Salisbury Plain and Hercules Bay

Our wake up call was at 05.30am today and on opening the verandah door we were greeted the sound of penguins, closer than we expected.
On looking over the side of the boat we were greeted with the sight of hundreds and hundreds of king penguins swimming laps around the boat chirping their presence. Around and around they went, following each other, some swimming on their backs exposing their white bellies whilst they cleaned themselves- it was a sight to behold.
06.30am saw us loaded into the zodiacs for a cruise along the shoreline.
The sun had not long risen and we were greeted with low cloud hanging over the surrounding glaciers. The water was so extremely glassy calm, we had perfect vision of the penguins and the seal pups playing in the water around us.
We spent an hour watching the fur seal pups, some of which were fighting for the premium spot atop the rock- this involved the pups trying to push each other off, some trying to jump back on, often unsuccessfully meaning they splashed back into the sea etc.
They were like groups of teenage boys daring each other to swim up and touch the zodiac or showing off by porpoising out of the water and splashing around.
We were on the way back to the boat when we were treated to the most incredible experience. Hundreds of the king penguins began swimming around the zodiac, coming up to the pontoons and jumping out at us, pecking at the ropes, purposely splashing our cameras as we tried to take the perfect photo that would capture the moment ( almost impossible to do!), diving under the zodiac and suddenly appearing up from the other side etc. This went on for a good 10-15 mins and we were in awe.
We tried to get some video footage but again it was so hard to really capture it.
All too soon we had to get back to the boat for breakfast. We could have stayed in that moment for hours more but back to the boat it was.
Breakfast was from 8am-9am and it was surprising how hungry the morning experience had made us.... thank god for hot buffets breakfasts, although the queue for the omelettes was always far too long.

From 9.30- 12pm we were dropped off on shore at Salisbury plain.
Walking up the stony beach we suddenly amongst hundreds of seal pups, playing, fighting, sleeping and many young pups still nursing on their mothers.
The background of a wide open bay, framed by huge peaks and low glaciers provided the most stunning scenery.
K and i walked up to the sloped rookery where thousands of king penguins, some still with chicks stood flipper to flipper making the most deafening noise as they called to each other or defended their piece of territory.
It was so hard not to take 1000 more photos than we already had.
We did take time just to soak up the whole experience but it was hard when we were constantly charged by the cute and v young seal pups or if we sat down we were soon being pecked at by the inquisitive penguins- a truly incredible experience.
At 12pm we got a zodiac back to the boat.
What a morning??!!

After putting the camera batteries in charge, lunch was at 12.30pm and yes we were hungry again!
After lunch we upped anchor and sailed past Fortuna Glacier before we anchored at Hercules Bay at 2.30pm.
We were given time to retrieve our camera batteries and put on our necessary layers before 3.20pm when we all went cruising on the zodiacs.
This afternoon we got to see our first macaroni penguins as we cruised along the high rocky slopes. It was hard to get good photos as they were really quite high tucked up amongst the tussocks.
As we cruised further looking for more penguins and soon we spotted a groups of 5 high up at the top of a waterfall. To our horror they started to cross the top of the waterfall- why r they doing this??!!!! and then the unbelievable happened..... one slipped and bounced down the 100ft waterfall!! There was a collective gasp of horror from all the zodiacs watching .... and then someone with binoculars said it has survived the fall and had toddled off at the bottom of the fall. We seriously couldn’t believe it!! I did wonder what a penguin with a brain injury would present like!!
Back on boat at 5pm we showered and once again charged the camera batteries which had taken a hammering today.
We had dinner with Kristina from Germany and Jimmy the Canadian staff member and then we were both asleep at 10pm

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