Yesterday I was dragged almost kicking and screaming off the station to Rookery Islands.  It was sold as a couple of hours in the hagglund to get to a peaceful little group of islands where the Adelie penguins nest, the sun was shining and there were promises made of rescue if we went through the sea ice.  I might see a baby seal or one of the first Adelie penguins wandering back home for the summer.  So I went and as usual as soon as we left the station limits, it was like that feeling you get when you leave work on a Friday and head off on a weekend get away.  Total relaxation.

We drove along the coast line past the ice cliffs and small glaciers that surround the station.  The sight of the huge ice cliffs that surround the station has become almost normal but as we left the sun hit them at just the right angle to bring out the deep translucent blue of the glacier ice.  The sea ice was glistening almost mirage like into the distance.  Recent blizzards have swept the surface clean and left it looking like blue tinted glass, the little cracks craze out across the surface, a reminder that soon the solid surface will dissolve into many different pieces.  The ice bergs remain frozen in place, suspended on their journey.

Soon the island that we were headed for appeared in front of us, shades of brown contrasting against the blues and whites.  There was a couple of seals lazing next to an ice-berg but no other signs of life.  We park up, try to apply SPF 50+ suncream, it has frozen on the way and it is a bit like rubbing greasy ice chips on your face.

Jumping out the hagg I promptly nearly fall over on the slippery sea ice that is polished like a ice rink.  Adopting a wide leg stance I half skate, half walk to the shore, following in the foot steps of a slightly larger person and hoping that this guarantees that I will not fall into a tide crack accidently.

Stepping onto the Island I expect rock, instead I feel sponge under my feet and take a deep breath of ammonia, dead animals and fish.  OMG it is horrible, the stench is amazing. 100 x worse then being stuck behind a cattle truck in the tropics in summer.  Literally my eyes were starting to water and there wasn’t even any penguins there yet and its still -10 degrees!! Wow, new respect for penguin scientists.

Walking over the spongy surface is a very odd feeling, for years penguins have been coming to these little nests every year to breed and moult.  The evidence is everywere you step, years and years of penguin poo, dead penguins and little rocks that line the nests.  At first I tried to step carefully and respectfully but there are just to many layers!!!  In the end it was a bit of a rush up the hill to the bits that catch the breeze were the debris has blown away.

 

At the top of the hill the breeze blows the worst of the smell, old feathers and dried guano away and the view stretches far into the distance.  There are seals chilling out next to the large tide cracks or pools of open water.  They are huge and look ready to burst, their babies are due any day.  The ice-bergs and glaciers creak and groan.  The sun radiates with a ferocity that only comes on the water or in the snow, it bounces at you from every angle.

 

There is the expectancy of spring in the air.

Especially when we find the first little footprints in the snow that signal the Adelie penguins have started to arrive home.  There is no other sign of the new arrival but soon the islands will be swarming with hundreds of little penguins.  They will be fighting over little rocks, laying eggs and keeping watch over chicks.  The Rookery Island will be a place of energy, action and lots and lots of fresh smelly poo!!!!!