Cuverville Island, Paradise Harbor, Lemaire Channel
What did you imagine the palette of colors for Antarctica would be? White on white snow spilling into azure seas? Or perhaps the formal black and white of a penguin upon a slab of silver ice under brooding gray skies? Well somebody kicked the paint bucket over today and it sloshed and splashed across our landscape. Sapphire blue skies were the backdrop for steep rock faces cloaked in crusts of lime green and pumpkin orange lichens. Along the steeper snow cliffs snow algae blushed the hillsides to a soft pink hue. The stoic little Antarctic hairgrass stood in tuffs of brilliant jade green wedged between the protection of decomposing rocks and soft beds of emerald green mosses. The gentoo penguins at Cuverville Island seemed to have dipped their inquisitive beaks into the paint bucket as well, with their gaudy orange lips almost matching their faded orange feet.
As we navigated towards Lemaire Channel, humpback whales were found. Not to be left behind in the world of black and white, these whales repeatedly dove, showing their flukes and each individuals black and white pattern accented with a splatter of amber colored diatoms. As we observed this most cooperative pair of whales, the Captain maneuvered the ship and our angle of view illuminated the whale blow as a rainbow. Our palette was complete now that Roy G. Biv had shown up, or so we thought. Just as we were pulling away and leaving these whales to their personal agendas, a rosy plume emanated from one whale, this was the color of krill, albeit after it has been digested by a humpback whale.
The color swatches representing the kaleidoscope of colors Antarctica has to share are perpetually evolving wonders.
What did you imagine the palette of colors for Antarctica would be? White on white snow spilling into azure seas? Or perhaps the formal black and white of a penguin upon a slab of silver ice under brooding gray skies? Well somebody kicked the paint bucket over today and it sloshed and splashed across our landscape. Sapphire blue skies were the backdrop for steep rock faces cloaked in crusts of lime green and pumpkin orange lichens. Along the steeper snow cliffs snow algae blushed the hillsides to a soft pink hue. The stoic little Antarctic hairgrass stood in tuffs of brilliant jade green wedged between the protection of decomposing rocks and soft beds of emerald green mosses. The gentoo penguins at Cuverville Island seemed to have dipped their inquisitive beaks into the paint bucket as well, with their gaudy orange lips almost matching their faded orange feet.
As we navigated towards Lemaire Channel, humpback whales were found. Not to be left behind in the world of black and white, these whales repeatedly dove, showing their flukes and each individuals black and white pattern accented with a splatter of amber colored diatoms. As we observed this most cooperative pair of whales, the Captain maneuvered the ship and our angle of view illuminated the whale blow as a rainbow. Our palette was complete now that Roy G. Biv had shown up, or so we thought. Just as we were pulling away and leaving these whales to their personal agendas, a rosy plume emanated from one whale, this was the color of krill, albeit after it has been digested by a humpback whale.
The color swatches representing the kaleidoscope of colors Antarctica has to share are perpetually evolving wonders.
