Jougla Point and Antarctic kayaking

Nic kayaking in Antarctica

In the afternoon, we were on the list for kayaking.  However as the wind had been quite strong, making the water a bit choppy, and as one of the people in the morning session had capsized, I figured I would be too nervous of, and therefore more likely to actually capsize myself, so I took my name off.

Nic did go though.  There was a group of about twenty people and he was in the back of a double kayak. They boarded them from the zodiac, which wasn't as rocky as he had expected. 

Antarctic iceberg

Unfortunately he couldn't find the rudder controls with his feet, so they just had to steer with the paddles, which made it a bit trickier when they had to avoid drifting bergy bits and bigger icebergs.

With only a couple of hours, they couldn't go that far, but they paddled around Goudier Island, close to the coast and past all of the penguins on land.

Leopard seal seen while kayaking

They were lucky to see a leopard seal jumping off a bit of ice in front of them.   Leopard seals are large carnivores that can be vicious if the mood takes them, and they have been known to have a go a the zodiacs, so it is as well that it decided to swim off while they were kayaking.

Antarctic ice

It was a tricky session at times, as it could be difficult to get through sea ice.  And when the wind turned very blowy and it started sleeting, it was difficult to turn the kayak, but they had to do so quickly to avoid an iceberg drifting in their path.  A few times, they had to just stay still to keep the kayak centered to avoid  getting an unscheduled dip in the icy water.


Nic was happy that he had been kayaking in Antarctica, and seeing the leopard seal was great, but as he said, in the main they didn't get far or see anything new, so I decided it wasn't worth the risk of falling in, and he decided it wasn't something he wanted to do again unless there were something especially good to see that you couldn't otherwise get to.



While Nic was off kayaking, I did the shore landing at Jougla Point.
This is on the main island near to the base, but is uninhabited - except of course by the penguins. 



On shore there is a reconstructed whale skeleton, and some other remnants from the days when the whalers were there, which gives the penguins some things to poke around.



They seem to like to have a few objects that they can jump on and peck at; it's sometimes like they use them as part of a game.  And that appears to include us sometimes as well.

I took advantage of others going off on a hike to wander around the point on my own and spend time watching the penguins.  You will hear about me doing that a lot during this trip, but the general consensus amongst most of our fellow passengers was that you just can't get bored watching penguins.

That is as long as you watch them properly.  Some do just sit around for ages, but especially with the gentoos, if you pick out a few of the more lively ones to watch for a while, you will soon become fascinated by them. 

One of the things that you will often see are the chicks chasing their parent around for a meal.  The chick is bigger than the adult at this stage, so it is funny to watch the chase and the parent telling the chick off for keep pestering it.

I also have a fascination for seeing their little footprints in the snow.  Whilst the idea may not be entirely pleasant, it always looked good when you could see the footprints better because they had been walking in the guano too.

As I was walking around, the weather, which had been windy but reasonable up until now, decided that it was time to remind us that we were in Antarctica, and suddenly turned very cold and started raining and sleeting.

I was very glad of my multiple layers.  I pulled my jacket hood up and tight around my face and did like the penguins do; I found a big rock to shelter behind and turned my back to the wind until the worst of it passed.  I also felt a little bit sorry for Nic out in his kayak.


Back on board, dinner tonight was an Antarctic barbecue.  The chef and his team provided an excellent meal out on the back deck.  Some of the guests collected their food but took it back into the dining room. We were having none of that. We wrapped up warm again and ate out on deck. It was a fun evening, though eventually the cold Antarctic wind set in and we all headed inside.

Pucon and kayaking

For our next day in Pucon, we had arranged to go kayaking. Our Antarctica trip may give us the opportunity to do some sea kayaking to get up closer to the glaciers, so we figured it might be an idea to get some practice.

We arranged a lesson on the lake, but only after I had been absolutely clear that I wouldn't be doing any of this capsize drill stuff, as I have no intention of voluntarily putting myself under the water. So I wasn't too happy when the instructor said the first thing we would be dn was just that. Refused point blank and after a few attempts to persuade me, and me telling him I had been capsized in a canoe once and got out of that OK, he gave in.

We weren't in sea kayaks, but in white water river kayaks. The diffence being that whereas sea kayaks are intended to go in a straight line, these things turn at the drop of a hat. The instructor warned us that we would spend much of our day turning in circles and he wasn't wrong. But he showed us how to use different strokes to keep in a straight line, and we persevered, and gradually we got a bit better. However there is a point in a white water kayak where, unless you are somewhat more experienced that we are, it is not a good idea to fight the turn, you have to just go with it, and carry on again afterwards. The trick is learning which is which.

Sadly, part way through the afternoon session, I discovered I hadn't yet learned the difference and overturned. What was undoubtedly only a matter of seconds felt like an eternity as I pulled off my splash deck, released myself from under the kayak and got myself back to the surface. The instruction was there to help me, but it was still some while before the panic subsided and I could regain control of my breathing! The instructor towed me and my upside down kayak to the shore and once we had both managed to negotiate our way up the very slippery rocks onto solid ground, we emptied out the kayak, got back in and carried on.

Strangely, my paddling after the capsize was better than it was before, and we were doing OK until we started to round the headland and we had the waves to contend with, especially as the wind was getting up pretty strongly too. Before long, Nic and I were both turning in circles all the time. Me in particular, as having gone in once, I wasn't taking any chances and was tending to be rather overcautious about it. We soon realised that going right around the headland wasn't the best idea and we should go back the way we had come instead.

We still had to contend with some reasonable currents and winds, as well as huge great flies that kept trying to bite us and some seabirds that weren't happy that we were paddling past their nest, but we got there in the end. Tired and aching, we dragged the kayaks on shore and collapsed into the van for the drive back. Both of us agreed that a beer was definitely in order! Some after sun was also needed as we had both managed to burn despite having put sun screen on?

On the way back into town we spotted an old friend, Cameron the Dragoman truck that we were on from BsAs to La Paz. She was empty, so we checked with the hostel she was parked outside who the crew were, but it wasn't the people we had had before.

The next couple of days we took it easy. Nic had hoped to try to climb the volcano (I was going to sit and drink hot chocolate, eat cakes and read a book instead), but the weather had turned which meant he couldn't go. In the end, we had the first real rain that we have had since Bogota, and ended up just chilling out at the hostel for one day, and in town the next.

Overall we quite liked Pucon. It is a great place to sit out with a drink or a meal and just watch people passing by. And we did quite a bit of that, but we also did a few more energetic things as well.