This morning guests aboard the National Geographic Explorer awoke to an early morning call. Passing through the Lemaire Channel was a sight not to be missed, so with coffee in hand we started another epic day along the peninsula passing through a dramatic seven mile long channel. Named by one of the great explorers, De Gerlache, his choice of names had a link to a very different climate. As a tribute to Charles Lemaire, a Belgian explorer of the African Congo, we could not have felt further from the steamy hot climate of whom this dramatic and narrow passage was named for.
After breakfast we explored Petermann Island and had our first encounters with Adelie penguins and their substantially sized chicks. Upon landing we encountered an abandoned Argentine refuge where, in their absence, gentoo penguins had taken up residence. A cross near the refuge commemorated the loss of a few British lives due to an unfortunate event that occurred when three men attempted to return to their station skiing across unpredictable sea ice. As we made our way around the island we were rewarded with phenomenal views of the ice choked Penola Strait and the inhabitants of this little island off the Antarctic Peninsula. Nesting Antarctic Shags fed their hungry young while the avian predator (skua) made its presence known in flight and broken egg shells. Back onboard the mother ship we began our journey south to the Antarctic Circle…
