Antarctica East 2026

Jan 20: in the Ross Sea

Penguins are so enchanting and entertaining to watch….

The small penguin at the front is an Adélie penguin….they are extremely curious and this little penguin decides he’s going to see what the group of Emperor penguins are up to. The Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all the penguins. They can weigh up to 44 kg, so the little Adelie is being pretty brave (or stupid) but you can see that the Emperor penguins treat the Adelie with disdain, so why would he stick around?

The Emperor penguin is the only penguin to breed in the Antarctic winter. It breeds in the coldest environment of any bird species; air temperatures may reach −40 °C . The species has adapted in several ways to counteract heat loss. For example, as a defence against the cold, a colony of emperor penguins forms a compact huddle (also known as the turtle formation) ranging in size from ten to several hundred birds, with each bird leaning forward on a neighbour

As the wind chill is the least severe in the centre of the colony, all the juveniles are usually huddled there. Those on the outside upwind tend to shuffle slowly around the edge of the formation and add themselves to its leeward edge, producing a slow churning action, and giving each bird a turn on the inside and on the outside. Studies have shown that while the outside temp might be – 40 C, the inside temperature is 35 deg C ( i.e Sydney on a very hot day!)

Isn’t nature amazing! And I want to take home an Emperor Penguin chick….

As we sailed through the night in bright sunlight, it was hard to go to sleep because the outside scenery continued to be amazing.

Today has been a sea day. So I’ve had to spend my time in the warm outside spa, the salt therapy room, the infrared heat room and the sauna. Life can be tough.

A few of you have asked about the differences between this trip and my earlier trip to the Antarctic Peninsula. Probably the key difference is the difference in distance and temperature. On this trip we have travelled much further south, to a latitude of 78 degrees. The previous trip only went to just inside the Antarctic circle at around 64 degrees. So we have travelled a further 1450 km on this trip (hence the reason for so many sea days) and the temperatures have been mostly below -1 deg C to – 10 deg C.

Another key difference has been experiencing some of the history of Antarctic exploration, by seeing the two explorer huts , the environment in which those explorations took place, and the weather conditions they contended with.

The wildlife is also different. On the previous trip, you saw masses of penguin and albatross colonies. On this trip, you see the penguins in much smaller numbers, scattered on pieces of ice all over the place. And we have seen many more whales.

That’s all for today, or perhaps I should give you a burst of tonight’s dinner….oxtail soup, escargot, rack of lamb and lemon citron tart, shared with all my solo buddies.