Sunday 16th November

Fortuna Bay

Well we didn’t have to wait long to top yesterday’s landings ! We are
anchored in the safety of Fortuna Bay.. well relative safety seeing as
how the captain had to move the ship at 4am as a wandering ice berg was
heading straight for us !

Clear blue skies and stunning scenery, we set off in the zodiacs to the
beaches at the foot of the glacier. Once ashore I was pleasantly
surprised that our guides allowed us to walk off on our own, so I set
off for a small ravine towards the foot of the glacier. Passing some
fur seals on the way who were too busy soaking up the sun to pay too
much attention to me, I followed the path of a glacial meltwater stream
up the mountain a little. The warm day and lack of snow made it too
dangerous to walk very far up the glacier , but I climbed maybe two
hundred meters and turned around to the most incredible view. This time
it was more stunning scenery wise than full of wildlife, but it was
spectacular all the same.

The rest of team seemed like little ants on the beach below gathering
around the groups of Gentoo Penguins who call this place home. My
presence on the top of the ridge encouraged a few others to follow me
up, and so I got the walking poles out and headed west along and down
the slopes to savour this place by myself where possible.

The meltwater streams were much larger and fast running nearer the
beach, and larger groups of penguins seemed to enjoy paddling along the
banks of them. I spent some time photographing them and had to put the
camera down every couple of minutes to take in the fact that I was less
than two feet away and my presence was totally accepted.

After a while I wandered along the beach towards the headland, and
stepped foot on actual soil and grass for the first time. I suddenly
came across a herd of Reindeer who are equally as tame as the Penguins,
and the continued grazing without even looking up as I walked through
them. I climbed up the grassy slope and as my head cleared the ridge I
came face to face with a Gentoo colony with females sitting on eggs. I
sat next to them for half an hour or so , taking in the view, the sounds
and watching the little birds watching me !

We headed back to boats amidst a few fur seal charges. The key is to
always look behind you.. in two weeks time when the real mating business
begins it would be very difficult for anyone to walk these beaches
safely. I saw a few walking wounded already and the aggressive sparring
amongst males could be heard all over.

Back to the ship.. for a lunch at 12.30.. just enough time to download
all this mornings photos.. and then we were treated to the spectacle of
our American film crew jumping in to the near freezing waters together
with only swimming suits on . The were slightly bettered by our
Australian friend who actually dived in … the hardy Argentine crew
gathered on deck with cameras at the ready and looked on in disbelief.
The brave Irish .. guarded the bar.

In the afternoon we were treated to a zodiac cruise around the harbour
and a chance to get up real close to the ice bergs. Luckily our driver
was Monica, the ships expedition leader… so rules were bended and ice
bergs were touched and she was quite happy with me hanging off the bow
of the rib to get as good a shot as I could. Her enthusiasm for her
job is fantastic and you could tell she really enjoys playing around
with the zodiacs. So the final part was more of a race than a cruise
against the other boats.

Out on deck in a t-shirt now.. all eyes are trained on the high ridges
above us , to catch a glimpse of the traverse team.

Tomorrow we’ll meet up and walk in the footsteps of Shackleton, Worsley
and Crean, for the last 8 Km of their trek, from Fortuna Bay into
Stromness Whaling station. It’s not often you can retrace such historic
and heroic steps without parking your car, paying an entrance fee and
deciding what t-shirt to buy at the end. For everyone on board tomorrow
will truly be an epic day !

update :

Just before posting the traverse team are spotted on top of the glacier
about 500 meters up. There’s huge excitement and everyone scrambles to
the bridge to watch them inch their way down to the beach which takes
about an hour. The captain sounds the ships horn and by all accounts
we’re a welcome sight for some of them. They’ll spend the night on the
beach and we’re all off for the trek to Stromness tomorrow .