Photo album: "We walked on the sea!"

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You can't walk on the sea everywhere, but in the Antarctic during winter it is a normal thing to do, when the ice is thick enough, to widen your horizon. If you take the necessary precautions it is not very dangerous. First of all, the weather must be fine, this is a very important thing. You must be cautious because the weather can change very quickly. Second, you have to advise the responsible person that your are leaving the base and tell him where you intend to go. Third, you must not go away alone and it is better for everyone of the party to be tied together with a rope, in case someone falls in a hole hidden under the snow. Finally, it is preferable to have a radio link with the base, in case a problem happens. During winter, days are short, therefore the walk should take place around noon.

Walking on the sea, you can admire an iceberg from close.

You can even discover a cave under the iceberg!

The closer one, Jean-Pierre (Racea), the second one, André (Magne), and in the back Dumont d'Urville base on Pétrels island.

From time to time André calls the base to say the walk is proceeding without problems.

Me, on the left, and André who hanged his hat up the radio antenna.

Near an iceberg or an island the pack ice brakes up in different plates. Jean-Pierre lie down to take a photo near what we call in French "une rivière" (a river), it doesn't seem more than a brook, but it is nonetheless dangerous if it is hidden under the snow. These rivers can be found between two plates even far away from any iceberg or island.

We can see that this small iceberg has fallen on one side because the flat visible side should have been on the underside. However, some parts of the iceberg have, slowly, melt down and it found itself unbalanced and tilted to one side.

In this place, two plates, pushed by tempests, have collided and their broken edges have piled up.

A hole in the ice made and maintained by a seal. This hole allows it to get outside to breathe and to rest on the ice and also to go back into the water to feed. Such a hole, if hidden under a soft snow cover would be dangerous for a man walking on the ice.

And this is the owner of the hole! A Weddell seal. Let us walk nearer to see it.

The seal is asleep on the ice. Let us try and go nearer without awaken it. The Weddell seal is the only mammal we can encounter during winter near our base. It is quite common a seal, all around the Antarctic continent, it can grow 3-metre long and can weigh about 400 kg.

It feeds on fishes, cephalopods and other marine animals. It is capable of remaining more than forty minutes underwater without breathing and can dive to a depth of 600 metres… It was not sleeping very deeply and it heard us coming.

"Let me sleep at peace, who permitted you to disturb me?"

Let us go a little nearer while it is regaining its breath.

"This time you are going too far, really! I show you my teeth!". We went away in order not to disturb it any longer.

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