Penguins

We travelled through the flat Patagonian landscape from Puerto Madryn in Argentina to the Punta Tombo penguin reserve. This is the home of the largest colony of magellanic penguins in South America. Thousands of these cheeky penguins burrow into the ground to make their nests.

We pass the old Welsh town of Gaiman, where traditional Welsh tea houses dot the landscape. The first Welsh settlers thought they would be settling in a vast fertile valley and could establish a new country called South Wales. Arriving in 1865, they discovered that the Argentinians were having none of it. In a further disappointment the valley turned out to be not very large nor fertile.

As we drive through mile after mile of flat scrubland, we see a huge dinosaur rising in the distance. This celebrates the discovery of the bones of the largest dinosaur in the world in 2012.

We had prepared ourselves for what we had been told would be one of the hottest days so far with a burning sun and soaring temperatures. The endless journey continued and John says he thought he saw a streak of lightening hit the ground then dismissed this as his imagination. Then Eva thought she saw a flash of light. As we progressed we noticed storm clouds and more streaks of lightening as a dramatic electric storm developed ahead of us.

As we arrive at the penguin rookery, the heavens open in a downpour of biblical dimensions. The lightening now hits the ground in the surrounding scrubland every 15 seconds like bolts of fire from an angry god. So much for the hottest day! We are now wrapped in our fleeces and waterproofs!

So, it's raining, the lightening seems to be aiming at us and we are told that the penguin rookery is now closed due to the risk from the storm. The irony is not lost on us that we have been told to shelter under a metal roof building.

Finally the storm stops and we walk amongst the thousands of penguins. We were lucky enough to be here when the baby penguins have developed into teenagers and are nearly at the stage of leaving their parents to make their own way in the world. Interestingly, theses penguins return to the same nest year after year to mate with the same partner.

This day was a truly amazing experience, as we walked amongst these cute penguins, just feet away as they carried on their normal lives and had no fear of humans as this was penguin territory and we were the visitors.