Ah, a day at sea! I woke and opened my curtains. We are outside the South Georgia area, so I don't have to close them again! (South Georgia regulation is to close curtains to avoid bird strikes.) It was a beautiful morning. Birds flying by the window – more petrels. No wandering albatross that I could see. So after a few morning ministrations, back to bed I went, having woken just in time for a nap! One giant petrel seemed to hover by my window for a bit longer than necessary, almost as if looking to see if I was a meal he could scavenge! I was suddenly brought to an awakened state by Ab, the ornithologist guide, announcing that wandering albatross were around the ship. So, up I jumped, dressed, grabbed my camera and door key, and out the door I went. Out the back door where nobody had seen it. Up to the 8th floor observation deck where Adam said there were three of them, but they were gone now. Adam is one of the heads for the Rock Jumper birding group, and he has been really nice to me (and everybody else who was interested in learning about birds). He said you have to be on deck when they get there because they only hang around for seconds, then they're gone. So, it looks like I'm NOT going to get a picture of the wandering albatross. I need the rest. I really don't have the strength and energy to stand out on the deck in the driving wind. If one flies past my balcony, I'll probably see it (unless I'm asleep), but that's going to be my extent. I hate it, but that just has to be okay. I tried to get a few more of the prion that were flying around because I don't have many of those (and no good ones). I failed miserably. Those little suckers are FAST!
On the second day at sea, Hard-Core Sanna gave a lecture about her trip skiing to the South Pole. Turns out, she “warmed up” by skiing across Greenland! She is soooo hard core! As if any of the guides on this cruise is a slouch! Any one of them would be considered hard core by normal standards, but Hard-Core Sanna is a hard core stand-out among even this group!
We pulled in to Port Stanley about 7:00 a.m. with a pod of 3 little black and white dolphins playing at our side. I was in the dining room having breakfast and did not have my camera. By the time I got back to my stateroom and my camera, we had docked. Without any wake, the dolphins moved on. I'm hoping they'll trail us while pulling out tonight so I can get some shots. They were adorable!
And speaking of adorable, we went to Gypsy Cove where some magellanic penguins nest in burrows. They are adorable! There was a group of people that was going to walk all the way around the cove and back to the ship and there was the rest of us. The rest of us walked around part of the cove and then went back to the busses to take us back to the ship. It's a difference of about 4 miles, and Ab always seems to underestimate! So, I caught the bus for people who weren't doing the long walk out to the cove, which was right behind the long walkers' bus. We all started out together. Ab was the leader and pointed out the black crested night heron that was nesting with the shags on the wall. We found the burrowing penguin on our own as well as the other penguins on the beach and all the geese. I probably shouldn't have gone as far as I did to see the shags and heron, but plenty of people helped me over the big rocks and stuff. After that, though, I decided it was time to turn back. Ab, our guide, said we could go as far as the canons and just go back over the hill, but I'm glad I decided to turn around and retrace my path. There were more penguins on the beach (2 going up; 4 coming back) and many of them were coming and going from their burrows. They sound a lot like the black footed South African penguin, which is also called the “jackass” penguin because of their bray.
The buildings in Stanley are colorful, mainly by the different roof colors. Notice that the only trees are in town. They don't grow naturally on the island.
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