It is 4 in the morning when the zodiac boat hits the black sand of Bailey Head’s beach. The beach belongs to a small island known as ‘Deception Island’ and is located in the peninsula area of Antarctica. The beach is inhabited by a large penguin colony, and gives access to a tiny mountain to climb.
The Sun is up for hours already but the mountains are still hiding inside the fog. I’m part of a scouting group to set a path through the penguin colony in order to move a large group uphill without disturbing the penguins. Funnily enough, half of the colony had just decided to go for a swim just after I arrived, resulting in a hilarious scene of me standing on a beach with thousands of penguins walking by me, not noticing me at all (apart from that odd one that kept staring at me).
If that wasn’t funny enough, the sight of them trying to get into the water and being washed back ashore by the strong waves basically meant that I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day. They managed eventually, of course. Whoever has had the privilege of being surrounded by penguins will no doubt remember their smell, and I can tell you that the smell of 20,000 of them is strong! It was a good idea of them to take a bath.
As the group arrived, we started moving uphill. First through a low inclined area still inhabited by the colony, later through a steeper section to get on top of the island’s cliffs. Only to see….more penguins! I couldn’t help thinking what effort it must have cost them to climb all the way up here. But for some reason, they did it.
The second section is a traverse over icy terrain. And I started wondering…of the entire group, am I the only one feeling unsafe? I’m wearing fishermen’s boots: waterproof, light and warm. None of us is wearing proper hiking boots. None of us is wearing crampons or any form of microspikes. We are at low altitude, but the ice cap is large and it’s a long way sliding down in case of a fall. Luckily, as we get higher, it’s getting more and more foggy and my fear of endlessly sliding down into the unknown dissapears.
The final stretch was a short hike over rocky edge to the summit. The view was supposed to be spectacular but unfortunately our visibility was about 50 meters.
We traverse the little mountain and descent on the other side towards ‘Whaler’s Bay’: a name that leaves little to the imagination. As we arrive, we find a surrealistic 19th century setting with abandoned Norwegian houses, wooden boats (still intact after all this time) and a beach covered in whale skeletons. The fog and the steep hills in the background added to the mysterious flavour. It was a very interesting site where we were allowed to spend a long time looking around.
The boat picked us up in order to drop us off on another island for another hike. This morning was one I would never forget, and despite the fear and the penguin smell I would do this over and over again if I could. I would bring some microspikes though…
Onwijs gaaf dat je dat mee heb mogen maken
Love it Robin!!!!
Climb On!
Alan