Penguins, penguins, penguins! From the moment we awoke penguins were the theme of the day: Porpoising past the dining room windows at breakfast to parading past us at our incredibly scenic landing sites, there was no shortage of these characterful little creatures and no shortage of fun for us as we spent our day observing their comical behaviours.
Standing on shore this morning at Cuverville Island, with the ice-capped and sun saturated mountains as a backdrop, we simply enjoyed being surrounded by both the stately landscape and the waddling Gentoo penguins. To observe such petite birds in such an imposing landscape seems something of a juxtaposition: they slide around on the snow, slap one another with their flippers, climb towering ice slopes with their beaks for leverage and belly flop off the ice ledges and into the shallow water. Everything about them on land dictates comedy. And yet here they are—on the most demanding continent on Earth.
Gentoo penguins may appear as a comedy of errors on land, but underwater they come into their own. The awkward waddle becomes a streamlined connotation of evolution. The seemingly obstructive and rather pointless flippers become powerful propellers rather than slapping devices. Their slow shuffle becomes a blaze of speediness, leaving but a blur of bubbles as they dart through the water. We must bear in mind that these Gentoo penguins are only on shore during the breeding months of summer. The remainder of their year is spent at sea; foraging and feeding in the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean.
What we get to observe as we travel along the Antarctic Peninsula, stopping at some of the most glorious landing sites such as Cuverville Island and Neko Harbour, is but a mere snapshot of the life history of these Gentoo penguins. The mere snapshot, however, is a joy to see. Throughout the whole day we smiled and often laughed out loud as we watched these charming penguins go about their clumsy business on land. What they are up to for the remainder of the year? Well, they are at sea, and a penguin in the ocean is an absolute contradiction to a penguin on land. To witness them underwater is a rare opportunity. Those of us that have would undoubtedly attest if penguins could laugh back at us they most certainly would: How would a penguin describe a drysuit diver in Antarctica? Comical, waddling, comedy, awkward…the list is almost endless.
