An Albatross "City" at Steeple Jason

Today was our final day in the Falkland Islands and what a day it was! We landed at Steeple Jason sometime overnight. There are four "Jason" Islands - South Jason, Grand Jason, Flat Jason and Steeple Jason. Perhaps the "Steeple" comes from the fact that when we landed we immediately hiked up a steep hill!

The day started out rainy and overcast. We thought it would be cold, but it was actually 54 at 6:30 am - the warmest we've had so far. After breakfast, we geared up (just because it might be raining is no reason to stay on the ship!) and made way to board the zodiacs. Yesterday, we were told that today's landing would be "difficult" or "verify difficult" and that we'd have to get out of the zodiacs onto wet, algae covered, slippery rocks. It turned out that the ocean had some swells - maybe 1-2 meters - that meant that the hard part of this landing was getting into and out of the zodiacs at the gangway on the ship. But no matter, we were quickly ashore with no mishaps onto dry rocks with no slipping involved. From there we hiked up the fairly steep slope - the steepest so far by quite a bit - and at the top were greeted with the Striated Caracara bird - otherwise known as the "Johnny Rook" or the "Devil's Bird." They were flying around a bit, though it was quite windy and it was difficult for even them to get and stay aloft, heading where they wanted to go. We stopped short of the peak because going the extra 20-30 feet was virtually straight up on uneven rocks, and it was incredibly windy - we thought we could be blown off.

So we descended a bit and walked around to the back side of this particular peak and that's when we saw "Albatross City." There are estimated to be 113,000 breeding pairs of the black-browed albatross, with some rockhopper penguins mixed in. What greeted us was a virtual coastline of albatross, with plenty of chicks nesting with their parents as well. It's hard to imagine, and tough to describe, so we'll post a photo tomorrow to give you some perspective.

We did more hiking to get to the north end of the albatross nesting area, from which we could look back and see albatross and tussock grasses (these tall grasses that are easy to get lost in) and the ship in the distance. All totaled, we hiked another 3.5 miles or so today. It's been a lot of hiking these last few days, but so worth it for the views we've seen.

Oh, and the weather? Well, by the time we were landing in the zodiac, the rain had stopped and the skies were clearing. It was spectacular! We estimate it was in the mid-50s to low 60's for air temp. However, in some spots of the island, the winds consistently blow 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph or so. It's incredibly windy! Our ride back to the ship was a bit rougher than what we've experienced so far, and we were quite glad to have our rain gear on with the ocean spraying cold water on us as we returned to the ship.

Once everyone was back on board, we pulled anchor and are now on our way to South Georgia Island. We sail for two solid days so will make our next landing on the 7th which is Saturday I think. So for the next couple of days, we'll be relaxing, catching up on sleep, recovering from the lingering remains of colds we've caught along the way, reviewing our photography, and attending a variety of interesting lectures. We heard one tonight from Ted Cheeseman on the geologic history of Antarctica and its biodiversity that was quite interesting.

In short, we had a spectacular three days in the Falklands. The visit here is considered a "warm-up" to South Georgia, so we can only imagine what awaits us there! In the meantime, we are hoping for smooth sailing ahead!