My Antarctic Expedition – My attempt to save our planet (Part 5)

This is a part of my ?Antarctica Calling? series, a story capturing my journey to Antarctica as a part of 2041, in the toughest leadership course on the planet as I learnt how can we save the only planet we have.

Note: All images are personally clicked by me. For permission to share these images on your blog or posts, kindly comment below.

Land Ahoy

I had been past the Lemaire channel, had been on zodiac excursions, had seen the leopard seals and penguins in their natural habitat but was still itching for more. It was my first day in Antarctica but I was not satisfied with what I had seen. I wanted to step foot onto Antarctica, I wanted to experience the feeling of walking on the continent that had inspired actions for environmental preservation from around the globe. With the leopard seal encounter just moments before, our zodiac started moving towards land. It gained speed as the driver tried to approach it as soon as possible. The zodiac bobbed up and down in the water as I managed a confident smile but held onto the supporting ropes for dear life. If you fell into the Antarctic water, it would not only out me at the risk of hypothermia but would also waste a whole day of my expedition.

My waterproof pants slipped around the surface of the zodiac where I sat as I maintained a jovial exterior but held a different individual inside. Being someone used to comforts of home suddenly subjected to the most harsh, dry and inhospitable environment on the planet, I was in a unique position, I enjoyed every moment of it but when the journey got too long or too cold, wished I was back home in India. With my haversack firmly between my legs and my DSLR 6carefully wrapped in a waterproof bag for fear of it getting spoiled from the salty water, I gazed onto the horizon, the water splashing up against my face and the wind making it seem all the more colder and sharp. As the zodiac neared the land, I had the most horrible smell hit me. Consider a barrel of cooked fish left to rot in a hot humid environment for several days and you are put into a room full of this rotten fish, I felt the same way. I was told by the driver it was the smell of penguins. I refused to believe him till he explained how penguin colonies consumed large quantities of fish and how penguins were not particularly concerned about where they emptied their bowels. I put a brave face and tried to focus on the positive but was unable to think of anything else till the colony came into view.

My first sight of penguins was unique in several ways. Like mesmerized kids hundreds of them stared into the sea, never moving, occasionally twitching and always staring in one particular direction. I figured there must be some really amazing scenery or beautiful penguins they were staring at but it was nothing of that sort, the penguins were molting. It is the process where they shed their winter coats and can neither move nor feed till its finished.  The finale of happy feet came to my mind where mumbles and his colony got together to tap their feet in unison, this was something very similar except these penguins seemed disinterested in anything except staring in space. They were still amazingly adorable though, with their wings stretched in opposite directions along their backs and the way they ruffled their necks like a baby that was touched while sleeping. I stood absolutely still as I realized that if every child in the world got to see these creatures, small and frightened of just 6 of us humans, they would take several measures to ensure their and the Antarctic s safety. I was changed by the mere sight of them as it dawned on me how much our actions could affect these innocent creatures? lives.