Port Lockroy

After leaving Brown, we spent the evening on our way back west, towards Port Lockroy. We made our acquaintance with a range of ice forms on the way; I’m not sure which is which, but I believe that brash ice, growlers and bergy-bits were all floating in the startlingly calm sea:

new icelake2lakebrash ice

Port Lockroy is the name both of the whole bay and of the British base on the minuscule Goudier Island. It has now been converted into a museum and souvenir shop/post office, made famous in the BBC film ‘Penguin Post Office’ (featuring Hurtigruten tourists!).

lockroy_whole

The half of the island behind the posts is solely for the use of penguins rather than tourists:

studyareaThe research so far is ambiguous. It seems that penguins prefer to breed in the tourist-free zone, but they are successful in inhabited areas too. Under the museum is not a bad place, the main hazard being from other penguins:

underneath

The mountains of the surrounding Wiencke Island make a good backdrop for preening, or just doing some standing:scenicpenguin3 scenicpenguin2  portrait

Most of the penguins were brooding; reproduction was also on the minds of the local skuas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6b4NALtOyc

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