Antarctic travel places a strong emphasis on protecting and respecting this pristine area. The rule for all visitors is to take only memories and leave only footprints. The wildlife has the right of way, At each landing, except one that I will explain later, we were required to remain 15 feet from all wildlife and 45 feet from a leopard seal (they are very aggressive). It was okay if a penguin approached you, but under no circumstances were we allowed to touch them.
At Port Lockroy, we lose as the penguins had an exception to the 15 foot rule and we could get as close as the penguins would allow. They are doing research on the effects of human interaction and that base has had people interacting with penguins for a long time. Half of the island has no human interaction and the other half has a lot. Interestingly enough, the penguins exposed to humans are doing better than the other side. They speculate that it is because there tends to be fewer skua – the main predator of penguins,
The ship is very nice, but it is an expedition ship. There is no spa or shows, there are lectures which are very interesting about history, geology and wildlife. But that isn’t to say we haven’t had traditional cruise fun! The group that adopted us have been a blast and we have established quite a reputation on the ship – in a good way.
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