Antarctica, Day 7

Usually a day begins with breakfast, but this time after the alarm only one glance out of the window was enough and I was up on deck.

Then ran down again, quickly put my jacket and hat on and right back to the deck again. As the ship was sailing slowly through the Lemaire Channel
    
In some places the Lemaire Channel is only 800 meters wide. The water is smooth like a mirror and there are slightly snowy cliffs on both sides


This is one of those times - when you think - that such a place does not exist in reality, that it is not possible. But it is.






Some nuggets of ice in the water.


Penguins swimming.


Brought the camera tripod from the cabin.


And a cup of coffee for myself.


In a couple of hours the channel was passed. The tourists went down for breakfast, as after the meal another two hour rubber- boat trip was waiting ahead.

Additional Comments: Get warmly dressed, it is still the Antarctic outside. The gloves were still wet from yesterday, but it was not important at the moment. The main thing is that the clothes were dry.










Leopard Seal.


























Whales.
















Back to the ship.






The route of February 27 on the map.




And here was a colony of Adelie penguins. Adelie penguins are most easily distinguished by their black beak.








And they can be most easily categorized – there are the white ones who are moving in your direction and the black ones who are moving away.

But now there are 17 different types of penguins in the world - from Antarctica to the Galapagos Islands, and the first penguins already lived 62 million years ago. And once upon a time, namely - 42 million years ago New Zealand Giant Penguin of about 80-100 kilograms lived in New Zealand. Link. And the greatest ever lived penguin Anthropornis (Link )was 1.7 meters tall and weighed about 90 kg.

The Emperor Penguin can dive down to 565 meters and stay under the water for 22 minutes, and Adelie penguins can swim at speeds up to 72 km per hour.

And when thinking globally then every day it becomes more and more evident that all human activity must be kept as far away from the Antarctic as possible, in order to preserve this unique environment.
























The guests went away.


One more look  - Lemaire Channel in the morning..



To be continued ...