Mawlers’ Big Adventure ’06:

The Mawlers Go Bi-polar

Jougla Point 12/12/06

After Port Lockroy, Lea Ann hopped a Zodiac to Jougla Point. By the time we headed that way, the weather was taking a turn for the worse, and the light was rapidly disappearing... If you don't like the weather in Antarctica, just wait a minute.

Jougla is a little piece of island right around the corner from Port Lockroy. It, too, has a Gentoo colony, but Lea Ann quickly found another attraction of the island -- whale bones.

Amanda explained that the whale was likely a blue whale because of its size, and that the bones had been here probably 70 or 80 years.

Okay, let me just explain the size thing. This whale skeleton was freaking huge. Each individual vertebra was taller than Lea Ann. There were other random bones that stood two or three times as tall as a person, and the head of the thing was gargantuan. I'm pretty sure that the whale was longer than my house.

As an added bonus, from Jougla, we could view the galavanters on Doumer Island, but I digress...

The chicks were out in full force on Jougla, too, so there was no shortage of picture fodder. By the time we headed back for the ship, we were all pretty much frozen. The wind had picked up and it had started to snow once again. But, pictures of chicks were waiting to be viewed, so it was okay...

The Three Stooges were here to welcome Lea Ann to Jougla Point.
It would appear that someone has been here... hmm... who could it be?
And wow, were there ever a whole bunch of healthy penguin chicks here!

This is a nice parent-child series...
...feeding the little nest rat...
...and generally checking up on the chick.

But all is not necessarily well in penguin-ville. The Skuas fly in, creating panic in the penguins.

The Skuas live on several things, but they really like penguin eggs, so you can understand their concern.

Here is the huge whale skeleton. See it? There, behind the penguin.
The skeleton is really huge and the penguin does not do it justice for scale comparison.
Those are vertebrae, remember.

The skeleton extending out through the snow.
A penguin explorer shuffles off in the distance.
The skull almost looks alive...

That is a huge bone sticking up into the air there...
...in this picture, there is a person standing just behind the bone (bottom left side of the bone) and they are standing right next to it, not several meters/yards away!
The contrast of the shape of the bones with the mountains in the distance really captured Lea Ann's eye.

A focus on a whale vertebra.
The marrow makes a great pattern close up.
The bones have amazing texture too. Again, all three of these are huge... Did we mention huge?

An artistic parting shot of the bones.

The previous installment:
Port Lockroy Parade of Penguin Pictures

The next installment:
A Climbing We Will Go!


The Three Stooges were here to welcome Lea Ann to Jougla Point.	It would appear that someone has been here... hmm... who could it be?	And wow, were there ever a whole bunch of healthy penguin chicks here!


This is a nice parent-child series...	...feeding the little nest rat...	...and generally checking up on the chick.


But all is not necessarily well in penguin-ville. The Skuas fly in, creating panic in the penguins.		The Skuas live on several things, but they really like penguin eggs, so you can understand their concern.


Here is the huge whale skeleton. See it? There, behind the penguin.	The skeleton is really huge and the penguin does not do it justice for scale comparison.	Those are vertebrae, remember.


The skeleton extending out through the snow.	A penguin explorer shuffles off in the distance.	The skull almost looks alive...


That is a huge bone sticking up into the air there...	...in this picture, there is a person standing just behind the bone (bottom left side of the bone) and they are standing right next to it, not several meters/yards away!	The contrast of the shape of the bones with the mountains in the distance really captured Lea Ann's eye.


A focus on a whale vertebra.	The marrow makes a great pattern close up.	The bones have amazing texture too. Again, all three of these are huge... Did we mention huge?


	An artistic parting shot of the bones.


The previous installment: Port Lockroy Parade of Penguin Pictures	The next installment: A Climbing We Will Go!