Surviving ‘The Day After the Night Before’!
It was a great night, sitting and chatting about anything and everything. Come six o’clock the guys called it quits but I knew if I went to bed now I’d just sleep and miss breakfast then feel awful so I stayed up. The day had begun but it was snowing heavily. There’s a couple of gentoo colonies less than a minute away from the lodge so I went out to have a look at them.
It was like being in the Antarctic! It felt like a blizzard, with the wind whipping at my coat and my vision blurred by the snow.
The snow was settling on the penguins (and on me!) and they looked miserable.
Despite the weather there were still some penguins trudging to and from the sea.
After about 10 or 15 minutes my hands were frozen despite wearing gloves and I had to head back inside to warm up. I dozed on the sofa until people started getting up, then had a most delicious and well-needed cooked breakfast before heading (finally) to bed.
I got up for lunch and then wrapped up and headed outside. I headed in the opposite direction to yesterday but was only out for a couple of hours because every now and then the cloud would come rushing in and the snow or hail would fall. It wasn’t much fun because the wind was driving it straight into my face making it hard to see where I was going. I ended up going in a circle, finishing with the elephant seals and the gentoos. I found myself still incredibly intimidated by the elephant seals so didn’t stay long.
Despite the weather I did get to see a few birds. This is a two-banded plover:
And this is a magellanic oystercatcher.
I’ve decided I’m not venturing out again today. The weather is so changeable at the moment and there’s nothing major left here that I haven’t seen already. It’s my holiday and I want to stay warm!
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