Antarctic Exploring – Orne Harbor & Spigot Island

Today is the day. Off to hike on the continent of Antarctica! I agreement with International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), we can only land 100 people from the ship at a time. Since we have 153 people on board, we will be staged by cabin number. The passengers are divided into 6 groups that alternate getting off the boat. Today we’re in the last group to get off, but tomorrow we’ll be first.

Hot chocolate with breakfast…

Amazing day here. Temperature is 40F, no wind, no rain, lots of sun and the bay has just a slight breeze on it. When our turn comes, we’ll head down to the mud room to change our shoes, put on our waterproof pants, parka, and life vest. Coming back on to the ship requires us to first wash our boots and pant legs off so no guano is brought back. Then at the ship we’ll go through a boot decontamination stand that brushes off debris and disinfects with a liquid. All our equipment will remain in the mud room and not in our cabins.

The climb to the top of Spigot Island is about 800’ vertical, pretty steep and just a bit on the slick side. After 100+ people have trudged up and down the path, gets a bit dicey. Collette offered to carry me but I can make it on my own.

The long and winding road to the top!

Mom-bear on the way up the mountain.

View from the top.

Yep, we made it.

At the top is another Chinstrap penguin colony, all the way up an 800’ steep hillside!  True, there are no leopard seals up here to attack the colony, but getting up this hill is a bit of a hike. A flock of Cormorants live below the penguin colony, go figure.

Another chinstrap penguin

Chinstrap chick with Dad getting ready to move him along

Norwegian whalers are believed to have named Orne Harbor and the Orne islands sometime before 1913, then again, another source says that the harbor was discovered by Gerlache in 1898. Who knows.

BTW- In the past, it was easy to name anything in Antarctica, just say you discovered it and you can name it. Today, there’s a committee that decides on names for discoveries. Aren’t we lucky that civilized nations have come together to stop explorers from naming their discoveries after their favorite dog or photographer.

And tomorrow is our final day on Antarctica. So far, it’s been just amazing! Everywhere you look is a picture. Thank God we don’t use actual film any more.