We’re still in the Weddell sea and I'm still feeling pretty rotten with a dreadful cough (bronchitis) which exacerbates the pain in my poor ribs. All I want to do is sleep. Needless to say I’m not going out in the zodiacs - bouncy sea and sore ribs are not happy companions. We reached Devils Island this morning and were surrounded by Adelie penguins porpoising around us and the zodiacs. Some went ashore and wandered up the hill. Later the ship repositioned to Duse Bay for a rare continental landing. Rare it seems as few people get to land on the Peninsula from the Weddell sea. Howard our leader, who has been working in the Antarctic for 25 years, has only ever had one other continental landing from the Weddell sea-side of the Peninsula.
I feel that I am missing out on so much but my ribs are too sore to tackle the zodiacs. Oh whoa is me!!
We sailed on to Duse Bay where two huts are perched on a promontory; they are Chilean and Argentinian. Lindsay went ashore and reckoned they were in pretty bad condition.
Today was our last day around the Peninsula as tomorrow we would be making a run for Elephant Island. Interesting to know that this region was the last to break from Gondwana and when you look at a map of the sea floor you can see where these two continents were joined.
 |
| Elephant Island circled in blue |
Between the Peninsula and Terra del Fuego lies the Scotia tectonic plate. At some point, the Scotia plate moved eastwards pulling islands with it - the outer South Shetland Islands as well as the South Orkney, South Sandwich islands and South Georgia.
No comments:
Post a Comment