The Marion Island South African research team goes round island
We went on the our usual monthly round Marion Island earlier this month. I'll show you how we survive in the wild.
But first - penguins!
These are creched Gentoo penguins. They have grown so much.
Here is a colony of King penguin chicks. We were counting them on our round island.
I know you were wondering, but were too polite to ask
So here's a photo of the hut and its toilet.
We have 8 of these hut stops around the island to take a break and refuel.
That's the rarely spotted South African snow hiker
The next two photos are of me walking on very thick snow during my round island.
Sharing the luxury of our round island accommodation
That's me inside the hut. As you can see, there are two bunk beds, so only four people can sleep in each hut.
That's me having lunch at the hut - 2 minutes noodles and Soya mince. Yummmmmy. I lost weight on this week-long trip!
Thanks for all your support and comments so far. It really means a lot to me!
Images by @scienceguy and Paige Potter
Wow, there are just so many penguins. I have been to Prince Phillip Island in Australia, to see the penguins but the penguins there are so few compared to your photo.
And that's just one of the colonies! They can breed in peace here because there are no invasive species any more (I wrote about that in one of my earlier posts) and very few humans are allowed on the island. I'm interested to learn more about Prince Phillip Island. It's not easy for us to look things up here since our internet is throttled and even a Google search is hard. Is it a nature reserve? A research centre? What kind of penguins are there? By the way, South Africa also has colonies of African penguins which are much easier to see than these in Boulders, Cape Town and Betty's Bay, so if you ever visit South Africa you'll be able to see breeding colonies there no problem.
The peace, cleanliness and solitude makes up for the loss of luxury living, running water and using the outhouse facility.
Wildlife exploration hiking through tough conditions and seeing the young growing up, I truly every you @scienceguy
Thanks for taking some time out to share your adventure with us.
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Thank you so much, @joanstewart, your support means a lot to me. I love wildlife and sea birds so in many ways this is a dream experience for me. And a special thank you for the OriginalWorks mention. I didn't know about it. What does #cof mean?
Hats off to you and keep up the good work! Humanity definitely needs more knowledge about animals that we share our home planet with. It's a shame that most of our kind are ignorant. You've got our Upvote and Follow
Thank you so much, @extremeromance! I apologise for the delay in getting back to you. I don't know if you know, but I really only get to post and look at comments about once a month or so since our internet connection is throttled. I've posted again today about helping out our seal research team. Lots of fun!
Penguins are always adorable! Looks like you had a lot of fun out there, would be a great experience and something I would like to do myself one day, if I can.
Thanks, @thegoliath. It's not all fun, but it is the experience of a lifetime and I really want to share it. Unfortunately, Marion Island isn't open to tourism at all. Only research teams come here and the boats come through a couple of times a year. It's very isolated here and we only have each other, the birds and the seals (who can be pretty funny).
The experience is the main thing for you to get out of it anyway. :)
And the experience goes way beyond science research! Imagine living with the same group of people for an entire year with nobody else around. We really learn how to get along with each other.
That would be a challenge in itself though... Same people to put up with, though if there is a decent amount of you then you got a lot of interesting stories and conversations you can have plus many more good friends to have them become.
Yeah, and we're doing different kinds of research. Some people came to the island as couples research teams, some are singles. Some are bird people and some are seal people, so we have our own kind of built-in diversity - lol! We're all pretty chilled here, and knowing we're going to be together on the island for months on end with nobody else coming keeps us focused.
That's great and at least you still get to enjoy it and the company you have.
👍🏿
I have never seen a South-African snow hiker before, thanks for sharing such a rare photo - LOL
It must have been great to do that trip on the island!!
Ha ha! It is a super rare sighting. Few people have ever seen that bird! It was an amazing trip. We'll be doing it again in October, and we are hoping it will be warmer, although the snow was fun sometimes. Thanks for your support! I appreciate it.
Seems like you were on a real adventure! Great photos - it's awesome how close you can get to take a picture of the penguins :)
Hi, @theywillkillyou, I'll be on Marion Island until next year. I wrote about this when I introduced myself. We're a small group who will be doing research alone for 13 months. It's the kind of adventure I never imagined I would do growing up.
Love the colony of penguins picture. It reminds of an animated movie called Happy Dance. Great to watch if you have not done so before. :)
The huts have their little charm going for them. I just hope if there is 4 of you in there that when someone farts he goes out to do it. lolol jk.
Great post. Thank you for sharing it with us. Have a great day. :)
LOL on the fart!!
Glad you enjoyed the picture of the colony. I'll check out the movie.
Thanks for having a look. I appreciate the support.
Wow penguins....
I know! What's not to love about penguins?
Its really amazing.
Thanks - glad you enjoyed it.
Upvoted. I'll be resteeming this now :]
Thank you so much, @ipkiss! I really appreciate the support.