Petermann island was only my second trip to the Antarctic shore, coming two days after running the marathon, on King George Island. We'd been told that it was a Gentoo and Adelie penguin nesting site. The two species look distinctly different, with the Gentoo's having a bright orange bill, and a white strip on the crown of their head. The Adelie's by comparison, have a dark bill and a blue circle surrounding their eye. It was at least two months since most of the chicks had hatched, though all the adults and chicks were moulting their feathers, which I believe all penguins do each year. It's a frustrating time for them, as they're not fully waterproofed and the pushing out of feathers, is considered to be discomforting to them.

We'd been instructed to keep at least 5m away from the penguins, and not to alter their behavior in any way. If we were sat, and they wanted to approach us, that was fine, but we mustn't intimidate them, or make loud noises, and generally respect their space and habitat. As always, there were very strict instructions about not leaving a single piece of litter anywhere, and abiding by the Antarctic treaty, on which all ship members had been briefed.

The above sequence of images, showing the brown seagull like bird, (Skua), is a predator / prey sequence. The Skua is a pack hunting bird, and they gang up to attack weak animals. On this occasion a lone Skua came to attack a small Gentoo, which was probably born late in the season. After witnessing the attack other Gentoo's ganged up and chased to repel the aggressor.

We spent about 2 hours on the island, with zodiac's ferrying people back to the Ioffe as and when they wanted to go. Myself, Joanne Yi and Anne Bonney were among the last to leave, and we spent ages just sitting quietly, near the emergency shelter (shown above in red). Shelters are there in the event of an absolute emergency, and you mustn't enter one for any other reason. They house food and provisions, designed to allow a few people to survive. John Dudeney, former deputy director of BAS (British Antarctic Survey) who was on the Ioffe as staff, told us the story of how three British scientists, became stranded there during the early 1980's in the winter, when all activities in the Antarctic are hazardous. They had been caught in a storm, and been told to wait out the storms for as long as it took, before trying to cross the frozen ice sheet, and return to base. About 5 weeks in, the 3 men were still stranded, though had adequate food and provisions in the shelter. One Sunday, which is traditionally the day when at British bases, people make an effort to dress up and a special meal is cooked, the men seeing a gap in the storm decided to make a dash for it, without telling the base, where John and the rest of the crew had been talking to them. The men crossed the ice sheet, which had been through one storm, as a rule of thumb, 2 storms are needed to really test an ice sheet, before anyone should attempt a crossing. Sadly the three men were never seen or heard from again, and perished somewhere near Petermann island, trying to return to the BAS base. There is a crucifix near the storm shelter to remember them; this served as a potent reminder to all of us, what a deadly place this can become with very little warning.

The penguins were great creature's to photograph, and I really enjoyed spending time in their environment. I tried 2 types of film, Kodak 100 gold (consumer 35mm film) which does look fairly average despite the expense of an L series canon lens; and I used Fuji Velvia 50, which despite the poor lighting does work well I feel, and look dramatic. The sky was almost always overcast during my 10 days in the Antarctic, and although I carried circular polariser's, I didn't need them. My cheap telephoto did a great job, despite the Auto Focus (AF) failing to function in the freezing cold (it was probably -5c) about the same as a household freezer. I had to use Manual Focus nearly the whole time, which was fine, but it meant using my thin cotton gloves to work the controls, and my hands did get cold fast, so I had to change gloves whilst moving between subjects, and don my warm ski gloves.