My Story with Antarctica- Cuverville Island & Penguins

Cuverville Island & Penguins

5/3/2012

(Day Five)

Cuverville Island was our destination to experience the wildlife of the Antarctic. The temperature was -3 degrees Celsius, windy and cloudy. It is a small rocky island in the Antarctic Peninsula with majestic glaciers and icebergs. The moment we arrived to the island, there was a big number of Gentoo Penguins awaiting us. It was an amazing colony with hundreds of penguins walking around peacefully. They did not care about us walking around or watching them. I thought they think we are one of them or they just simply ignored us.

We were divided into groups and every group had to hike up 350 meters to the glacier and reach the summit. It was rocky and dry in some areas, slippery and icy in others and covered with think snow in some other areas. In the beginning, we had to climb individually and then we had to attach to a rope and walk in a line as a group. This was the training preparation to hike for the first time in the Antarctic land.

As we hike up, more beautiful places show up in the whole surrounding view. Up the hill, down towards the beach, far distance towards our ship and the while hazy sky mixing with the glaciers, were such unbelievable and incredible views. The snow was with a cotton texture and color. The colony area was a wonderful assortment of green shades, red and yellow in the middle of pure white.

Then we had to ride the zodiacs watching seals in the sea. It was very exciting to keep looking around here and there. There was a leopard seal chasing a penguin for about 15 minutes till he finally caught him and then disappeared somewhere else.

Around 5pm we had our lunch in the ship and then prepared ourselves to our first night camping. We had no food, no snacks except water. The first thing was to build a wall of snow to keep the wind away from our sleeping area. It was time for me to touch more snow and do something out of it. Working with a new team with different and amazing innovating ideas was such a great experience. The team leader was a fantastic man who lost his leg in a war few months back. Noverthelss, he didn’t surrender to the idea of disability. He rather felt gifted and special and started working positively to inspire people.

The camping night which is called the survival night was to follow the steps of Shakelton and his team. It was to feel and experience some of what the Antarctic explorers experienced a hundred years ago. The night was cold, little rainy and snowy. We were left alone with the team leaders in the island having no way to go back to the ship. The ship left and disappeared from our sight.

We had lots of fun building our bedroom (snow wall). Our imagination took us beyond to build a snow TV and watch some movies with friends. We had our cards playing room, listened to some music and jokes. Before it was time to sleep, we had to prepare our beds, open the hand warmers to air and keep our stuff warm as much as we could. We had to run to bed earlier than desired. It started raining.