This morning we said farewell to the members of Jubany crew who are heading back to Buenos Aires and beyond. However, we then heard that, due to the bad weather, the plane coming to pick them up could not land and so they would stay a little longer. In addition, the Castillo had picked up forty-seven men, women and children from La Esperanza base and they needed somewhere to stay until the plane arrived and so came ashore too. Since Jubany cannot accommodate so many people most had to camp in the casa principal on the dining room floor. They have no idea how long they may need to stay but there might be a flight window in a couple of days time. Weather permitting ….
We visited our next field site at the penguin and seal colonies at and around the Refugio Elefante and Stranger Point today. The whole area is covered with numerous colonies, both current and former and we are interested in what information about former colonies might be stored in the lagoon sediments here. It was a long and strenuous walk to get there but incredible once we made it – walking amongst the penguins and seals and seeing the Gentoo (papua) and Adelie penguin chicks peeking out from their nests, plus the cheeky gentoos blatantly stealing nest pebbles from under their neighbours but ignoring any protest knowing that if their neighbours left their nest in protest the skuas would dive in to steal their chicks. Penguins might look cute but they are pretty mean underneath!

We also saw chinstrap penguins and earlier today some of the penguin research group saw a lone king penguin which had stopped off here for a rest. In addition to the penguins, the coast is littered with elephant seals, from huge two-tonne males smacking and pounding against each other fighting in the surf, to the younger seals of one to two years, and the young pups which are now about two months old but already weigh much more than me. They look up wide eyed and cute faced as you pass but you know they will soon grow up to be huge and terrifying. All around is the noise of chirping penguins, crying chicks and penguin pattering feet, interspersed with the resounding echo of elephant seal belching.