We had an early morning on Friday 13th as the ship sailed around to Saunders Island in West Falkland.
The weather was not promising with a light drizzle coming down all around us — but we soldiered on because the day promised four types of penguins!
We had breakfast and then were quick to get into the zodiac and taken across to the beach.
As we’re no longer in Antarctica there’s no need to limit the number of people on the landing to 100.
Zodiacs zipped back and forth rapidly.
We landed at The Neck which is a thin strip of land, a beach on either side, that has a large hill to the right and another large hill to the left.
We set off to the right and were immediately blessed with a sighting of hundreds of Gentoo Penguins sitting on the beach.
We walked on a bit further and then saw a small group of beautiful King Penguins.
I think they’re the closest I’m ever going to get to Emperor Penguins.
Not only were there adult King Penguins but there was also chicks too (they’re completely covered in brown down, kind of like a warm onesie) and one adult was even holding an egg!
They were a definite highlight in a trip of highlights.
One of the chicks didn’t seem to have a supervising adult so kept moving to other adults wanting food, only to be chased away.
We’re hoping that their parent was just out getting some food, probably taking a moment for some peace and quiet as well.
We then went upwards, seeing Magellanic Penguins in their burrows, sheep grazing on the grass and unperturbed by anything, then reached the end point where Black-browed Albatrosses were sitting on their nests.
Most were juveniles but they’re pretty cool. And they’re huge.
On the way back, we saw Rockhopper Penguins (and cormorants), bringing our penguin species count for the day to four.
That makes it six across the trip: Gentoo, Magellanic, Chinstrap, Adélie, King, and Rockhopper. Add Little Penguins and Galapagos Penguins and I’ve seen eight of the at least 16 penguin species (some say there are up to 22…).
We walked along the beach next, stopping for crossing penguins, swimming penguins, lying down penguins, penguins that sit on rocks.
So many penguins (and all Gentoo on this stretch).
It was getting close to lunchtime and we’d seen everything we wanted to see so we caught the zodiac back to the ship and went for lunch.
A nap followed, plus some lectures (including one about the ship’s galleys). I went to the gym, Glen went to the conference, and then we went for dinner.
(All we seem to do is eat on this trip.)
After dinner, we went upstairs to the bar where there was a bit of a celebration for one of the doctors whose birthday it was.
This involved a magic show by an ophthalmologist, piano recital by another doctor, and then some singing from a few people (including me who sang Piano Man), as well as another medley from a dentist, and an aborted attempt at doing the Nutbush.
It was all a lot of fun. I went to bed at 11:30.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?