ICEBERG CRUISE

As mentioned in the previous post. On boxing day about a dozen of us headed out on IRB's in the afternoon, for a Iceberg cruise.

It was amazing that only about 2 hours previous we were standing around in just board shorts, and had been swimming in Newcombe bay, outside Casey station, and now we were putting on about 4 or 5 layers of clothes, balaclava's and beanies, to head out on the boats.

While out on the boats, we took the opportunity to stop at Shirley Island, and take a wander through the penguin colonies. Something we had not done for about 3 weeks, as the sea crossing had been closed, as it was unstable.

On arrival at Shirley Island, we found that the sea ice we had been crossing, had now completely disappeared, and it was now open water.

The penguins were no longer sitting on eggs, but in fact the chicks had hatched.

We spent about 3 hours cruising amongst the numerous icebergs that are currently sitting nearby to Casey station.

Many of these icebergs have broken from nearby glaciers, and become grounded in shallower water.

The picture below in fact shows an iceberg that has become grounded on rock, that becomes exposed at low tide.

The pictures above and below show a large iceberg, and part of the iceberg that is below the water. The water is so clear that you can clearly see the bottom when the water is many metres deep.