Touchdown on the Continent

Jan. 23

Orne Harbor is on the northwest side of the Arctowski Peninsula, near the entrance to Errera Channel. The harbor is surrounded by glaciers. In fact, when we stopped for our shore excursion I couldn’t see where we would have any place to land.  But this crew has done this before and had a nice spot for us to disembark and hike up the glacier to an overlook.  Along the way we had to step aside for several penguins trying to walk up to their nests.  It was a difficult climb as our feet would sink into the snow up to our knees, then we would try to fill the hole so a penguin would not drop into it and not be able to climb out.

A fascinating tidbit about penguins.  They build their nexts from rocks and sometimes they have to walk all the way down to the shore to find a rock and carry it back up the hill to the nest.  But once the nest is built that penguin has an internal GPS that tells it where the nest is located year after year, even if it covered with snow.

Just as we finished lunch our cruise director, Pablo, announced that Orcas had been spotted! Everyone ran outside for this amazing show of 8-10 Orcas breaching! They even came right under the ship.  The captains and bridge crew follow the whales for about half an hour before they had to turn around.  Amazing!!

We stopped to visit Neco Harbor.  This place is named after a floating whale factory ship called The Neco.  Many, many penguins live here.  This is also the location where the camping group will spend the night.  It seems they have to dig a hole for their sleeping bags and the tents then fit over the top.  We are NOT camping but enjoying an evening on the boat after a short cruise in the Zodiac around the harbor.