Another
early morning call – this time we have breakfast to eat before we go. Well – if you could call it breakfast. No egg station here – in fact, not a an egg
in sight. A couple of loaves of bread
and a toaster, but you need a spare hour or so to wait for it to toast. The coffee was hot though, and there were
muffins!
Filipe picked
us up at 8.00am for our trip to Rawson, initially for our zodiac trip to see
commerson dolphins. Just before we left the hotel it started to spit with rain
– it had finally arrived, the first rain since October! Across the whole of the bay was the most
vivid and complete rainbow I have ever seen.
One end actually went into the bay – never seen one where the end is so
clearly defined. We travelled through a
few showers for about an hour until we came to Port Rawson. Unfortunately the harbour master had decided
that it was too windy, and had just closed the port to anything going in or
out. Bugger! We drove and had a look at the entrance to
the open water through the harbour walls, and there were some quite hefty waves
smashing down. Hmm – I am sure it would
have been OK, but I could see the look of relief on someone’s face!
We then had
to retrace our steps to get to the road to Punta Tombo – the largest Megallanic
Penguin colony in the world. It took
around two hours to get here, travelling along lonely roads with nothing but a
great expanse to either side. The desert
like soil only allows a very small amount of vegetation to grow, and not very
high at that. All of the surrounding lands
are sheep “estancias” – although there was a distinct lack of sheep. I suppose when you have the run of hundreds
of miles of land you aren’t likely to want to be beside a road! The only place where the terrain changed was
along the valley of the river, where there were trees and greenery abound. We did learn that it was the Welsh that came
over and started the villages here – Filipe’s wife has Welsh ancestors. Apparently there are many Welsh descendents
in this part of the world. Probably why
there are so many sheep! We turned off
the normal road surface with about 20 kilometres to go – and then it was gravel
all the way. Good job we had a 4x4. We first went to the Visitor Centre – a
fairly new building but not very well built. Most of the toilets were out of order, and it
apparently leaks when it rains. Luckily
for us we had left the rain well behind.
It showed what animals we were going to see, and an insight into the
life of the penguin. One room had TV’s
all the way round, and were meant to be showing a film where the animals move
from one to the other seamlessly. Some
were day, some were night, and all were doing their own thing! Must have been installed by the same people
that installed the toilets and built the roof.
At the height of the season, there are over 200,000 pairs of penguins
here. We had to get back in the car for the last kilometre down to where the
boardwalk starts. As soon as we got out
of the car there was a penguin sitting under a tree. We may have left the rain behind, but the
wind certainly came with us, and we needed the fleeces and coats that we had
brought. On the way down the paths, it was simply littered with penguins. They build their nests either under a bush,
or dig a hole – small or large will do.
Some were in pairs, and some were on their own.
They arrive
back to the colony in September/October time from warmer waters. They make their way back to usually the same
nest as they had vacated at the end of the previous summer. These nests can be up to three kilometres
away from the ocean. If the lady of the
house is in, the male will stick with her from last time. They mate, and the eggs are laid
October/November time. Both male and
female will look after the one or two eggs until they hatch. They will hatch after forty or so days, so
usually be the end of December all the young are born. The young will feed from their parents until
February time, when they will make their way into the sea and that will be the
last they see of them. Unlike children
these days!! By mid April all the
penguins disappear in the water, and don’t come back until the weather has
warmed up again.
Consequently,
most of the chicks had gone by today.
There were a few left, and it was absolutely fascinating watching them
take food from the back of their parent’s throat. One of the first things Filipe pointed out
was a sparrow. Paul and I looked at each
other and thought he was mad! We have
them back in the garden at home – we were here to see penguins. Not sure how many times he has been here
though – he probably makes it his mission to try and spot anything other than
penguins because of the amount of times he has been here. He did point out some beautiful Harrier
Falcons and other birds of prey that the name escapes me now! Had to get a few bird shots in! The penguin sheds its feathers once a year,
and this was the back end of when this was happening. Some of the penguins looked as if they had
fur coats on, as the new feathers were under the old feathers and make them
look very fat. Some had half and half,
and looked a bit scanky! Most were
absolutely adorable. Some were resting
in their holes alone or in pairs – some were doing more than resting in their
holes with their partner! Some were
making a noise like a donkey – sticking their beaks high in the air and
shouting at the top of their voices to make themselves heard. No idea why! Probably a male having a paddy! Others were waddling about, either with
somewhere to go or someone to see.
Penguins have right of way here – if they attempt to cross the path you
must let them go. The rule is you
mustn’t get any closer than three feet to the penguin. If there was one just the other side of the
path, and you bop down to get a picture, it keeps putting it’s head from side
to side to see you better. Looks as if
it is talking to you!
Going down
to the beach area, there were many, many more.
They were swimming and jumping in the water, and generally having
fun. Once they were in the water, they
were like a rocket propelled grenade with the speed that they got to when chasing
for fish. They swam on their sides and
back and splashed around – supposedly to clean their feathers, but looked as if
it was good fun to me. Back around their
nests, little rodent like creatures kept darting around – a bit like a guinea
pig. Nobody bothered anyone though – the
penguins only eat fish and the rodents only eat from the undergrowth. Other animals were wandering around also
including a guanaco which is a llama type thing related to a camel. Amazing.
It seemed like we had only been there an hour or so, but we had been
there over three hours. It is just
timeless to watch these creatures going about their business.
On the way
back, Filipe spotted an armadillo – well he said he did but I didn’t see
it. Would have liked to have done
though. We had a sandwich at the little
café place – run by one person who was making the tea as well. This place has up to three thousand people
visit in a day in high season – hope they all don’t want a cup of tea!! Today there were very few – at some points it
was as if we were all on our own.
Perfect!
It took us
a couple of hours to get back, and the sun was shining when we arrived. Time to relax in the sun – it doesn’t
actually go down until around 8.30pm so heavenly after a long day. Think there may be a few more of them coming
up………….
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