This really is one place in the entire world you have to visit before you die, you can forget Europe or Africa or Asia or anywhere else for that matter and come to Antarctica first. Then and only then can you start picking the rest off. The question is not 'Can I afford to go?' but rather 'can I afford NOT to go??' There are no superlatives to describe this place, no photo or video or painting that will truely capture the beauty and majesty of this ice kingdom winter wonderland. How to describe being surrounded by snow covered mountains intersected by glaciers flowing down to the ice covered sea, the quietness of the ocean with not a ripple on the surface except that created by jumping penguins in between floating ice castles, the beautiful floating blue, green and white icebergs, some as small as a dinner plate and others much bigger than the ship, some with the occasional seal lounging on it or a couple of penguins. If you listen carefully you can hear the soft snap, crackle & pop of ancient air bubbles being released back into the atmosphere after being trapped for centuries in the glacial ice that has finally hit the sea. The sound of a loud crack or boom could be the clue of a large amount of ice about to calve off and fall into the sea & is a little disturbing but at the same time exciting as you wait in hope to be looking in the right direction at the right time. Humpback whales lie docilely beside the ship, blowing out every now and then, slowly submerging then floating back up occasionally letting out a deep whale call and that was just today. I am completely blown away by this place, just can't believe what I am seeing every time I look out the window or stand on the cold deck, polar winds brushing passed my face, freezing my cheeks as I look at 90 metre ice cliffs and sea ice floating all around like clouds but on the surface of the sea. They have some crazy sculptures and just like clouds you can make out faces and animals or anything your imagination can conjure up. Just a couple of days ago was our first bit of excitement when the first iceberg floated passed our cabin window. We squealed with delight, since then there have been far to many to count but each one, especially when they are bigger than a bus is just as exciting.
Going back to Ushuaia, we flew in on a cold cloudy day, it had been snowing earlier on and as our plane broke through the low cloud base we were thrilled to see the snow capped mountains just beside us, was such a surprise and down below we could see the beagle channel and I saw a red and white ship. I recognised it from the photos I had of the one we were going on and said to Jon, look - that's our ship. Turns out I was right, always nice when that happens. It was bitter cold that night, we went out to the Irish pub to have a late meal. It was a welcome warm place from the chill outside and it had started to rain which made it even colder. Turns out the warmth was the best thing about this place, there was no Guinness, no Irish music and no Irish food just pizzas and pasta and local beer. A fake Irish pub as one of the staff said.
The next day we went down to the docks and there was our ship, waiting for us to board. We had almost the whole day to fill in so we went for a ride on a tourist bus for an hour, saw a couple of museums, looked at the shops and had a wonderful king crab lunch. Finally it was time to board. I have had three moments on this trip, one was when I first saw Machu Picchu, one when I stood beside Christ the Redeemer and the last was standing on the top deck of the ship, just before we sailed thinking what an adventure we are just about to have.
We had feared that our crossing across the Drake passage might be violent and took the good Drs advice (nice guy from Nelson) and had our seasickness pills before going to bed. I never knew that they were a preventative and not a curative so if you are sea sick it's too late to take the pills. At least we slept well that night but our fears weren't realised and instead of being the Drake Shake it was the Drake Lake. The crossing was so smooth that it only took just over a day to make it across instead of the expected 2 days so by the afternoon of the second day we were making our first landing, a real bonus.
It is a bit of a drama to get dressed for the zodiac landings. As well as the several layers of clothes you have on like in my case, being a hater of the cold I have on a pair of tights then my merino thermal then trousers, for the top is a next to skin top, then a thermal then a fleece. In the mud room we put on extra socks, our gumboots, waterproof pants, polar jacket, scarf, couple of hats, gloves x2 layers, top one being waterproof, then a life jacket. Once all dressed you discover that your ship card that you need to swipe on and off the ship with is in the inside pocket of your trousers or your sunnies are in an inside pocket so off come the layers to fish around to retrieve them. It's quite a process. Then we had to walk through a disinfectant bath, swipe off the ship and get down into the zodiacs for the ride to shore. Once there it's all worthwhile.
Our first landing was on a couple of islands called Barrientos and Cecilia which are in the Aitcho Island group of the South Shetlands. I felt like I had landed in the middle of a David Attenborough documentary. We landed on a rocky beach on Barrientos island and just close by were a couple of elephant seals lounging on the beach and Gentoo & chinstrap penguins running around. There were several nesting areas of the penguins, most had eggs and some had very small chicks who were tentatively poking their heads out from between their parents feet and peering out into the world. The noise was amazing with all their squabbling and calling but the smell was overpowering. Cute but very stinky penguins. The snow is very stained with a reddish/pink colour and it appears they have no preference where they defecate. They were sitting on nests elaborately built with rocks and stones piled high and every penguin was a thief. They would run around and steal stones from other nests and while they brought them back and were congratulating each other with such a fine rock, another penguin from behind would be pinching one of theirs.
More ominous were the big Skua birds that would fly around very low over the rookeries searching for unattended eggs or baby birds and when they saw one, took no time to snatch it and fly away. We saw a couple of Skua's making a nest almost beside one of the penguin rockeries, as someone put it, building a home next to the supermarket.
We were given strict rules about visiting these places like keeping away from the wildlife, giving them space if they came near and don't block the penguin highways. The penguins use certain routes to get around like from their nests to the sea or to other nesting sites and they become their highways. Some are so well trodden that they are quite deep so all you can see is the penguins head bobbing along.
They also don't appear to have a plan B, if something is blocking their usual route they appear very confused and don't know what to do. Decision making isn't one of their strong points so they stand there trying to decide what to do next.
Cecilia Island was different, not as many penguins but we were greeted by a Weddell seal lying on the beach around which the team had staked flags to ensure we didn't venture too near him. There was deep snow here so we had to be careful to stick close to the path they had staked out otherwise we found ourselves sinking knee deep into the snow. Jon gave up halfway up the slope as it was killing his sore foot so I went a bit further to take a photo of the ship in the bay before trudging back to the landing spot to go back to the boat.
That night it was announced that we were to visit Palmer Station, the only American research centre above the Antarctic circle, the following day. There was much excitement but the significance went over our head until they explained that to visit this station you had to go into the lottery and only 6 ships are chosen per year. They then have to say what day of the year they will visit and if, for some reason, you can't make that very day then you lose out. There are so many reasons why the ship might not make it, a lot is weather dependant and after seeing the conditions down here I can understand how risky this is. They hadn't announced it earlier as they still weren't sure we could make it and even down to the last couple of hours they still weren't sure. In fact, there was so much sea ice around, the station wasn't expecting us to make it through and were very surprised to see us.
Anyway, going back to the start of the day we were told to be prepared to get up by 4.30am as it could be a spectacular start if we were lucky. I set the alarm and woke up way earlier than this but on looking out of the window all I could see was fog so we curled up for another couple of hours sleep. We were casually sitting on our beds looking out the window a bit later thinking there was nothing to see when suddenly, silently drifting past our window was this enormous iceberg, our first one. Holy crap we yelled and grabbed our jackets and scarfs to zip up to the decks in record time.
The fog was starting to lift and we got our first view of the snow covered mountains of Antarctica and to say it was stunning just does not describe it. We were sailing down the Neumeyer Channel which has been described as 'some of the most exquisite scenery on Earth'. To take a photo you can only capture part of the picture but imagine being completely surrounded by snow covered, tall craggy mountains, icebergs floating past of all shapes and sizes and sea fog descending and lifting again to reveal the most stunning scenery you have ever seen in your life. It is very eerie to stand on deck with the fog very thick all around with icebergs looming out of the mist, passing the ship then disappearing again behind us. Lucky this ship has sonar otherwise we could be another titanic.
About an hour before we reached the station we could see ahead a line of sea ice and when we reached it that was the only thing we could see ahead, thick ice lying on top of the sea. It was very exciting to hang over the bow (we really have the run of the ship and can go most places, even the Bridge on most days) and watch the ship smash into the ice, crushing it to pieces and hearing the loud booms as it hit all down the side of the ship. Some of the sheets were massive and with the water so clear you can see the huge ice plates below the water which of course is much more than what you can see on the top. There was the occasional Weddell seal lying on an ice float casually watching us go by, even tho they were really close it didn't seem to phase them, unlike the penguins who would panic. There were a couple of penguins that were right in the line of the ship and as we got closer everyone started yelling at them to jump. They got in a bit of a flap and were calling out then at the last moment they finally jumped into the sea and disappeared as the ship smashed their little island.
We did a tour of the station, all the staff stopped doing their daily duties just to show us around then we had a cup of coffee, a famous Palmer brownie and were on our way again, going down the Bismarck strait to the Lemaire Channel. The captain tried to take us through this channel but it was so choked with icebergs that even he didn't want to try it so it must have been bad as this guy is Russian and it seemed also fearless.
Saturday dawned ( actually the sun never really set, sunset was 12.04am and sunrise was 2.12am so there was no dawn) another foggy day but it soon lifted and this was the day we were finally going to step foot on the Antarctic continent itself at Neko Harbour. Here again we were surrounded by mountains and glaciers with impossible sheer ice cliffs ready to drop into the sea. We were warned to watch the penguins and if they started running then we were to start running also to higher ground as if one block calves off into the sea it can cause a tsunami and wash quite high onto the beach. If you go as far as the penguins are nesting you know you will be safe. We could see debris that had already been flung up the beach on previous tsunamis. The snow was very deep here and almost impossible to walk on. What surprises me is the penguins also have trouble walking over it and it's quite comical to watch them falling over and getting up time & again as they make their way up or down. We had to make sure we covered in any deep holes we made from walking as the penguins can get stuck in them. On the ride back to the ship we did a zodiac cruise around the icebergs that were floating in the harbour which were just amazing. They were so big from the point of view of a zodiac and incredibly colourful with deep blues, greens and various shades of white as well as being sculptured into all different shapes. I saw the Sydney opera house, the top end of Australia and several big animals, words again are failing me to try and describe such a place. What looked like black ice was floating in the water but when you picked it up it was actually transparent. This is the oldest ice of all, it has been at the very bottom of the glacier and over time and immense pressure, all the air has been squeezed out of it giving no colour at all. Apparently it's the best ice to put in your gin.
We crossed the Erera channel and that afternoon stopped at Cuverville island. There wasn't so much climbing with this one so we could just wander down the beach, watch the penguins, all Gentoo, go about their daily business of stone stealing and squabbling. We watched a Skua fight high up on a cliff, one dropped and rolled several times down the snow slope sending snow flying but he got up again and continued the fight with two or three others. They are quite big these birds, bigger than a size 20 chicken. That night the brave and foolhardy went camping on the snow. It sounds like a romantic notion but not one said they loved it, the most they could say was it was interesting.
The next morning we up anchored and cruised down the Gerlache Straits back into the Neumayer Channel, which was still just as stunning and has you either glued to your window or frozen on the outside decks just to drink in the view. We came across 3 Humpback whales having a little sleep so the captain stopped the ship and drifted around them. They looked like three logs lying in the water and didn't seem bothered at all that we were there. They didn't do much, just lay there but later the crew said they had never seen that before in all their journeys down here. The water is so clear that we could see almost the entire body of the whales from the tail tip to the tip of their nose and immense flippers. It made me realise that the bit you see sticking out of the water is no indication of the size of the beast. At one point one whale grew curious of us and let out a loud whale noise, lazily flipped over and stuck his head out of the water just meters from us to have a bit of a look before sinking down again and going back to sleep. We eventually left them to it, nothing happening here captain.
The captain thought he would give a crack at sailing down the Pelletier Channel, which up to now had been blocked with ice but we were extremely lucky and made it through. We were the first ship this season to get through and the expedition leader said it was only the second he had ever done it. This channel is very narrow with sharp turns, at one point it's only 500m wide and as we sailed along you would think it was a dead end, there was no sign of a channel until we got to the turn and sorry to harp on about it but once again it was drop dead gorgeous scenery, so unbelievable actually. They dropped the kayaks off and those who had paid mega money to kayak must have thought they got their monies worth when they had to kayak the entire 10kms of the channel but how stunning that must have been.
Our destination that afternoon was Port Lockroy or better known as Penguin Post Office on Goudier Island. It use to be a British Antarctic survey base but was abandoned in 1962. They have now restored it (1996) and run it as a museum so you can see and understand what it must have been like to live and work there in the 40's and 50's. They have done it very well, 4 women run it and do maintenance over the summer season from Oct/Nov to end of March and have many ships come and visit. There is a souvenir shop but the main attraction is the post office part. They still run a mail service so you can post a letter or post card from the Antarctic. They then give it to the next ship that is going to the Falkland Islands and from there it gets sent to the Uk to be then dispersed around the world, very novel. There is a documentary called the Penguin Post Office which gives a great account of it's history and also follows the lifecycle of the Gentoo penguins who also live there. We also saw nesting blue eyed shags there, these birds have the most stunning blue eyes as their name suggests and live & nest among the penguins who don't seem to pay them much mind.
It was at this point that we started to head back to Ushuaia. We saw the documentary about the Penguin Post Office that evening and it seemed so surreal to watch it on the TV and look out the window and see it outside but already I was starting to miss the Antarctic and we were still there. I can understand why the early explorers just had to come back time and time again, at their peril, to this magic wonderland.
On Monday was our final excursions. Overnight we had headed back to the South Shetland Islands and by early morning, during breakfast, we sailed into Whalers bay at Deception Island. This island is the caldera of a still active volcano and was formed by a big collapse due to an eruption a long time ago. The only way in is through a narrow gap called Neptune's Bellows. On the beach is the remains of an old whalers station with several collapsing buildings and old drums they used to store the blubber in with nesting gulls and their chicks on the tops. The beach is littered with whale bones, old boats and wooden planks. This was the worst day we had weather wise with a 40 knot wind blowing down on the beach. It was easier walking as at least it was on stones and not deep snow but the bitter cold wind was so strong it almost blew us off our feet and very difficult to keep the camera steady for photos. We had to wrap up extra tightly with just our eyes showing peering over the top of our scarf and underneath our hats. We walked up the beach and up a slight hill to a notch in the cliffs called Neptune's window for a view back down the beach or over the sea. There were a couple of chinstrap penguins taking a stroll or a waddle down the beach, passed a couple of seals, the wind not seeming to bother them at all. It was here that they were to do the polar plunge. On a good day apparently the beach is steaming from the volcanic activity and the first few centimetres of water is quite warm, but not today. Once again the brave but mainly foolhardy stripped to barely nothing and ran in to literally freeze their arses off just to say they had done it. We no longer feel the need to say such things and were content to watch the bizarre ritual.
That afternoon was our last chance to go down to the mud room and dress up like we were about to visit Antarctica for the final time and go on our last zodiac ride to Half Moon Island. This crescent shaped island is only 2 km long and home to 3,300 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins. I have decided that this is my favourite one, with it's pure white front and a thin band of black going from one side of its face to the other under it's chin, if it had one. They are very cute and extremely photogenic as my 3000 photos can attest to. There were also colonies of blue eyed shags and the occasional fur or elephant seal will show up but we only saw a couple of Weddell seals. The Argentine Camara station is on the south side of the island and looked great with it's red buildings against the white snow. Unfortunately there was no-one there, one of the crew thinks due to a change of government, funding for the Antarctic had been cut so maybe it will remain empty this summer.
Once again we took on the crossing of Drake passage and once again it was smooth sailing all the way. I really don't know what all the fuss is about! In fact, we made such great time that the captain decided he would take us for a spin around Cape Horn as an extra bonus. After just a day to cross the Drake we got to Cape Horn by 7am and once again we were lucky with the weather, the sea was calm and the day was clear so we got a really good look at it. Usually it's shrouded in clouds or rain. Then, to top off a perfect cruise, the whales showed up and gave a brilliant display of breaching, tail slaps and fin slaps. At one point a whale came right up to the boat and did a complete 360 in the water so we saw his belly as he spun around. What a perfect finish to a perfect cruise.
I will finish off with a quote written by Jenny Darlington who was one of the first two women to winter over in Antarctica 1947-48
"Take the Rockies, the alps and Mount Washington. Cover them with thick crusted snow that, like frosting spread by a giants hand has spilled down over the land to end in a jagged, uneven border where it meets the sea.
Imagine yourself on a spaceship in another world. A world that for ten million years has been locked away behind ramparts of ice where escape is blocked in all directions by a cruel, cold, ocean.
Take all the adjectives in Mr Roget's Thesaurus and you still haven't got it. For nothing, not even Mr Roget's best can convey one's first impression of that vast, mysterious immensity of ice.
It is a lesson in humility, an unforgettable reminder of man's mortality and it is like no other place on earth."
Actually, the other quote I like is by Fridjof Nansen in 1912
'Strange, there is always sadness on departure. It is as if one cannot after all bear to leave this bleak waste of ice, glaciers, cold and toil..'
