Deception Island, Whaler’s Bay and Baily Head
Isn’t it strange how an idea haphazardly dropped into the psyche can grow into an obsession? Deception Island was described to us as a donut with a bite taken out of the side. An excellent comparison for us to ponder, food for thought, you might say.
Inside the caldera peering through the mist and fog we could see the ragged edge of Neptune’s Window, a dip in the lip of the caldera which looked as though giant fingers had taken a pinch of the crusty edge, perhaps the combined appetites of freezing weather and seismic rumblings opened the window for viewing. Glaciers surrounding Port Foster were layered by the repeated belching of cinders over past decades, the folded layers of ice and cinder mimicked the swirls of chocolate rippled ice cream.
A fudge-colored river of glacial melt water met the sea at our Baily Head landing. We climbed as the chinstraps did up to the tops of the ridges. Perched up high with our penguin eye view we saw feeding activities in the waters below us. A leopard seal was seen splashing and flinging a penguin while fin whales lunged through the waters a bit further out. Contrasts of colors splashed across the hillsides, subtle pink hues, mingled under the formality of black and white suited penguins. And there was green! Huge patches of green up the hillsides and in the valley swales. What drove this whole food chain? Krill! A giga-zillion tiny, pinky-orange crustaceans swarming in patches about the frigid Antarctic waters. The penguins were busy alternating feeding forays with their mates to bring back crop after crop full and regurgitate it their growing downy chicks. The whales use their baleen plates to sieve the tiny morsels from the sea and satiate their humungous appetites.
What do you see in the photograph we share today? Is it purely a visual image to enjoy, waters dancing and splashing forth from a glacier? Or is it an additional serving of what we have been consuming all along? A dessert from the menu of our feast for the senses as we drink in the immensity of the landscape, savor bits and morsels of intimate moments with wildlife, and hungrily devour this soul-replenishing “tonic of wildness.”
Isn’t it strange how an idea haphazardly dropped into the psyche can grow into an obsession? Deception Island was described to us as a donut with a bite taken out of the side. An excellent comparison for us to ponder, food for thought, you might say.
Inside the caldera peering through the mist and fog we could see the ragged edge of Neptune’s Window, a dip in the lip of the caldera which looked as though giant fingers had taken a pinch of the crusty edge, perhaps the combined appetites of freezing weather and seismic rumblings opened the window for viewing. Glaciers surrounding Port Foster were layered by the repeated belching of cinders over past decades, the folded layers of ice and cinder mimicked the swirls of chocolate rippled ice cream.
A fudge-colored river of glacial melt water met the sea at our Baily Head landing. We climbed as the chinstraps did up to the tops of the ridges. Perched up high with our penguin eye view we saw feeding activities in the waters below us. A leopard seal was seen splashing and flinging a penguin while fin whales lunged through the waters a bit further out. Contrasts of colors splashed across the hillsides, subtle pink hues, mingled under the formality of black and white suited penguins. And there was green! Huge patches of green up the hillsides and in the valley swales. What drove this whole food chain? Krill! A giga-zillion tiny, pinky-orange crustaceans swarming in patches about the frigid Antarctic waters. The penguins were busy alternating feeding forays with their mates to bring back crop after crop full and regurgitate it their growing downy chicks. The whales use their baleen plates to sieve the tiny morsels from the sea and satiate their humungous appetites.
What do you see in the photograph we share today? Is it purely a visual image to enjoy, waters dancing and splashing forth from a glacier? Or is it an additional serving of what we have been consuming all along? A dessert from the menu of our feast for the senses as we drink in the immensity of the landscape, savor bits and morsels of intimate moments with wildlife, and hungrily devour this soul-replenishing “tonic of wildness.”
