We pulled the trigger on a trip to Antarctica and boarded the Roald Amundsen in Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. The thought of crossing the Drake Passage was daunting, with typical swells of 5 meters and frequently reaching 10 (15 and 30 feet respectively). We caught mother nature in a good mood however, and spent the 2 day crossing gently rocking in seas of a meter or less: The Drake Lake, as the captain put it.
Ships with more than 500 people on board are not allowed to land in Antarctica, so ours carried 498. It’s much cheaper on a bigger boat, but you can’t get up close to things that way. There’s less to do on a smaller vessel, but I had a book I’d been saving especially for the occasion.
During the crossing we were told that while on land or ice we must not sit, squat, or indeed touch anything at all, unless we brought it with us. The reason was the millions of migrating birds that carry a variety of exciting diseases, while we were three days away from the nearest medical help. I saw a guy forget the rules and try to make a snowball, only to be unceremoniously side-tackled by one of the crew.
Antarctica is simply stunning. We first saw the shore with fog covering most of the scene, but it soon started lifting and I realised that some of the clouds I could see through the gaps were mountains, and they were huge, and they were everywhere. Every direction was an epic scene of rock and ice in various hues of blue that piled into the sky and spilled into the water. It’s difficult for photos to do justice because the air is so clear and the reference points are so few and far between.
Whales swam, seals lounged, and penguins ducked and dove around the ship, completely unbothered by our presence as far as I could tell. On land they regarded us with the middling interest of creatures who had seen it all before. I think the strongest memory is simply how vast the place is even though we only saw a tiny percentage, and the absolute hush when the wind dropped.
The abandoned whaling station on Deception Island was a sobering scene of past misdeeds, but it did afford an opportunity to go for a swim. To give an idea of what that feels like, when I came out of the water the merely freezing wind on wet skin felt warm in comparison.
It was summer of course, and the weather ranged from short sleeves to multiple layers and gale force winds within the space of a few hours. We were loaned boots for shore excursions that had to be cleaned of any dirt or stones before being returned at the end of the trip. They were checked and handed back to you if you didn’t do a good enough job. The crew were very serious indeed about biosecurity.
The return crossing was a bit rougher than the journey south, and quite a few people felt queasy. I asked one of the crew to give it a rating and he laughed as he said it was 2/10 at worst, so we counted ourselves lucky.
It’s an expensive trip, potentially rough, and there’s a small chance of an outbreak such as the recent Hanta virus incident. It’s well worth it.
1 - First land sighting of Anvers Island
2 - Our ship, the Roald Amundsen
3 - The sun came out, the clouds lifted, and the wind stopped
4 - Penguins on Wiencke Island, but stay upwind if you can because that is not dirt
5 - Hogvaard Island
6 - ‘Black ice’ off Hogvaard Island
7 - A seal taking a break off the Antarctic Peninsula
8 - Gentoo penguins on Bryde Island
9 - People going for a stroll on the peninsula
10 - Sea ice, cracked by the ship
11 - Whale oil tanks on Deception Island
12 - Abandoned whaling boats
13 - Black sand beach in a small cove
14 - Tierra del Fuego, Argentina