Please join me on the longest trip of my life! This epic journey will cover over 22,000 miles and explore the islands of the Antarctic and the Antarctic Peninsula, then continue to South Georgia Island, onto the Falkland Islands, and back to Santiago, Chile. From there we travel westward to Easter Island about 2300 miles west of Santiago, far out into the Pacific Ocean, and then finally one month after starting the trip, I will return home to Ames, Iowa.

What follows is an tentative itinerary, maps, and various links for cities, islands, hotels, the ship I am on, as well as various other travel related information. Once the journey begins I will attempt to give blog updates when I can, depending on how reliable and expensive the satellite internet connection on the ship proves to be. If I am able I will include some photos along the way, of a smaller size to help you see what I am seeing. The web is filled with information, stories, and photos of all the places I am visiting, by just "Googling" a place such as Deception Island, you can see where and what it is. If you have a burning question and know my email address you can send it to me, and I will check as I have time, and most likely respond here in this blog.


The photo on the masthead, obviously is not mine (not yet anyway)! It was taken on the island of South Georgia, which is about a thousand miles south east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. We will spend three days in South Georgia capturing images like the one above, which shows thousands of King Penguins. These were the stars of the popular movie, "March of the Penguins," which you may have seen. Share and enjoy the expedition with me, when you are able.


There is more of this blog that will show when you scroll to the bottom of your screen, so when there click OLDER POSTS, or find the "blog archive" section to the right of the postings and click on the topic you wish to see.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Kings of St. Andrew's Beach...

St. Andrew's Beach in South Georgia is home to the largest colony of King Penguins in the world. The day we landed on the vast beach there we were greeted by hundreds of thousands of adult and juvenile King Penguins, and countless Elephant Seals. A reasonably accurate count of the Kings on that beach approached half a million birds. The adults in their black and white tuxedos with beautiful orange and yellow color accents were easy to identify. The large brown penguin looking fur balls are the juveniles, still considered their young, and still cared for, even though some of them at this stage are larger than their parents. The juveniles still have their small chirpy voices and not the loud raspy calls they will have a few months from now, when they shed their brown feathers for the classic adult colors.

I was compelled to photograph them of course and I did so fervently, but I also enjoyed just watching them, seeing their body language, and trying to interpret their actions and intensions. Some were trying to find mates and sometimes a lovely lady had more than one fella interested in her, and then troubles broke out. King penguins fight mainly by stretching up and looking bigger and taller and thereby tougher and more intimidating than their competitors. They walk proudly with arrogance and attempt to use chest pushes to discourage the other male. They do peck from time to time, but the flipper slap seems to be a favorite, and is reasonably effective.

At one point a King Penguin came close to me and wanted to investigate my glove. My photographer friend had me hold my hand in the air in the perfect position so it looked like I was patting the penguin on the top of his head. I was not, but it is impossible to not feel affectionate and captivated by them. I enjoyed having the special moments of the "King and I," and I hope you enjoyed them as well. You can find more specific info on the Kings on a very early posting of this blog, shown in the archive list to the right. Find the heading "BLOG ARCHIVE" and click on November, and look for a posting called, "Panoramic Plethora of Prolific Penguins."












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