Danco Island is our last stop on the Antartica Peninsula and like the first, just on a week ago, it is on an island with a Gentoo colony. More penguins!

The map shows where we are (7), as well as the previous stops we have made in these parts.

The landing spot has a lot less snow than the others we have stopped at, the path leads uphill from the shore in a series of S bends to get to the Gentoo colony. A bit slippery in spots and some of our group had a couple of falls. Not easy going particularly downhill.

In the morning we had another Special Operations Boat (SOB) outing and took in the sights of the surrounding waters.

We had some whale encounters and were entertained by a ‘raft’ of penguins beside the SOB. Leanne secured another great video of the show and we got a still shot of one of them in ‘flight’.

‘Raft’ is the collective noun for a group of penguins in the water, a ‘waddle’ is a group of penguins walking on land, a ‘huddle’ is a group keeping warm together. Rookeries and colonies are where penguins gather to breed and rest.

Back on board the Octantis for lunch in Mamsens, the Nordic buffet. They had a rather good split pea soup and a range of open sandwiches.

Allthego liked the cheese and capsicum on rye bread as well as the roast beef, red onion, pickles and capers on white bread with a tangy tartare sauce.

After lunch we went ashore on a zodiac to checkout the penguins.

There were a lot of penguin chicks around and the parents were carefully guarding them from dangers. Leanne chose not to do the climb up to the rookery but instead pottered on the shoreline among the penguins coming in and out of the water.

The trek up the snowy path was ok and there were some great views looking back down to fellow trekkers and to the ship offshore.

Here are some random shots of the inhabitants.

Hard to pull ourselves away and make the zodiac trip back to the ship. We now have two days at sea making it back across the Drake Passage to Ushuaia. The captain has advised we will also encounter some rough seas on the way!