Teaming
up with One Ocean Expeditions and The Weather Network
I love Antarctica, it is one of my
favorite places on Earth, so it was a special treat to be able
to go back there and film new material for the "Unearthed"
TV series. Mark Robinson and I travelled to the Arctic with One
Ocean Expeditions in August 2013, and for this trip, we actually
climbed on boar the same ship, the Akademik Ioffe for the Antarctic
journey. We departed from Ushuaia, Argentina and crossed the
Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula.
One of the expedition Zodiacs,
framed in an iceberg arch.
Ice, glaciers & mountains.
A small lagoon inside an iceberg.
Hanging out on a chunk of floating
ice in the Southern Ocean.
A leopard seal, lounging on
some sea ice.
Adelie penguin.
An itchy Adelie penguin.
Amazing Antarctic landscape.
Another leopard seal. These
predatory seals often eat penguins, and have been know to attack
scuba divers.
Majestic iceberg.
Window in the ice.
Abstract ice sculptures.
Gentoo penguin & our ship,
the Akademik Ioffe.
One of many penguin colonies
we witnessed.
Feeding time for the newborn
Gentoo penguin chicks.
"Hoverpenguin"
OK, more of a hop, than a hover,
but I'm sure they wished they could fly.
Gentoo penguins defend their
chicks from a Skua, attacking from above. They frequently feed
on newborn penguins.
Dramatic glacier face. there
are countless glaciers everywhere.
A private yacht in the quiet,
desolate expanse of Antarctica.
Brown Station, an Argentinean
research base, sits beside a huge glacier on Paradise harbor.
This was my 3rd trip to Antarctica,
and it is one of my favorite places.
An amazing set of ice caves
at the edge of a glacier. It would've been too dangerous to go
inside to see if they were connected.
A precarious chunk of ice teeters
near one of the Zodiaks. I don't think it was as close to them
as it looks.
My favorite ice cave of the
trip.
Lots of pieces of ice that
have broken off from the glacial face. That ice cave was so tempting
to explore, but too dangerous.
More stunning icebergs with
windows through them. They make for awesome photo opportunities.
The Akademik Ioffe, in front
of a mighty Antarctic glacier.
Skua approaching a group of
penguins, hunting for stray chicks.
The Skua drops in for the attack,
but it was unsuccessful this time.
Sleepy seal.
Antarctica selfie.
Gentoo Penguin, rocks, &
icebergs.
Glacier calving.
Amazing, scalloped ice sculptures
along the side of a iceberg.
Chinstrap penguin feeding time.
The chick would be only a few weeks old.
Chinstrap penguin, nesting
high up on the side of a cliff.
Penguins on ice.
Floating past the ship on a
piece of ice. They eventually picked me up and brought me back
to the ship.
Sunset icebergs.
One of the few sunny days we
had, making the landscape even more dramatic.
A Humpback whale, raising its
fluke out of the water, at the beginning of a dive.
A very blue iceberg in the
Southern Ocean.
Waves crashing against the
side of an iceberg.
Pastel sunset.
A very noisy chinstrap penguin.
Chinstrap penguin chicks, fighting
for their yummy regurgitated dinner.
A pile of elephant seals on
a beach in the South Shetland Islands. Smelly & noisy, but
fascinating to watch.
Elephant seals fighting over
beach space.
A penguin strolls past the
group of elephant seals.
The penguin chicks grow rapidly,
and always seem to be hungry.
An Albatross, following the
ship.
Waves crashing on an iceberg.
An Orca (killer whale), surfacing
amongst the icebergs.
