We have one more morning of good weather before we have to push northwards to the South Shetlands and leave the peninsula. So it was decided to get up really early and do an excursion before breakfast and then sail across the Bransfield Strait to Deception Island before heading back to King George. But first we got to explore the Spert Islands just off Trinity Island.
The Spert Islands are hundreds of small volcanic rock explosions out of the sea. From a distance it looks like one solid mass but as we got closer with the zodiacs you notice all the crevices and nooks and we could explore. Given the 5.45am start this morning I was just pleased to be sitting in the boat. But obviously the sun was already up and it was a balmy 10 degrees out.
This outing was more about the local geology than any wildlife. I didn’t think I would be too interested but it was fascinating. Maybe it was the icebergs with huge arches eroded out of the middle tunnels of rock carved out of the cliff face, but I didn’t mind a cold wet bum at 6am in the morning. We even got a bonus Adelie penguin, a species not normally found this far north.
Our driver steered us through narrow waterways and rock tunnels and found some wonderful ice windows in the glaciers. I think everyone in the boat was hoping for one of the arches to collapse as the sun warmed the ice but we were probably a day or two too soon.
