Antarctica — The Falklands, South Georgia & the White Continent

Twenty days on the Ocean Diamond with ORYX Photo Tours, led by Dale Morris. Ushuaia to the Falkland Islands, across the Antarctic Convergence to South Georgia, and finally to the continent itself. November 2022 — early season, breeding birds, elephant seal beachmasters still holding their ground.

The Falkland Islands

We woke on day three in the Falklands. West Point Island — rockhopper penguins, black-browed albatrosses nesting on cliffs. Then Carcass Island. On the walk to the albatross colony, a striated caracara ran across the grass. The locals call them Johnny Rooks.

South Georgia

You step off the Zodiac onto a black sand beach and there are king penguins as far as you can see. Over 500,000 breeding pairs on this island. The noise. The smell. The scale of it.

A young elephant seal pup rolled onto its back and waved a flipper at the sky. Behind it, king penguins.

The oakum boys — king penguin chicks in their thick brown down — stand among the adults. They won’t molt into adult plumage for over a year.

A fur seal surfaced through kelp.

The southern elephant seal beachmasters — the largest carnivores on Earth. Up to 4,000 kilograms, nearly six meters long. By late November most expeditions come south and the beachmasters are gone. We caught them.

Two king penguins on a ridge. The mountains of South Georgia disappearing into cloud behind them.

King penguins enter the water in groups — hundreds at a time. Orange and white and spray.

Antarctica

After three days at sea, the icebergs began. First small ones, then enormous. The air changed. Everything got quieter.

A Weddell seal lay sleeping on the snow, face half-buried, whiskers catching the light. It did not move.

Last full day on the continent. A gentoo and an Adélie standing on a snow ridge in front of an iceberg so blue it looked lit from within.