Yankee Harbour (South Shetland Islands) — Sat Jan 29th
Yankee Harbour (South Shetland Islands) — Sat Jan 29th

Yankee Harbour (South Shetland Islands) — Sat Jan 29th

After eating lunch, we head to our next landing at Yankee Harbour. As we get off the zodiac, a few us stop to photograph a leopard seal laying on a small iceberg near the shore. I notice right away that this landing doesn’t have as many penguins on it as the last one. As we hike closer to the our destination, I start to see more.

Leopard seal on a small iceberg with the Bark Europa in the background.

Geology Lessons From Beth

Beth collecting rocks we gave her. She patiently answers our questions and teaches us about the formation of these rocks.

This hike focused more on the geology of the area and Beth, who is a geologist, makes the landscape come alive. As we walk along the beach, we find all kinds of interesting and pretty rocks. Each of us light up when we find a rock we like and bring it to Beth to ask about it’s features. I find a rock that is black on one side, but a mix of rust red/white on the other. Another person finds a dark yellow rock that looks like fossilized bids nest (it’s not). After awhile Beth has is cradling two armfuls of rocks. 😃

The white and reddish rock is the one I excitedly show Beth. I’m curious why it’s so colorful on one side, but completely black on the other.

Right before we hike the rest of the way towards the glacier, she lays down the rocks in a circle and talks about them again. About how they’re formed and which ones are older than others. Then we hike to the glacier and right before it there is a moraine formation. It’s really neat to see. We climb to the top and view the glacier on the other side.

Misty view of the glacier on top of the small ridge we hiked.

Seals Ahead! – Wildlife of Yankee Harbour

On our way back, we hear a lot of noise coming from some seals at the beach. It’s our only sighting of elephant seals. They’re mostly laying down and sleeping. I don’t take any close pictures of them, but I think other people in my group did.

The elephant seals are laying down in this pic. They are the light brown “rocks” just under the ship, surrounded by penguins.

After looking through my pictures, I find that I don’t have as many for this site. In my journal, it mentions that the group finished the hike earlier than anticipated. It was cold and rainy. In general, everyone was a bit tired, so we went back to the ship an hour early. Because of the rain, I kept one of my cameras mostly in my water proof bag. But I really enjoyed just experiencing my surroundings without looking through a camera lens!

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