Antarctic Fox - Day 9: Dallmann Butt Sliding

The log of Rachel and Kevin Fox's trip to the Antarctic Peninsula in the Summer of 2008-9

Day 9: Dallmann Butt Sliding

January 3 - Dallmann Bay, the Antarctic Peninsula

Last excursion of the day and everyone was beat from the two earlier events on top of our regular constant on the go. So when this third opportunity came up only about half the family went out. Kevin opted for rest and stayed at home. I on the other hand dragged myself out as usual because I just couldn't conceive of missing anything no matter how tired I was. You just never know what you might find.

This time our stop was the Melchior Islands in the center of Dallmann Bay. There was a group of nesting gentoo penguins here, a beautiful glacier and a rather large hill to climb and slide down. The sliding down was not so easy for me. I am pretty much a big chicken when it comes to these things and it took a lot of encourangement and goading and patience from Rob before I gave myself a push and slid down the steep slope on my butt. It was fun, but I shrieked a lot!! Overall a beautiful and fun stop for streching your legs and enjoying the penguins.

Shades of Blue - The view in Dallmann Bay - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Hi Joe! - Hi Carl! Bye Joe Bye Carl Gentoo penguins. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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A Nest With A View - These gentoos are nesting on rocks over looking a beautiful glacier edge. Here we are seeing the top of the glacier where the snow has covered it in layers and is buckling in crevices from different breaks and movements. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Cracked - Close up of the creaks created in the top layers of snow on this glacier. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Cloud Topped Hill - This is the hill. Little did I know when I was taking this shot, that it would not be long before I was on top of this hill, looking down, being goaded to jump! ;) - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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The Glacier - Beautiful view of the glacier here from a higher vantage point. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Penguin Highway - The indentations in the snow made by the paths the penguins take back and forth between their nests and the water. Why do they pave the roads in pink you ask? Well because krill, their main food, is pink. And no one has yet built pit stops on these highways. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Glacial Face - Tilt your head to the left and see the glacier smiling back at you. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Upward - Us climbing this hill in Dallmann bay. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Layers - Layers of cracks in the snow on top of the glacier. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Dallmann Bay - View from the top of the hill, at least as far as I was going to climb. The little red shed down below is where many of the penguins are nesting. All the little black specks are them. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Little Glacier - View of the glacier from above. It is really lovely. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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JUMP - View of Rob from above! He is trying to get me to slide down the hill. Have I ever mentioned I'm a big old chicken. This was really far and I was rather scared. I did it, but not without a lot of hesitation and goading from Rob. Unfortunately I don't think I ever got the video from him. :( - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Butt Slide Video Style! - Brian sliding down the hill video camera in hand. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Side Skid - Patricia sliding down the hill rather chaotically! - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Woo Hoo - Nathan enjoying his slide immensely. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Butt Slide - Tim reaching the end of his hill slide. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Snow In The Boots - Brian getting the snow out of his boots that made its way in during his slide down the hill. Unfortunately this was not the worst spot we all got snow. Most of us were turning the backs of our pants inside out as well. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Deep Snow Hiking - We slide about halfway back down, but the other half wasn't steep enough so we had to walk the rest of the way. You will notice the one person stuck in the snow to the top of their legs at least. This was a common problem when hiking in Antarctica. Sometimes you could get out on your own. Sometimes you went so far in someone else had to help you out. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Hello Baby - Baby penguin and parent in the Dallmann bay of Antarctica. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Glacial Backdrop - Nesting penguins with a beautiful view of the glacier behind them. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Bathtime - Often before going fishing the penguins will just swim and roll around a bit in the shallow waters to clean themselves off. It's a messy job being a parent! - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Water Walking - It's Jesus... I mean Rob! - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Antarctic Baths - Many many gentoo penguins enjoying a bath on the shore and socializing on the beach... until... - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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As we were leaving we noticed a Weddell seal soaking just off the coast. It was cute! Apparently the peguins could not tell it was a Weddell though, or were not willing to chance it because as soon as it headed toward the end of the beach where they were bathing and lounging they all took off for higher grounds. Not that I blame them, it is good to stay alive!

Run Away - Not a leopard seal, so they are in no danger but this weddell seal seems to have driven them off the beach anyway. I love the whole group running up into the penguin highway as fast as they can. - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Rush Hour - It's the home from fishing rush. Everyone is going up the hill and home! - Photo by Rachel Lea Fox
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Exhausted, we come to the end of Day 9. We couldn't believe time had gone by so fast or that there were only three days left. We were having the most amazing time of our lives and yet we were getting to the point we were starting to look forward to going home too. But lets not get ahead of ourselves, there are still a few more adventures to be had. The first one starting tomorrow when we make a detour from our plan because Rachel said she wanted to see Elephant seals. Elephant seals are not all we got...

Read the next chapter: Day 10: Birthday Whales

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