Last Zodiac Ride

25th January 2016 Part 2
We left the Caldera after lunch and instantly started to pitch and roll. For the first time I started to feel a little unwell so I went for a lie down and slept a little. After a while the pitching and rolling receded and I woke as we arrived at Hannah Point on Livingston Island. Livingston is part of the South Shetland and intact the other side of the island forms the McFarland Strait which is where Half Moon Island is, our first landing.
Which cruise ships visit with place is controlled so that no two ships should turn up at the same place at the same time. That's why when we could not get through the Lemaire Channel Julieta had to email to arrange an alternative. Yesterday when we arrived in Neko there was another ship in our slot, there leader said she thought we had gone else where! It worked out OK as we stopped and watched the whales until they had gone.
So most well known places get two ships a day, but Hannah Point is under stricter control and only gets a ship every three days or so. For this reason the wildlife there is not so confident around people and we had to be extra careful when near them. Only 50 people a time are allowed to land so we were split into two groups, I was in the second group to land after the first had returned to the ship.
Once on land we walked very slowly and in single file around the Penguin colonies. As well as Chinstrap and Gentoo there was a single Macaroni Penguin in amongst the others (Can you see it in the photo). Also on land was a very big number of Elephant Seals which although they looked large were in fact juveniles.
The Penguin chicks here are much further along in their development than those further south. When the chick wants feeding the parent runs away from the chick and the chick runs after it. It's thought that this is to build up strength in the chick. Also because the chicks are larger they are wondering around on their own, so again we have to be that little bit more careful around them.
That's it our last landing of the trip so it's goodbye to the penguins and board the zodiac for the last time to return to the Ushuaia. Now it's time to leave Antarctica and head back across the Drake Passage.