Trinity Island

Today was a day of First's My first iceberg sighting, which I spotted with my great Granddad's old fashioned spyglass. My first Chinstrap Penguin sighting as they swam infront of the ship, then my first whale blow sighting and finally, my first steps on Antarctic soil and interaction with Gentoo Penguins!

As mentioned above; the day climaxed with our first shore landing to a little island called Trinity Island, nicely sheltered by a  giant wall of ice that must have been a few kilometres across and hundreds of metre's tall it has made it a popular place for Gentoo Penguin chicks.

The penguins we saw showed no fear of humans, a rare thing in the modern world.

It was such an extraordinary feeling being on land not owned by a nation, in effect run by penguins, we were visitors to their island, They had right of way, and we kept our respectful distance, unless they came up to us, which they did. They were quite taken to the taste of gore-text trousers, and I think my crouched body became a favourite hiding place from other penguins.

The majority where chicks two months old shedding their infant fur and replacing it with their waterproof feathers.

I do have to be up in 5 hours or so to catch us going through the famously beautiful LeMaire Channel which is what I painted a few months ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8jmGOZQiJk

Thank you again so much for following my progress!

Oli