We spent the following morning at Pléneau Island, either trying to photograph porpoising Gentoo Penguins from the shore, or cruising amongst the many icebergs in zodiacs. For some lucky guests the zodiac excursion was remarkable, with a cocktail of Gentoo Penguins porpoising next to the zodiac with perfect reflections and then hopping in and out of the water onto a sloping iceberg which was the temporary home to five Crabeater Seals. There was a Leopard Seal on an ice floe nearby which then chased swimming Gentoos causing complete mayhem, and to add to the wildlife overload there were five Minke Whales feeding close by. It would almost, but not quite, have been easy to overlook the many sculptured icebergs! As if we hadn’t seen enough for one day we saw a pod of around fifteen Orca feeding just to the north of the Lemaire Channel with three swimming right under the boat a couple of times. To complete a near-perfect day for wildlife we landed at Torgeson Island to visit the Adelie Penguin colony.
