I got back on Sunday night from 5 day holiday on the Barff Peninsula which is across Cumberland East Bay from base. We were dropped off by boat at Sorling which is a cove with a little hut right near the Nordenskjold Glacier. After a 6 hour hike with 28kg (61.6 lb) rucksacks on our backs we arrived at St Andrews Bay.

The hut at St Andrews

It is a 14km hike via Hound Bay so there is quite a lot of height gain and loss involved. It was a very low cloud, misty day with reindeer appearing out of the gloom making it feel like walking in Scotland. We walked past some giant pretrel nests and Hound Bay was teeming with fur seal pups like at Maiviken. The last bit down into the Bay is very steep and my knees felt it! Large pieces of scree which were quite slippy underfoot.

The next day (Thursday) was my birthday it was a stunning hot sunny day with bright blue skies. We got kitted up in waders and headed out to spend a day at the colonies. The waders leaked but it made no difference as being in amoungst 150,000 penguins more than made up for it. There were elephant seals, fur seals, penguins, skuas, giant petrels, reindeer, sheathbills. There were many different sounds – the penguin chicks ‘whistled’ and the adults had a harsher sound to them which as Rob said – ‘how do they have so much to talk about!. There was signs of new life and death scattered over the beach with penguin carcasses, adults sitting on eggs and chicks molting their brown baby fluff away to adult black, white and orange feathers. We went over to Clark Point and climbed up a outcrop surrounded by wave cut platforms and topped with dense tussock grass.

We sat in tussock chairs and admired the view before heading back for skeds. Rob cooked me a 3 course ration pack meal and we sat up talking for quite a while.

Thursday night a front came in and it was raining and blowing at dawn it had not changed so it was a morning of sleep for Rob (till lunch) and reading a book for me. In the afternoon it was still drizzling a bit but we went out for a walk up towards the Heaney Glacier and explored the fringes of sadly receding glacier. Under ice streams bubble up like springs at the end of it creating a flood plain with many little islands which the penguins gathered around. The sides of the glacier were covered in scree with ice arches and caves.

On saturday it was a hot beautifully sunny day so again we wondered over to the colony and Clark Point. We sunbathed on the point and watched a shag and some sheathbills who were very curious about us. After lunch we loaded our large packs back on and hike up through St Andrews Col and over to Hound Bay. It was a hot day for it taking us 2 hours to get to the Col where we were happy for the relief of mostly downhill to Hound Bay.

That night we camped on the edge of the Bay up the hill slightly with a view of Cape Vakop.

Sunday morning was a 6:30am start with a quick breakfast before hustling in dense mist/cloud over to Sorling Hut for a 10am pick up before the wind and swell picked up making it impossible to safely get the RIB to us. We witnessed a large section of the Glacier break away adding to the swell.

So a relatively relaxing time across the Bay with amazing wildlife watching experiences. A great way to spend my 33rd birthday!