While eating lunch, we got our first look of a seal lazing about on an iceberg as we passed by; this was enough for me to get excited, crammed food into my mouth and rush down to the deck to see more of the scenery and wildlife. However, I was unaware that seeing seals on ice was something I would be getting a great deal of familiarity with over the next few days.

Experience

Just after lunch, we started traversing the Gullet in the ship. I stood, along with others, in the bow, swapping locations from side to side frequently.

We saw icebergs passing us as well as Crabeater seals, Humpback Whales and various birds. The incredible weather meant we were privileged to see incredible colours. The area was amazingly peaceful; the only sound was the sound of our engines. While it was cold, it was much less bitter than you would expect in the Antarctic; it was 5 degrees above zero.

On our left, we passed Tickle Island. I found the mountain on Tickle island was almost a perfect mountain in shape and snow cover; it could have come from a box of swiss chocolates.

As we dropped anchor, the crew decided this was the perfect location to serve us a creamy hot chocolate with Baileys for those who wanted it.

We loaded up into the zodiacs at something before three PM to explore the Gullet in more depth. By this point, the weather was calm, and the water was like glass. Ice floated on the surface with barely a ripple, and there was no sound other than the occasional roar of a zodiac motor. So the Kayakers headed out in absolute silence, enjoying a "Zen Ten" we later discovered. Ten minutes, alone, in silence with no paddling or noise, to truly engage with the environment.

Our zodiac prevented such silent meditation, but we cut the engines to drift up within a meter of a sleeping humpback whale. From time to very long time, the colossal creature would take a deep breath, raise above the water more, giving us a sense of just how massive the body below us was before blowing air and water out and sinking lower in the water once more. It was a remarkable experience to be so close to a sleeping whale.

All through the Gullet, Birds flew, often startlingly close to us, without fear of people.

Dozens of Crabeater Seals layout on icebergs and sea ice through the Gullet, all ignoring us as we motored along past them; a handful would look up at us in curiosity, but most remained asleep.

There were also Fur Seals sunning themselves separately to the Crabeater.

And most unusually, alone on their ice, two Leopard Seals rested. Leopard Seals are the most dangerous of the seal species in Antarctica and are the only seal that preys on other seals (or penguins if they can catch them).

Our final stop was coming close to an "Ice Castle", an iceberg with such shape and strangeness it looked constructed rather than something occurring naturally, shaped only by wind and water.

Perhaps our final view of wildlife as we returned to the boat was a Snow Petrel, white on the white snow. Beautiful in its simplicity.

After we returned to the ship, we continued through the final half of the Gullet and found out a bit more about how unusual it was to both take a zodiac out in it and even traverse it at all. Only two G Adventures trips have done this before. 2012 and 2018. We were the third in their companies history.

At six, we did a group photo to commemorate our travels. The resident photographer, Simon, took the picture from the viewing deck about the bow. A few of us stayed out on deck to the very end of the Gullet. The stunning scenery was just amazing—massive icebergs full of deep blues and bright white snow. The clouds slowly gathered over the Gullet as we reached the end. More and more seals on floes appeared as the light started to fade, and we found a spot to anchor.

After dinner, on route to the bow, I ran into one of the other travellers who had been out front and said the view was poor and the stern would be better. So we watched the sunset grow, initially just the light of the sun, then a few colours broke through the clouds and gave us some reds and purples.

Wildlife

Crabeater Seal

Fur Seal

Leopard Seal

Humpback Whale

Snow Petrel

Location

The Gullet is a thin body of water between the eastern edge of Adelaide Island and the west coast of Graham Land. Its descriptive name is comparatively recent, though Charcot discovered the location in 1909. We encountered a few fur seals playing in the water during our run to the Gullet just off of our port side and a few Minki whales in the distance.

67° 42' 42 S 64° 01’ 97 W

The Gullet