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... continued
After a few minutes, I was attracting quite a crowd - at least 40 penguins. I had to just sit and soak up the atmosphere for 10 minutes - then whip out the camera(s) and burn some film and flatten some batteries ! After about two hours and a few 100 photo's later, a large band of mist approached and within 10 minutes the whole colony was covered. Nature had drawn the curtain - but what a show it had been!. I walked back to the Hagg thinking that I had to come back when the sea ice re-freezes and a new round of Emperor penguins are conceived, born, brought up and fledged. The Emperor penguin does it's breeding cycle through winter - and during summer the colony is just a mix of water and ice bergs. At 2pm we headed back Mawson via Macey Island Hut through the mist.. For the whole trip I reflected over what an amazingly mind expanding day I had had - a high on the drug called Antarctica.
back to part 1, part 2, part 3
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We
walked from where we parked the Hagg & the Quads down to the
main colony. The colony was situated in a natural amphitheatre made
from grounded icebergs. It well shielded from the Katabatic winds
which constantly blow off the continent and across the ice. As I
approached the colony, the sound of the birds calling echoed off
the walls of the bergs forming the amphitheatre and I could see
in the distance a sea of black specks. Deep down I knew I was about
to see something special - so special and beautiful that I was never
to forget it. There are no words, pictures or sounds that can adequately
describe the feeling of being at Auster. I guess I could drop a
few superlatives here and there but it would not be the same. The
photo above is of the main rookery - with curious penguins wandering
up to have a look. 
