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Day 4 - Campbell Island |
| This journal is constructed as one web page for each day of my journey, including the arrival day in Auckland, and the final two days, which I spent in Hobart. I have tried to keep the picture images of a reasonable size for easy web page loading. To see a much larger view of (practically) any image, just left-click on the photo. |
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Today
we visit Campbell Island, another of the sub-Antarctic islands scattered
about in a frigid zone, but with an abundance of plants and animals,
unlike the great white continent itself. We plied our way into
Perseverance Harbour in the mid-morning, and the zodiac landings began
at about 10 a.m.
Our trip leader, Jane Wilson, offered some longer hiking opportunities here, and those of us especially interested left with the early boats. There is no scheduling for our travel on the zodiacs, unlike the helicopters, so the line at the gangway forms early! Although cloudy, the island and the harbor were quite scenic. The prevailing short nature of the plant life reminds me of the tundra atop the mountains in Colorado. There is wharf here to land at, so no need to wear our wet boots. It was mostly cool, but with the sun peeking out from time to time, it would warm up quite a bit. Later on, a few of us got caught in a little rain. The walk followed along a wire covered boardwalk, just like at Enderby. It went up to a platform overlooking this section of the island. Many of us continued, following a trail through the high grasses. All around us were nesting Albatross - they are huge birds! They didn't seem to take much notice of us, although we did keep our distance (at least 10 feet). |
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| Disembarking. | A warm welcome . . . and a warning. | Perseverance harbour. |
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| Campbell wharf. | Rugged terrain. | The "long" hikers. |
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| Nesting Albatross. | Sub-Antarctic vegetation. | Western coast of Campbell Island. |
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Campbell Island had been the home to a growing rat population. A
few years ago, an aggressive program to exterminate them seems to have
worked, without harming the native wildlife. Contaminating these
sites continues to be a concern. When we return from these
landings, we wash off our boots and brush off our clothes and packs - to
make sure we don't transport foreign seeds here, nor local seeds
elsewhere.
We got to stay on Campbell until 3 p.m. and then it was back to sea. In the evening I decided to put on my next seasickness patch. So far I have felt fine, so they must be working. |
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| Follow the "Next" and "Back" links to go from page to page. Or, return to the "Antarctica Home Page" and link to any day from the "Daily Logs" shown there. If you have any comments, e-mail me to me at: dfoster<at>kaibabjournal<dot>com. Please put “Antarctica” in the subject category. |
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