16 Jan 2020

Cruising with Kings off Macca

It's standing room only for the hundreds of thousands of King Penguins huddled over on Lusitania Bay along Macquarie Island's southernmost eastern coastline - one of the largest penguin populations on the planet. We spend the morning observing the birds blanketing the beach through rain-streaked glass on Akademik Shokalskiy's bridge, and closer to the action at the stern of deck three, as hundreds more raft and dart below the surface around our ship as she sits anchored opposite the penguin hotspot.

With the wind and swell easing, our Expedition Leader Samuel seized the opportunity to offer the 35 expeditioners willing to brave the light rain a Zodiac cruise. The endless expanse of the near 200,000 pairs of birds standing defiantly around the ruins of Joseph Hatch's animal oil extracting digesters abandoned in 1911 ashore is a staggering and privileged sight to behold.

But the best was yet to come. As the rain stops, our Zodiacs gently rising and falling on the light swell, hundreds of inquisitive Kings surrounded us, the aquatic ballet of torpedoing birds clearly visible under the ocean's smooth surface. Growing braver they began swimming up to the sides of the Zodiacs, craning their necks out of the water to get a better look at us watching them. Some gently peck the sides of the vessels as others drum their flippers against its hollow inflatable chambers, splashing us in the process.

Slightly damp and deliriously happy, we reluctantly farewell the playful antics of our flippered friends, board our trusty expedition ship and meet up in the bar after hot showers to celebrate the magical encounter. Tonight we set sail for the ‘screaming sixties', on our way to the frozen southern continent, a golden sunset spills over the over ocean as it melts into the horizon ending a perfect day.

Image © D.Brown, Heritage Expeditions