Hebridean Sky

Half Moon Island palls into insignificance against the glaciated shores of Livingstone Island, that is…until you reach its shore, where its peaks and ramparts of volcanic rock stand out clearly against the icy cliffs or low lying cloud. Wildlife is mainly found to the southern part of the crescent and consists mainly of Chinstrap penguins or Antarctic terns, Skuas and Kelp gulls nesting on the more prominent ramparts. Wilson’s storm petrels nest at the highest points as do black bellied storm petrels and cape petrels. Weddell seals are on the beaches and by late January Antarctic fur seals start to arrive, gradually taking over the beach area. There is also an Argentinian station here, open just in the summer months. More recently Camara Station has been used for research by ornithologists and geomorphologists.

Livingstone Island is the second largest of the South Shetland Islands and is rich in wildlife. The island also featured on the sealers' route but due to its tricky shape including 6 important peninsulas it was only finally mapped and surveyed in 2005. Tourists mainly visit the southern safer side of the island. Southern elephant seals - the largest seals in the world- reside/visit here, huddling together against the cold as do Antarctic fur seals. Gentoo, Chinstrap and Macaroni penguins nest here. Birds include Snowy sheathbill, Skua, Kelp gull, Cape Petrel, Southern giant petrel, Antarctic shag and Antarctic tern.

Deception Island is one of the most incredible islands on the planet. It is an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Its unique landscape comprises barren volcanic slopes, steaming beaches and ash-layered glaciers. It has a distinctive horse-shoe shape with a large flooded caldera. This opens to the sea through a narrow channel at Neptune's Bellows, forming a natural sheltered harbour. It is one of the only places in the world where vessels can sail directly into the centre of a restless volcano.

It earned the name of 'Deception' from the concealed horsehoe-shaped harbour. The volcano beneath it was formed 10,000 years ago but erupts still in modern times, with fissures and cones in the late 60s and in 1970 that destroyed UK and Chilean scientific bases. Seismic activity was also detected in 1992 but no eruption occurred. This volcanic activity probably accounts for fewer glaciers on the island than on other islands in the area.

Telefon Bay is a small bay on the north-west coast of Port Foster, Deception Island, in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It is surmounted by Telefon Ridge. The name appears on the chart of the French Antarctic Expedition under Charcot, 1908–10, and derives from the ship SS Telefon, which sat here awaiting repairs.

Points of interest include volcanic caldera, geothermal hot springs, scientific bases, extensive moss beds with the additional wildlife: Chinstrap penguin, Cape petrel, Antarctic fur seal, and Weddell seal, which is the most southerly of the Antarctic seals and lives mostly on fast ice.

Detaille Island is a small island off the northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica. A chance to set foot below the Circle? It was charted by the French Antarctic Expedition and named after M Detaille, a French resident of Punta Arenas and shareholder in the Magellan Wine Company, who assisted the expedition to obtain supplies at Deception Island. In 1944 the British Government established its first stations in the Antarctic as part of the wartime expedition known as Operation Tabarin. Its objectives were to deter access to anchorages by enemy ships and to strengthen Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands Dependencies. This provided the opportunity to undertake scientific work. From 1956 to 1959 Detaille Island was home to "Base W" of the British Antarctic Survey. The ice conditions became too extreme and the men abandoned the station in a hurry, when the annual supply ship arrived leaving everything exactly as it was - frozen in time!

No more than 50 visitors are allowed ashore here at any time, and only 12 inside the base.

The base at Horseshoe Island (Station Y) was established by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1955. This was part of the push to increase UK scientific activity ahead of International Geophysical Year, 1957-58, with a number of bases opened during this period. This included Anvers Island (Base N), also in Marguerite Bay, which was opened that same year. Horseshoe Island was primarily used for geology and survey, and provided meteorological observations that linked a chain of met stations. The combined survey task of Horseshoe Island and Detaille Island (Base W) was to establish a ground control network for the air photography being carried out by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE), 1955-57.

Lemaire Channel, illogically named after an African Belgian Explorer, is a dramatic deep fjord guarded by looming volcanic cliffs. Sufficiently narrow to be blocked by icebergs, take every advantage you can to enjoy the magnificent scenery. Leopard and crabeater seals enjoy chilling out on the ice floes. See if you can spot Gentoo penguins and Antarctic shags, humpback and Minke whales.

Along the eastern side of Andvord Bay, the sheer ice cliffs lining the coast are interrupted by a tiny rocky point called Neko Harbour. This is an excellent place for ice-cliff viewing. Ground space is hard to find here but it does not stop a small colony of Gentoo penguins nesting a good distance up the cliff. If you follow them please don’t step in their short legged “websteps” as this will make their icy climb more difficult. Perhaps a last stop on mainland Antarctica but beware straying too far. Extreme care should be taken due not only to hidden glacier crevasses but also huge waves created by falling ice. Other wildlife includes Snowy sheathbill, Skuas and Kelp gull.

Wilhelmina Bay, discovered and named after the Queen of the Netherlands by Adrien de Gerlache’s Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897 -99, when the latter made a valuable contribution to understanding the geography of the northwest coast of Graham Land. De Gerlache named the whole area Palmer Archipelago after the pioneering sealer and he himself was honoured with Gerlache Strait at the request of other expedition members. After sighting Alexander Island in February 1898 their ship became stuck in ice and they were forced to overwinter with great difficulty in the Bellingshausen Sea – the first men to do so in Antarctica. They eventually returned to Chile.