Tuesday, January 14th, 2011
Mid-morning while on the bridge we spotted a humpback whale and her calf. They played along side the ship for a while before diving down.
TW sailed on through The Gerlach Channel and the views were stunning all day. Our captain really loves taking the ship through narrow channels and close to icebergs; I felt I could almost touch the bergs! Spectacular!
At 1:30pm we anchored in Neko Bay and White Group was scheduled to go ashore around 15:45pm.
And go we did! I set foot on the Antarctic Continent for the first time that day and I have now been to the 7 continents! Lucky I spent 8 days driving around in Argentina before this expedition :-). The weather was magnificent: absolutely stunning blue skies and sunshine.
Our first stop after landing was a Gentoo Penguin rookery: a couple of hundred sitiing on and feeding their chicks, while trying to stop others from stealing their pebbles. Gentoos use pebbles to build a nest on the rocks.
After walking up the hill we got amazing views over Neko Harbour. I caught a rather big piece calving off the glacier on film.
The evening was spent cruising through the very scenic Lemaire Channel where the sunset provided for stunning colors and views. Stephen and I were outside on Decks 7 (helo deck) and 12 (top deck) for most of it.
Caroline.
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