Life Is A Penguin Highway, I'm Gonna Waddle It All Day Long

(Editor’s note: dear readers, assuming you know the “life is a highway” song, I hope I’ve got the above two lines stuck in your head.)

Our last excursion off the boat on Sunday was to a steep hike up a ridge, high above a Gentoo penguin rookery.  It was our first time stepping foot on continental Antarctica – the other stops had been on islands just off the coast.  (Those islands count as being part of Antarctica, just as someone who goes to Manhattan Island after flying in on Long Island has been to the North American continent).  At the same, it was great to be able to step foot on the mainland.

Shortly after the five of us on the zodiac got out, a penguin jumped into the boat.  Naturalist Tom Ritchie had fun dealing with a penguin in his zodiac.  Finally, he took a couple of steps toward the penguin, which hopped up on the bow before jumping into the water.  Pretty remarkable.

Tom told me later that penguins are known to jump into zodiacs if leopard seals were around (any port in a storm, I suppose), but there was no leopard seals in the area.  Perhaps the penguin just wanted to see what’s what with these zodiacs.

It was not a long climb in the snow, but it was a steep one. We were rewarded with magnificent views of the larger Andvord Bay, and a scenic look at the ship and rookeries below.  We marveled at the glacier ringing Neko Harbour, and saw several large chunks of ice calve off, and then, higher up the mountain, an avalanche.  Huge blocks of ice – three or four stories tall, looked ready to fall off into the water, which would have created quite the waves.

During the hike down, I stopped to bodysled on the track that had been made.  It was quite a steep run, and I had a good wipe out as I flew off the unexpected jump.  We then went down and hung out by the Weddell seal.

I then got some penguin photos before climbing partway up to go down the main trail.  Because of the depth of the snow, the penguins had created quite the system of what are called “penguin highways” – pushed down snow that allows them to quickly go down to the water to swim and feed, and then back up again.  I plopped myself down in the snow to get a good perspective of them, and got some really great photos.

It was exhilarating just to watch them go up and down the hill.  Some went solo, while others were in groups.  This was our fourth penguin rookery, and it never got old.

In the end, we stepped off Antarctica for the last time.  But two more adventures awaited.