17th.February, Antarctica, Brown Bluff – Gentoo Penguins
Later the sunshine did break through to create a fairytale cruise through a placid sea filled with ice floes and icebergs. Our next landing at Brown Bluff was our first and actually only landing on the mainland of the Antarctic continent. The story of the lost penguins was repeated. We had of course to make do with the relatively few remaining Adélie and Gentoo penguins and it at least had the advantage that it was easier to move around than it would normally have been. Some people climbed up a moraine in order to see onto a glacier, but I remained on the beach and we were shown a nest of a snow petrel in the rocks below the cliff. The antics of the penguins trying to negociate the blocks of ice barring their way to the sea were quite comical. Some of them showed a great interest in us and our belongings.