This visit to Volunteers Point was made very late in the season. The usual time to accept the challenge of this significant off-road drive is during the Summer. As the year draws into Autumn the ground gets wetter and more unforgiving. A convoy of 4 Land Rover Defenders and 1 Land Rover Discovery set off to accept the challenge. Several vehicles got 'bogged' in the wet ground that day (the Discovery had to be retreived 14 times - but I won't embarass the unlucky driver!!).
The King Penguin colony was still in full flow (with plenty of chicks at various stages of development) and the regurgative feeding process was greatly in evidence. The Gentoo colony consisted almost exclusively of adolescent birds awaiting their first migration. As can be seen, the ground around the Gentoo colony was covered with the moult feathers of the maturing gentoos as they waited for their adult plumage. A solitary, reclusive Jackass penguin was also still in residence in the burrow he or she had occupied over the Summer.
