Cuverville Island & Gentoo Penguins (1)

Each guest is assigned a colour for groups to go out on expeditions and each group is allocated a time to go out. Groups are rotated so that each gets a turn to go out late or early.

This morning Blue was given a 10am start rather than a 7:30am start, so it meant I could sleep in late. I wish! I woke up around 7:30am when the announcements were made for the first groups to go out. Eventually I got up and worked on my blog. Paul was soundly sleeping, and by the time my colour group was called, he was still asleep so I didn’t wake him when I went out.

The groups started to run half an hour late so it was after 10:30 by the time I left the ship to go to Cuverville Island. Although the weather had closed in and snow was falling, it was well worth the zodiac ride to the island. There were lots of penguins. And I could see why the zodiacs were running behind time. The landing was difficult with a steep run onto a small area of rocky, pebbly ‘beach’ and staff had to help guests get into and off the zodiacs safely.

The ship has arrived in time to see penguins arriving for the nesting season. I believe the earlier groups didn’t see as many penguins as the last few groups. There were lots of these gentle, bumbling creatures. We had to keep a respectful distance from them, and we sometimes found ourselves having to wait quite a while before crossing their walking path because of a traffic jam of penguins walking from one part of the peninsula, along the coastline to more nesting sites further along. It was really wonderful.

We were allowed to walk up to the shoulder of a hill to look out towards the sea, in one direction, with penguins coming in, and also looking into the bay where we landed, where more penguins were coming in. Then we could walk along the coastline (away from the penguins but in the same direction) and then up to a viewpoint on a hill where there were more penguins. It was interesting to see the ‘March of the Penguins’. Sometimes they walked, sometimes they rested, a couple glided along on their bellies. It was sweet.Read more