I woke up with the sun shining on my face. ‘A very good
morning’, my room mate exclaimed. The landings for today were scheduled after
lunch and in the morning the MV Fram was going to make its way crossing the 64.5
deg south latitude to an Island
No lectures in the morning and no landings, I thought to
myself it would be a rather dull morning with just the sailing. But then as I
got to the breakfast deck with wider views I realized that this is probably the
Antarctica of pictures. With huge floating ice bergs and glaciers running down
to the sea, the sight was to be only enjoyed from outdoor. Going outdoor meant
wearing the layers but then the sun was shining and the guys standing out
didn’t have their ears covered. That’s a good sign I thought. The fact that we
were no longer sailing but just cruising around the bay area was a good thing
to see the surroundings at slower speeds.
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| It was indeed a perfect morning ! |
With just two upper layers I stepped out and into a dream.
Glaciers, Icebergs and the blue sky reflecting on the clear ocean waters full
of small sheets of broken ice, made for the Antarctica picture everyone wanted.
Enter the whales, and the glaciers were put on the side. I could only hear
continuous shots being clicked till the tail would come out of the giant
‘humpback whale’. Most of the ones taking pictures from the sun deck had
Digital SLR’s with a fancy lens. Some of them I learnt had bought a new camera
just before this trip. A lady, who knew what I did for a living, said
‘sometimes its good even for you to be a tourist’. It was true, the Antartctic nature was in its full glory in
the morning sunlight and the voice on the loudspeaker kept on talking about how
beautiful the weather is today. As my partner had said in the morning it was
indeed a beautiful morning. A morning where I think I took some 200 odd
pictures.. I am saying, coz I know when I edit, I will be only left with 40 or
50 of them.
The captain gave us ample amount of time to soak in the
surroundings. Frankly I feel that the eager souls in us wanted to know, what
next? So, when the cruise finally started to sail again, we all retired to the
coffee lounge. I did what I like the most, to dig myself into the map of
today’s sailing. We were at 64.2 deg South, and that’s the southernmost we had
been. The landing for the day was at 1430 hrs and at 64.5 deg south at
Cuverville island.
The lunch was taking its toll and as our group was the last
for landing, all my tourists went to their cabins for a nap. I usually only
went to my room when I wanted something and sleep was something that I wanted
to avoid. So I stayed out and read a little more about the Chilean Base station
that we had visited the day earlier. Though I did catch myself dozing off, until the speaker used
to come alive with a landing announcement.
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| The Glaciers, Icebergs and the clear Antarctic waters! |
It was soon our turn to land and this was the first time we
saw the ice bergs pass us at eye level. The mass of ice, feels much bigger and
majestic from the sea level. There were more Penguins promised for today’s
landing and the strong odour of Penguin poo was already in the air 100 meters
from the landing site. As we touched base, the snow had the green/yellow
coloration everywhere. Ok enough of the poo – pee talk. We were the last to
arrive on Cuverville island. I knew, I would not be staying for long and would
take the few pictures with the Fram and icebergs together. On the previous two
landings,I had not taken the zoom lens which I did on the Cuverville island.
The Chinstrap penguins had their colony on the first landing at half moon
island, while our third landing was ruled by the Gentu Penguins. The only
difference was the orange beak that the later had to the black one of
chinstrap. The Gentu seemed a little more excited, not about us being there but
in general. The Chinstrap were walking at a steady pace, while the penguins on
Cuvervilled island kept running around, most of it, I thought was just play.
I got back to the ship in 30 minutes. It was more like, I
went I clicked and I returned! It was already 1800 hours and on that evening, I
think I was more hungry than the previous ones. I was happy to see a Norwegian
buffet lined up for that night. The Captains table was a little more alive I
should say. Although the Norwegians I know try to keep everything simple,
including their facial expression when they are happy, that night the food
spoke from the Captains table. The captain was from my most loved place in
Norway, the Lofoten Islands.
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