Today was the day we finally got to go to Volunteer Point! We had agreed to get picked up at 10am for the tour so that we would be there as the tours from the cruise began to leave. This meant we had a little time in the morning and I decided to have a quick run into town. I stopped by the post office for some stamps and postcards, the museum to check if we would be able to borrow the key for the lighthouse and the conservation centre for some guides on the local wildlife and walks. The lighthouse key was for our walk to Cape Pembroke and the associated lighthouse, apparently you could hire a big old metal key (about half a foot in length) to get in. Sadly, the lighthouse was under repair so we couldn’t get it.
The trip to volunteer point was about 2.5 hours in a 4x4, with the first hour on mostly paved roads and the last section totally offroad without a track at all across moorland. Thankfully we had a very experienced driver, and it did at least mean we got to see the stunning scenery very close up!
When we finally arrived at Volunteer Point we were absolutely amazed. There was a huge colony of King penguins (likely about 1-1.5 thousand) as well as lots of Gentoos and Magellanic penguins, an absolute jackpot. We had also been warned that it would be very busy today with loads of tourists, but there were only around 200 over the whole area, and after lunch they had all but disappeared, leaving us essentially alone for the last two hours of our stay. We started off by watching the King penguins. They were very majestic and thanks to their long breeding period they were at all stages of the life cycle, with some very small chicks only being born a few weeks ago, to some very chubby stalwart brown fluffy chicks almost as tall as their parents, and finally the huge number of adult, elegant birds forming the majority of the colony. We got to see the penguins fighting, interacting and even feeding/tending to their young. It was an amazing sight.
We went down towards the beach for lunch. Although the weather was again stunning, it was very windy, so when we sat down to have our lunch and watch the Magellanic penguins swim in the water, we were being perpetually sand-blasted. This continuous wind and sand-blasting also led to some great shapes formed out of sand whenever there was a rock or other obstacle like a shell. Some were so eroded that they had been underminded and looked like they were floating in the air. We eventually moved a bit further up into the dunes and sat on a little penguin highway which they used to get to the beach. Although the penguins weren’t overly concerned by us, we did represent an unexpected obstacle. When a group of 5-10 king penguins reached a ledge or other obstacle they would stop, stand around and look at each other for a few minutes, before eventually walking to the side or around the obstacle. They did the same for us as we sat having lunch, so we had some nice 5 minute periods where we would be staring at a confused penguin about 2 metres away before it eventually waddled off.
After lunch we headed to the Gentoo penguin colony just up the hill, where there were huge numbers of Gentoos, mostly juveniles, standing or lying around. This is probably a good time to mention some fun penguin behaviours. Many penguins, when they are tired or too hot or cold, will lie down on the ground, in various degrees of dignity. This led to some fun photos and some very disgruntled looking penguins. They also do not do this very gracefully, leading to some very funny faceplants and wing/beak pushups as they tried to extricate themselves from the position. Gentoo penguins in particular also display something called “The Chase”. This is where the chicks will chase after the parent as the parent runs away at speed, before eventually allowing them to catch up and have food. This is thought to be to help strengthen the chicks and eventually encourage them to follow the parents into the water, but also led to some very funny chases and numerous falls and faceplants! It was also fun watching some of the penguins enter or exit the water. In the water, penguins are incredibly graceful and amazing to watch. However, when they are entering the water they must make a choice between waddling and lying forward to begin paddling, and when the waves are about as high as them it can be a difficult choice. We had a full range between some waddling out up to their necks and looking very uncomfortable, to some who decided to start paddling in about an inch of water and were essentially crawling/dragging themselves into the sea.
Overall, a truly fantastic day and I hope to share some pictures soon. We were eventually driven back and we had a great dinner at Shorty’s diner (one of the few places that does evening meals and is thankfully quite close to where we were staying). After that, I realised I had been asked to pick up some gin for a few people from the local small-scale distillery but that it had very awkward opening hours and this might prove difficult. With this in mind I gave the owner a call and it turned out they were staying up late distilling until midnight, so Evelyn and I went late-night gin shopping. It was a very sweet one-man operation, with a single still, selling gins infused with local botanicals or kelp. I can highly recommend the gin, and it was obviously very popular with the tourists! Who knows how I am going to manage to get it all home at the end of the trip….
01/02/23
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