King George Island is often called Antarctica's unofficial capital due to the eight international bases located on the island. We were to visit the Russian base at Bellingshausen. The station has vast amounts of waste and scrap metal lying around. This is one of the projects of Mission Antarctica, to work with the Russians in cleaning up the base. Next year, 2002, the rubbish will be taken off the Island by a large container ship. We went walking on the glacier on the North side of the island and saw plenty of wildlife on our way. It has a large Chinstrap and Gentoo penguin population. There were also a lot of Skuas, which are rather ugly looking birds that prey on penguins and their chicks. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a premium on all of the bases - even more than alcohol! The Russians invited us for a party, which was attended by people from the other bases too. As a gift we brought some fruit and bottles of spirits. (the Jameson went down well!).
Penguin City!
Mother Penguin Cares for her offspringThe next day the captain had to decide to go to nearby Deception Island or head further south into the ice zone. Lucky for us, a weather window opened up that allowed us to head for Enterprise Island along the Orleans Strait. Night was not as we knew it. The sun set at about 10pm and then it got dusky at about 2pm and brightened up again at 4pm. It was during this overnight sail that we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises on our trip. It produced the most beautiful, sunny, blue-sky day.
The Beautiful Enterprise Island
The Sunken whaling ship is in the background
A Blue IcebergOn getting to Enterprise Island we tied up to an old sunken Norwegian Whaling ship. It has been left there as a kind of relic to the whaling industry of the past. Then it was of in the dinghy to explore the area. It really came home to us all the sense of serenity, no noise, no people etc. - not like the world we were all used too. The environment around us had not been tampered with, it was pristine and I now firmly believe that is how it should be kept. This is what we as a group of teachers were trying to do - develop a way to educate and show children why Antarctica needs to be preserved. Once there wildlife was abundant, coming very close to some whales in our little inflatable dinghy. The weddell seals didn't seem to mind us walking by, just putting their head up to see who was around and then getting back to the more important business of basking in the sun.
A Weddell Seal on floating ice
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