Gold Harbour, 11/2/2019, National Geographic Explorer
Aboard the
National Geographic Explorer
Antarctica
This morning, the reason for turning our clocks ahead became painfully clear. Our expedition leader’s voice came over the loud speakers at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. The reason for this was billed as what could be the highlight of our expedition: a dawn visit to Gold Harbour, an easterly-facing beach with thousands of elephant seals and king penguins.
From the moment we arrived at the beach, we saw the gauntlet of elephant seals defending their territories. For some of us, it was one of the most exciting moments in our lives.
Steve Morello has had a long and colorful career in the natural history world. Born in New Jersey he was lucky to be able to summer on the shores of Cape Cod. Whether it was exploring the tidal pools, snorkeling along the beach, or hiking in the dune...
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National Geographic Endurance set sail from the western edge of the Falkland Islands late last night. There was a slightly overcast sky when we entered the Beagle Channel in the morning. For the last miles to Ushuaia, we had stunning views of the most southern part of South America. Birds glided and whales swam alongside the vessel. We enjoyed several educational presentations, and there was time for packing luggage and getting souvenirs for friends and family from the Global Gallery. It was a perfect day to enjoy relaxing aboard the ship and making use of the spa, gym, and wellness facilities. The afternoon was filled with the third part of National Geographic photographer Michael Melford’s presentation, “On Assignment with National Geographic.” We enjoyed the famous Guest Slideshow, where we saw photos taken by our fellow travelers during our voyage to some of the most spectacular and densely-populated wildlife regions on our planet. In the evening, we enjoyed delicious drinks and nibbles during the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail Party in the Ice Lounge, which rounded out this hard to summarize expedition of National Geographic Endurance to South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. It is a trip we will surely never forget.
The day began with a beautiful orange sunrise over the island of Steeple Jason. The Falkland Islands have about 60-70% of the total population of black-browed albatrosses, and the colony on Steeple Jason is the largest in the world with about 180,000 breeding pairs. On the island, we also saw some very large South American sea lions basking in the sun in the tussock grass and a small gentoo colony as well. In the afternoon, we sailed over to Carcass Island, named after the HMS Carcass . The bomb-class navy vessel was refitted as a survey ship and sent down to participate in the first hydrographical survey of the Falkland Islands under the command of John MacBride in 1766. On the island, we split into three groups for long, medium, and short hikes. All ended at the tea and cookie house hidden by Monterey cypress trees. Along the way, we saw several new species of birds including yellow-billed teals, Magellanic oystercatchers, Cobb’s wrens, grass wrens, black-crowned night herons, and even a rare sighting of a great grebe. We ended our day with the sun setting in front of us as we turned our compasses west and back towards Ushuaia.
After getting our first glances of the East Falklands last night, we awoke in the west after navigating north of the islands through the night. On approaching Saunders, we were briefly accompanied by Peale’s dolphins, and distant sei whale blows were also seen. We spent the morning around the settlement, getting insights into farm life with shepherding and shearing demonstrations from expedition leader, Russ Evans. This culminated with a barbecue on land, where we were joined by many of the crew and the island’s dogs. We spent the afternoon exploring more of Saunders’ wildlife with a hike past gentoo and Magellanic penguins up to nesting black-browed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins.