The Voyage of M.S. Explorer to Antarctica 18/11/06 - Part 1

I went to bed at around 12. Given the great weather, we had been heading south in the hope of visiting an Emperor colony (the stars of "March of the Penguins"). This was unusual for our trip as the Explorer rarely goes south far enough to see any Emperors (we went beyond 64 degrees 20' south). At around 3 in the morning the intercom went: Emperors had been spotted! I took my time though; it's not easy getting out of a warm bed to dress for a frozen deck, certainly not at 3 in the morning. Remember too that as far as I was concerned we were headed for a colony. When I did get up it was too late. The penguin was gone.

I asked Anna if we'd see any more, but she just laughed. The colony was too far away and we were blocked by ice. The Emperor that had been seen was a solitary specimen on an iceberg. was devastated. This was a rare sighting and I had missed it.

Within half an hour, however, while I was still on deck hoping, another passenger spotted two more. I had been using my video camera as binoculars, but it was now out of power. I begged a look through his binoculars and he was kind enough to oblige. There were indeed two emperors, although I was a little doubtful, and beyond them I could see a seal on the ice. The ship, which had been going past the berg, now began to circle back. I ran to charge my camera, if only for five minutes. When I got back, there were THREE emperors! That had been no seal! And they were definitely emperor penguins, big (the biggest there is, a metre tall) with yellow at the throat. The pair soon dropped to their bellies and slid into the sea, but the third stood his ground while the ship drifted nearer and nearer. Gently the ship nestled against the berg, but the penguin took no notice. I ran, got my camera and shot what I could. He deserved at least 10 minutes of tape. Eventually he too tobogined into the sea and was gone, but I felt privileged and gratefully went back to bed.