It was 4:30am on 6 March as a hardy group of guests quietly stopped by the top-deck café, looking for coffee, tea, and pastries. The Endurance was resting calmly in the middle of Gold Harbour, so named by the early sealers because the morning’s first rays of sun tend to paint the surrounding cliffs with a golden glow. The weather was calm but a bit misty; nonetheless we soon climbed down to the bottom deck to don our waterproofs and were launching the Zodiacs by 5:30 as the horizon behind us hinted at the coming day. Each Zodiac had a lighted pillar to aid the ship in tracking us in the morning gloom; the penguins on shore seemed nonplussed by this early wake-up call.
The mist later rose, leading to a spectacular morning on the beaches of Gold Harbour; after a return to the ship for a hearty breakfast, we made a second trip on which I joined a group for a hike up to the headlands – and sweeping views of the harbour, its glaciers, and tens of thousands of penguins.
Read on, and be sure to check out the two galleries of photos and videos: sunrise and hike.
Gold Harbour rests at the outlet of two massive glaciers — the Bertrab and the Weddell – which have each retreated dramatically in the past century (more on that later). Its beaches today were home to a massive colony of King Penguins, hundreds of fur seals, and dozens of elephant seals. We stepped carefully around the slumbering elephant seals, which seemed quite sleepy but sometimes expressed noisy irritation at their nap being disturbed.
Although the beaches were dominated by King Penguins – listen and watch – and the beachside tussock grass was scattered with nesting fur seals and elephant seals, we did encounter two lonely penguins – one Chinstrap and one Gentoo – who seemed to have found their way to the wrong harbor. The Gentoo was at the height of molting, so he wasn’t going anywhere soon.
As the sun finally broke clear of the mist and scattered some of the low clouds, we were able to see why Gold Harbour deserves its name.
After a couple of hours on shore, we headed back to the ship for breakfast. Soon after, we were zipping across the water again, back to the beach. This time I had opted for a “long walk” with Eric, a glaciologist and one of the expedition guides. We picked our way carefully through the tussock grass – where fur seals and elephant seals lurk and, if startled, may not be too friendly about it.
As the sun rose, it dispersed many of the clouds and our hiking group stripped off the heavy parkas we’d needed during the chilly morning. We enjoyed spectacular views of the bay, the mountains, the glaciers, and the penguin colonies below. At the right-center of this photo, the beach is white with tens of thousands of King Penguins.
Eric, a glaciologist, has been supporting an international research effort to capture time-lapse photography of glaciers around the world. We stopped at one of those sites, where he explained the project and his role. Today he was swapping out the memory cards in each camera – one pointed at the hanging glacier to the left, the other pointed at the tidewater glacier to the right. He manages to stop by here only a couple of times per year, so I felt lucky to be along on this beautiful day.
Many more photos and videos to share! Do not miss the two galleries: sunrise and hike.
David Kotz 