing shapes of the icebergs is while kayaking as you can get close to them (not too close though as they are constantly moving and can actually sink your kayak in the blink of an eye without any warning)! Some bergs looked definitely alien… 

We could work our imagination to the fullest extent possible and see gorgeous bergs that looked like mushrooms, whale bones, waves, cathedrals, you name it...

Some impressive icebergs had caves in them which reminded us of the Great Ocean Road rock formations. 

Icebergs are mostly white because the ice they are formed of is full of tiny air bubbles reflecting the white light. There may be bluish streaks running through them where the ice has been compressed and is air bubble free. You can even see some bright green ice formed by the freezing of microscopic algae on the underside of some icebergs or ice shelves. 

Much of an iceberg is below the water's surface. Most of the time the water in Antarctica was so transparent that while kayaking we could see the underwater part of the bergs...

The turquoise blue colour of the icebergs underwater looked surreal…

The light coming through the clouds and reflecting on the icebergs was spectacular…

There were stunning massive icebergs floating everywhere and our ship looked tiny next to them...

You can understand the size of some bergs when you see the size of the Antarctic mountains, the equivalent of the Alps or the Himalayas!

After the icebergs, the most common sight in Antarctica is a lone seal napping on an iceberg!

Seals

The Ice Continent has the largest population of seals in the world!

The first seals we saw there formed the welcome committee on Horseshoe Island.

It was fun to walk around and watch them nap, gossip, fight or play. 

Later on at Hydrurga Rocks we saw for the first time the Southern Elephant Seals which can weigh up to 4 tonnes and are therefore the world's largest seals! 

They look like gentle giants sunbathing on the rocks and beaches. 

We also sighted at the same spot our first lone Weddell seal sleeping in the snow and stretching its flippers or rolling over slightly from time to time like a big cat. 

During the trip we had many close encounters with these cute animals - a Crabeater Seal sunbathing on the shore, a friendly Leopard Seal who followed our Zodiac for at least an hour playing at hide and seek and popping up his head from time to time to say hello, as well as lots of Antarctic Fur Seals tussling with each other on the rocks and in the water. 

Each time was a magical moment! 

Penguins

Next to the ubiquitous seals, there were always some penguins, the quintessence of Antarctica! 

Penguins are birds that cannot fly but are amazing divers - Adelie Penguins can dive up to 180 metres, King Penguins up to 343 metres and Emperor Penguins (yes, those from the movie “March of the Penguins” which are the largest species of all) up to 565 metres!

We saw our first penguins ever - the Adelie Penguins - on Horseshoe Island and our excitement was such that we stayed there watching them for hours! 

The Adelie Penguins are mid-sized with black heads and can be found only in Antarctica. 

Later on during the trip we saw entire colonies of penguins from six different species…

The penguin tracks in the snow made some places look like legitimate penguin highways!

We got to hang out for the first time with a bunch of Gentoo Penguins at Port Charcot.

You can distinguish them from other penguins by their white eyeglasses or, depending on your imagination, headphones that made them look like they were listening to music and dancing on it! 

You could imagine that they had their hands or wings in their pockets which made them look super cool! 

Later on we had our first encounter with Chinstrap Penguins at Hydrurga Rocks. 

These guys are smaller than Gentoo Penguins, look like they have a black beard and are quite shy as compared to other species. 

Finally, we met for the first time King Penguins at South Georgia and Magellanic Penguins and Southern Rockhopper Penguins at the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). 

At the beginning it was overwhelming to watch all these cute buddies wandering around, meeting with each other, climbing, sliding down on the snow using their bellies as sledges, eating snow to cool down when they were too warm, napping (sometimes in a weird way), flapping their wings to regulate their body temperature, communicate with others or attract mates, swimming, bathing, dancing in a very synchronised way as if they were practising a sophisticated choreography, arguing, hugging, jumping, hiking up the mountains or simply having fun in the snow!

Some penguins hanging out together looked like the Beatles, Antarctica version. 

Others were photobombing our pictures or rather the opposite actually! In many respects penguins are just like us. This is probably the reason we identify with them and love them. 

I promise that you will never get fed up with penguins, even after having seen thousands of them, as each penguin does something different and funny all the time!