West Point Island

The original blog for this was text only so here are some photos to go with the earlier text posted on 27th October

The landing stage at Carcass Island

 A view of the farm on Carcass from the landing stage

 The Condor that would take us to West Point

 The captain, Shane on board, his deck hand Kiki on the right and Rob's grandson, Ben on the left.

 A view of West Point

 The Black Browed Albatross colony with a number of Rockhoppers nesting in the same place

 The sign behind Fran read no access beyond this point but the albatross snuck up behind her and walked right past and ignored the sign.

 Identity crisis! A penguin has claimed an unoccupied albatross nest for itself.

 There are fights occasionally and despite the difference in size, reach, power and position, these two Rockhoppers took on the albatross that they thought was to near to their nest.

 An albatross egg

 There may be no roads on West Point but they still have dual carriageways.

 A view of the harbour

 Some views of the farmhouse and its gardens which were delightful after just grass covering all the hills about.

The two leopard seals on the beach

 The brave Magellanic Penguins exiting the sea just a few metres away from the Leopard Seals for whom they are a staple diet.

 We drifted in closer but still the Leopard seals didn't seem to want to move.

 It starte raining so some of us stayed below whilst the others got wet at the bow. But then we missed the dolphin. They often came and race along side the boat but today they were more interested in fishing than playing.

 I didn't want to get my camera wet but this was the only photo taken during the rain, one of me holding on for dear life as the boat pitched and yawed.