Day 8: Elephant Island
January 4th, 2015
“The deserted rookery was sure at all times to be above high-water mark, and we mounted the
rocky ledge to search for a place on which to pitch our tents. The disadvantages of a camp on
the rookery were obvious – the smell, to put it mildly was strong; but our choice of site was small…”
– Sir Ernest Shackleton, South (speaking of Point Wild on Elephant Island)
rocky ledge to search for a place on which to pitch our tents. The disadvantages of a camp on
the rookery were obvious – the smell, to put it mildly was strong; but our choice of site was small…”
– Sir Ernest Shackleton, South (speaking of Point Wild on Elephant Island)
Some people thank lady luck, some say practice makes luck, others give karma credit and a few don’t realize good fortune when it smacks them in the face. Luckily for us, we believe in the first three. Whatever you choose to call it – this boat has it. We’ve been lucky for most of our trip so far, and today was no exception. Today was our last day in Antarctica and when we went to bed last night, we weren’t even sure if we’d be able to get the zodiacs to shore today due to the inclement weather that typically surrounds Elephant Island. We awoke this morning to the always cheerful voice of our expedition leader informing us that we had made good time in getting to Elephant Island and would be arriving at Cape Valentine in a little more than an hour – just enough time for us to fit in a short video about Frank Hurley and throw on some warm clothes to hopefully capture a shot of the location that the Endurance crew first landed at on film. As luck would have it, we had good enough weather and sea conditions that the crew launched a zodiac to check out the shore conditions for a potential landing. Our hopes still weren’t terribly high, despite the beautiful conditions – calm waters (considering the island is practically in the middle of nowhere) and a fairly clear sky, as we had been told by a naturalist on board that she had never landed on Elephant Island – and she’s been to Antarctica more than 20 times! Expecting to hear the announcement that we’d just be cruising in the zodiacs, we headed down to our cabin to get warm when the call came out that we would, in fact, be making a landing! 45 minutes later and the zodiacs were landing on the shore where Shackleton’s men had first stepped foot back on land, and to our delight there were Antarctic fur seals everywhere! It was a fairly short landing because the beach area was so small, and just as we were about to board the zodiacs back to the ship, we caught a glimpse of a skua in action – it had grabbed a chinstrap chick from it’s nest and it was lunchtime! We half watched and half cringed in a combination of morbid curiosity and horror before heading back to the ship and our own lunch. A short trip later and we were at Point Wild, where Shackleton’s men wintered over while Shackleton sought a rescue for his men. This time we would only go for a tour in the zodiacs – even guidebooks mention how unlikely landings are here, as even in perfect weather, there is very little space to stand between the rookeries. We cruised by a massive iceberg, kind of hoping that a calving would happen just so we could see it in person. It didn’t, so we approached the backside of the bust of Captain Luis Pardo commemorating the Yelcho’s rescue of Shackleton’s men and began to make our way around the point, when we heard a call over the radio: “there’s a leopard seal on the beach.” We turned around to head toward the leopard seal, and found it lounging on the beach just on the edge of the surf. This was especially exciting, as we hadn’t seen a leopard seal yet, and weren’t sure we would have the chance to. After getting our zodiac so close to shore we thought we’d land on the seal, we decided to continue on to the other side of the point, when we heard another radio call: “for anyone interested, we’ve been able to find a spot where zodiacs can make a brief landing here on Point Wild.” After a unanimous “yes” from all aboard our zodiac, we got to land on Point Wild! It was a moment of sheer joy for some of the naturalists on board, and made us realize just how lucky we were to be able to land on Elephant Island at both of the historically significant sites. A short while later, we were back on the NG Orion, ecstatic that our day had been so lucky when we got some more great news – the forecast says that the seas are looking relatively calm. 2 days at sea and 720 miles until we reach our next destination – South Georgia.