Kayaking the ice floes.

Our introduction to Antarctic paddling started with a challenging 6 km paddle to get to the shore line from the boat due to the wind and near open ocean exposure. relief was found near the shore. Close to shore it got calm due to the shelter of the mountains and ice floes tempering any chop. We visited a place called Hydrurga rocks, which was named after the leopard seal: Hydrurga leptonyx. These rocks are located near Two Hummock Island.

Al was saying that due to most of Antarctica mainland having glaciers, and cliff faces there are relatively few places to land, so most of the wildlife is on the islands. Indeed in the days of whaling the processing factories are located on the islands.

Occasionally we rafted up by joining closely with hands or paddles side by side to take in the scene, to converse and partake in all important consumption of our scroggin.

The glaciers leave a lot of ice debris in the ocean as they carve. We paddled through these floes. Some chunks of ice were enough to divert the kayaks path and you had to be careful with paddle to strike clear water rather than an ice chunk. It’s all exciting though – it is not often that one gets to get to paddle in an ice floe !

At one of the rare landing sites we stopped for a break. Relief and rest at last, with a drink of hot chocolate, private moments with the requirements of nature and absorbing the breath taking scenery.

Whilst ashore an inquisitive seal pops by to see what we are up to. It must be my bright yellow kitchen gloves. Laugh as you might at my fashion sense: that water is near freezing. No pride here, the gloves are useful to take the edge off when you need to take your hands out of the pogies (a special wetsuit like mitt that covers your hand and paddle shaft ) .

Many of the ice bergs shine blue, which when underwater becomes a beautiful luminescent ‘turquoise skirt’. It is quite a surreal experience to be in a diminutive plastic craft and float in and around these blocks of ice, some dating back thousands if not millions of years finally resting here in the ocean to become one with the rest of their watery molecules.

Eventually we paddled to join the rest of the ship’s passengers on shore. There are numerous penguins and a few seals crooning us with their hypnotic songs whilst they lay in lazy repose on the snowy shoreline.