Guests and expedition staff aboard the National Geographic Explorer were treated to a rare sighting of this nearly all-white leucistic Chinstrap penguin January 9, 2012. It’s not quite an albino since it has pigmented eyes and a washed-out version of a Chinstrap penguin’s coloring pattern.
Photo by David Stephens
Naturalist David Stephens snapped this photo as the penguin waddled its way through the Aitcho Islands in Antarctica. Penguins’ two-tone black-and-white coloring offers camouflage while diving for fish, and this color is so fundamental to their success in catching fish that variations are seldom seen. “Many wondered about this unusual bird’s chances of success,” Stephens said. “While odd coloration may make fishing a bit more difficult, leucistic birds are regularly found breeding normally.”
Check out some of the more common sights aboard the National Geographic Explorer on our Journey to Antarctica expedition in this photo gallery.
Doug and Lenore Perry (pictured above) are National Geographic Expeditions Lifelong Explorers, having traveled on five of our expeditions. They recently returned from their latest—a voyage to Antarctica—and were thrilled to share their experience.
“We’ve subscribed to National Geographic for years and we always got the travel catalog. We’d flip through it, thinking the trips looked like fun. Then, in the fall of 2008 we finally took our first expedition—to China—and we were sold from then on. Over the past three years we’ve traveled to six different continents with National Geographic. Our friends always asked which place was our favorite and we could never decide…but then we went to Antarctica on the National Geographic Explorer.
Wow. Wow. It’s beyond explanation. It’s not of this world—not even close to any other place that you could go. Antarctica hit us right between the eyes. It was the starkness of it, the colors, the bright snow and the brilliant blue sky, the water that changed from gray to beautiful blue. We’ve seen mountains, but these mountains were spectacular, completely covered in ice and snow, like icing on a cake or meringue. And those glaciers! They were white, of course, but then you also see this magnificent, indescribable blue. Is it sky blue? Turquoise? Royal blue? Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s all of them, all at once!
Every day was a sensory overload. We hiked to the top of a hill and could see the Explorer far below and the little red dots of our fellow passengers—everything looked tiny amid the vast expanse of the ice. We’d be out in Zodiacs, sliding silently past seals lying on the ice floes, or get up on land and walk among penguins, who didn’t mind at all that we were there.
Being on the National Geographic Explorer was a wonderful experience. We had whale experts, penguin experts, underwater experts, all types of experts! We were novices, and to have that kind of guidance as we were seeing someplace so spectacular was phenomenal—the best experience we could possibly have had. We would do it over again in a heartbeat.”
Andrew Evans heads out for another day of adventure in Antarctica. (Photo by Cotton Coulson)
Earlier this year, travel writer Andrew Evans, a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler, embarked on an epic journey from National Geographic’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. to Antarctica by public bus. Where he hit water, he climbed aboard our ships to get to his next destination–but not without an adventure along the way. He crossed through the Panama Canal on our voyage to Costa Rica and Panama, and later boarded the National Geographic Explorer to reach Antarctica and explore South Georgia and the Falklands . Here’s what he had to say about the two very different National Geographic expeditions that completed his Bus2Antarctica journey.
Admittedly, my assignment was a little unconventional: take buses from National Geographic headquarters all the way to Antarctica, writing my story from the road in real time via text messages sent by phone. In the end, I traveled over 10,000 miles on 40 buses through 9 states and 17 countries. Wherever geography failed to cooperate with available bus routes—like the Panama Canal and the Drake Passage to Antarctica—National Geographic Expeditions was there to help me out.
Traveling on two National Geographic/Lindblad expeditions back-to-back proved extraordinary. One day I was craning my neck to watch a three-toed sloth in the Costa Rican canopy. Exactly one month later, I was laid out with my belly on the ice of Antarctica staring nose to beak at a baby gentoo penguin.
I can now say from experience that the throbbing tropical rain forest is the opposite of Antarctica’s endless white expanse. Waking up off the coast of Panama and opening my cabin door on the National Geographic Sea Lion, I could feel the heat radiating from the shore in plumes of morning steam, the air filled with an earthy smell of life and leaves. Stepping out on deck in Antarctica had the opposite effect, where a single baby blue iceberg aside the National Geographic Explorer send waves of cold air pulsating towards my face.
Read the rest of Andrew’s impressions and see more photos after the jump.
// Continue Reading…
A Galápagos sea lion relaxes on the beach (Photo: Nevada Wier)
The verdict is in: according to one of our young travelers, Disneyworld is no match for the Galápagos Islands. Taking a short break from swimming with sea lions, James Beringer and his sister explain to us what makes the Galápagos “much, much more fun” than hanging out with Mickey Mouse.
See the video after the jump.
// Continue Reading…
National Geographic Traveler contributing editor Andrew Evans spent the last ten weeks making his way from National Geographic’s headquarters to Antarctica—traveling primarily by public bus. While settled in his bus seat, adventure seemed to come to him: one bus dodged falling boulders, another hit an unfortunate cow in the middle of the Colombian wilderness. Yet another popped a tire high in the Peruvian Andes, and the very last bus he rode was nearly catapulted off a ferry into the Strait of Magellan–passengers and all.
Sir Francis Drake might be chagrined to hear that Andrew’s crossing from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula aboard the National Geographic Explorer was actually one of the easier legs of his journey! With a great group of travelers on board, a pod of fin whales lolling off the bow, and our historians and naturalists giving talks on Antarctica in the lounge, Andrew was off on an adventure of an entirely different order. No doubt relieved to be sleeping in a comfy bed instead of a bus seat, Andrew took us on a video tour of his cabin on board the ship. Take a look!
We’ll be hearing more from Andrew about his expedition to the oldest and coldest continent on the planet in the coming days. In the meantime, hop over to National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel Blog to see his videos and posts from Antarctica.
No need for a zoom lens here! Travelers watch a blowing humpback from the ship's deck. Photo: Cotton Coulson and Sisse Brimberg
National Geographic photographers and husband-and-wife team Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson captured a memorable encounter on an expedition to Antarctica.
It is sunny and clear this morning—no wind in the air. A perfect day for photography. Cotton climbs the crow’s nest to get a higher vantage point, and Sisse moves to the bow for a different angle. As the National Geographic Explorer enters Errera Channel, a beautiful narrow passage on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, two curious and friendly humpback whales approach. Captain Hartmann pulls back on the throttle, takes the ship out of gear, and lets the ship slowly drift through the calm, pale blue waters. It’s interesting to think that a hundred years ago, the sight of two huge humpbacks just feet from the vessel would have sent the crew rushing for their harpoons—these were prime whaling waters up until the early 20th century, after all. Today, everyone on board falls silent, partly in awe, partly so as not to frighten them away.
// Continue Reading…
On New Year’s Day, National Geographic Traveler contributing editor Andrew Evans took off on an epic journey from National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC to Antarctica–by public bus. For the watery portions of his route–namely the Panama Canal and the Drake Passage–he’ll be among our travelers on board the National Geographic Sea Lion and the National Geographic Explorer. Though his trip will culminate amid majestic icebergs, it began in an appropriately more humble fashion: aboard a DC metrobus. Follow Andrew’s Bus2Antarctica adventures.
National Geographic Traveler staff brave the cold to send off Andrew Evans on New Years Day.
A Zodiac approaches a massive cliff of ice in the Antarctic seas. Photo: Michael Melford
This January, legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin will be among the travelers on board the National Geographic Explorer as it makes its way to the Antarctic Peninsula. He’s been to the moon and the depths of the ocean, but this will be his first trip to Antarctica. While the Great White Continent might be the Earth’s final frontier, Buzz has some interesting ideas about where travelers might find themselves in a decade or two. We asked him a few questions, and here’s what he had to say.
What are you looking forward to the most about your upcoming expedition to Antarctica?
Exploring an area I have not seen—Antarctica is one of the few places in the world I haven’t been to yet. And I’m looking forward to talking to travelers about the significant exploration events of the past and what I have in mind for the future. I’m currently working out what it would take to settle on Mars in 25 years. No colonies of Emperor penguins on Mars, though there is a polar ice cap about 1/4 the size of Antarctica’s ice cupola.
Tell us a favorite story about one of your earthly travel experiences.
My whole life is about my travel experiences—too many to count. I once took an 11-hour excursion down to the see the Titanic aboard a three-man French yellow submersible called “Nautile.” It was an hour and a half down to the wreck and an hour and a half back up. That left eight hours to accomplish two main tasks.
// Continue Reading…
King penguins crowd the shores of South Georgia. Photo: Scott Kish
About halfway through the December 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine, there’s an incredible shot of an iceberg off South Georgia–a massive sculpture glowing an unearthly blue against black seas. Speckling the ice like a dash of pepper, a colony of penguins. Paul Nicklen snapped the shot as he and writer Kenneth Brower traced the path of the Ernest Shackleton from Antarctica to South Georgia–the final resting place of the legendary explorer. Brower wrote up the story in an article called “Resurrection Island.”
“We left the Antarctic Peninsula and sailed, as Shackleton had, just offshore to the South Shetland Islands, from which the explorer had launched his desperate run for South Georgia. His lifeboat, James Caird, was 20 feet long. The ship on which Nicklen and I hitched a ride, National Geographic Explorer, was 367 feet and 6,000 tons. Where Shackleton’s little vessel was pounded by a hurricane and a succession of gales, our ship enjoyed fair weather.”
Shackleton might have missed the fair weather, but he also lost out on the rich wildlife Nicklen and Brower found.
// Continue Reading…
© 1996-2011 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. 1-888-966-8687
