Deception Island

This was a great spot to hike and get up close to the whaling history in Antarctica. We walked around the small bay and up to Peter’s Pillars viewpoint. Some of the ladies took advantage of the Hurtigruten support to go for a polar bear swim. Seals were kept at a distance for safety and we had to carry sticks in case we needed to give them a distraction.

Our second stop in Antarctica is on Deception Island, an ACTIVE VOLCANO, with a flooded caldera. The island is 12km x 12km, the inner Caldera is 9km x 6km. Access to the harbor is through a 200m wide entrance known as Neptune’s Bellows, so named for the winds that howl through it. There is a rock in the middle just under the water and the area to one side is foul so the ship just has 100m with which to navigate. Our landing spot is Whalers Bay, a small harbor immediately to the northeast after passing through Neptune’s Bellows. The Bay includes a semi-circular, gently sloping ash beach, approximately 2km in length. Key features are a historic Site and Monument No. 71, including a) the remains of the Norwegian Hektor Whaling Station (1912-1931), b) the site of the Whaler’s Cemetery and other whaling remains along the beach, c) the abandoned British ‘Base B’ (1944-1969), d) Neptune’s Window (A collapse of Cathedral Crags on the south-eastern side of Whalers Bay), and e) Ronald Hill. Both the base and the station were destroyed by a mudslide during an eruption that lasted from 1967-1969. Our landing has a good walking opportunity, up to Neptune’s Bellows or along to the old base airstrip. There is the polar plunge for anyone that wants it as the waters are as warm as they will be likely to get due to Kroner Lake, a geo-thermally heated lagoon. We have a mix of snow flurries and the scenery changes dramatically from black and white to colorful depending on how the clouds break and the direction one is facing when the sun shows. There are a lot of muted to bright browns here, as a result of the iron from the eruptions. As I walked up to Neptune’s Window, the ground looked very Mars like with a patch of rusty brown ground. In Juxtaposition, there is an out of bounds growth of greenery/moss where the fur seals seem to be hanging out. After the landing we cruise the inner caldera and check out a few eruption craters before heading back out of Neptune’s Bellows.

It was named it "Deception Island" because of its deceptive appearance as a normal island. It is really a ring around a flooded caldera, site of an active volcano.

We were sailing through and within the Deception Island during our expedition to Antarctica. It was a gloomy day with fog and clouds being very close to the water. An eerie site which feels like end of the earth, what a magic. Deception Island, part of the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, is a horseshoe-shaped volcanic caldera famous for its unique geology and history. The island served as a whaling station in the early 20th century and later as a scientific research base. Its volcanic activity, including eruptions in 1967 and 1969, has left a stark, surreal landscape with steaming beaches and fumaroles. You can see abandoned whaling relics, glaciers, and colonies of chinstrap penguins.

Deception Island is a small island in the Bransfield Strait, 620 miles / 1,000km south of Ushuaia, Argentina. It is close to Antarctic Peninsula but is in South Shetland Islands. This island is the caldera of an active volcano. Waking up to a rather overcast skies, I went to the bow and took some videos. As we sail into Whalers Bay, the scenery is even more beautiful and tranquil. It did perk me up - for more than two weeks on the ship, I was a little weary. I would love to go kayaking one more time but it was canceled due to the weather. By 10:20am, the wind was picking up, that forced us to return to the ship earlier than planed.

The site's historical significance cannot be underestimated, as it encompasses the structural remains from the whaling period - among them giant, rusted tanks tilted at cubistic angles, boilers, and a grounded dock - as well as the shelters for the British mapping activities of 1944-1969 and a cemetery where 35 individuals are interred, and ten lost at sea are memorialized. The sense of history, combined with the incredible geology, juxtaposes the timeline of human activities - both destructive and exploratory - against the timelessness of the earth.

Beautiful place with lots of Penguins.

Great food, very friendly people there. I recommend going there in spring as there are less people around and the colors are beautiful. Very rich in history as well, will definitely visit again some time