Elephant Island

We are now on the south coast of Elephant Island in the South Shetland island chain at Muckle Bluff. The word “muckle” is Scottish for “large” and everything here is supersized.

Let’s start with the Endurance Glacier (named for Shackleton’s expedition shipwrecked here for 4 1/2 months on the opposite side of the island). The calving glacial face at the ocean is 3.73 miles wide. It crosses the width of the 16.8 mile island, hugging 2,799 foot tall mountain peaks. This heavily crevassed glacier has retreated up to 5,000 feet between 1990 and 2015. Besides global warming, the exposed face is battered with winds over 100 mph and up to 60 foot waves.

On our zodiac cruise along the coast line, we found such beautiful blue ice formed into surreal shapes. We visited Macaroni and Chinstrap Penguin nesting grounds from the water. I love the macaroni penguin picture, because you can see the feathers clearly.

How about this for a jaw dropping backdrop?

After checking out things from the water we visited with the nesting Chinstrap Penguin colony. These little guys are quite the climbers.

It’s so steep that they hop-hop-hop all the way down when it’s time to go eat. I can’t imagine how many calories they need to eat each day just for this exertion.

We also saw bleached out whale bones. The baleen in the second picture is from a whale’s mouth, used to sieve food and expel water. The ends look and feel like straw. The middle fluted part feels like a fingernail. Long ago, baleen was used in whips, corset stays and other products.

The picture above is one of my favorites. The lady is taking a picture out to sea, but look at all the penguins lined up behind her–and she doesn’t know it. Makes me smile.

There are many special critters here. On the left is one of the best Antarctic predators– the Leopard Seal. Yet, walking behind him wobbles dinner–the penguin. Leopard Seals can weigh 1,300 pounds and are 11 feet long. They do not breed on land like other seals and are loners. Their babies are born on the ice, nestled in a freezing hole by the mother. They’re only predator is a killer whale. Zoom on the picture of the Leopard seal and the Weddell seal to the right. Are they crying? Don’t shed tears for them—this is the way they eliminate saline from the ocean. Also, examine the flipper of the Weddell. Do you notice something odd? Fingernails, perhaps? They are both “earless” seals.

Watching “porpoising” penguins is mesmerizing. So fast. So graceful!

Leaving the Sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia, we arrive at 61 degrees latitude and Elephant Island. Not the main continent yet, but oh-so close.

Shackleton took this route in reverse in a rowboat, very desperate to save his men left behind at Point Wild. It took him sixteen days and a hurricane to sail 800 miles. The five men with him thought they would die– many times over.

It took us two days in spectacular comfort and a New Year’s celebration “The Boss” wouldn’t have believed. We are following Shackleton’s 1916 footsteps without a lick of discomfort.

After the Endurance sank, it took Shackleton’s crew 480 days (1 year and 4 months!) to pull rowboats filled with supplies across contorted ice to reach the nearest land — Elephant Island.

We sailed past the first landing site at Cape Valentine, and immediately understood Shackleton’s anxiety for a more secure place. There isn’t a barrier for monstrous waves barreling across the Southern Ocean or protection from rock slides behind. They sailed westward, landing at Point Wild. This place is named for Shackleton’s second in command, Frank Wild, the officer who stayed behind to keep the men alive for 4 1/2 months. Frank died in 1939 with WWII raging. His wish to be buried next to Shackleton in the Grytviken cemetery didn’t occur until 2011 when his ashes were discovered by an author writing a book about him.

After I read the book Endurance, I imagined a wide glacial valley with room to roam. In reality, it’s a shocking, tiny spit of rock hemmed in by an immense 4 mile wide glacier. Mady–the Endurance Glacier (named after the rescue) is a piedmont glacier. Do you know what that means? Did you know there are so many glaciers in Antarctica that many have never been named? Maybe your class can petition to name one. See the blue ice? This means it’s old and compressed.

Winds often reach 100 mph. Being a Shackleton fan, it was important for me to see this island. The agent told me, “Only one in nine ships get to offload zodiacs, because the water is too rough.” But we were blessed with a rare day, calm enough to be the first group in Shane’s 15 years of expeditions to allow guests to kayak.

The statue at the point is dedicated to Luis Pardo Villalon, the Chilean captain who rescued the 22 men (on Shackleton’s 4th attempt) with his ship, the Yelcho.

The rowboats left behind were either washed out to sea or broken to pieces over the last 100 years. Chinstrap penguins and a lonely Weddell Seal were vacationing here this day.

I’m so happy to have been so close to where such a miraculous and inspiring historical event occurred. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how they all made it home.