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Published: February 28th 2007
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Antarctica - one of the most amazing experiences of our life. It was surreal. Different from visiting any other place. It doesn´t feel like we visited a real, physical place; more like we have the memory of some strange dream. The only way it can be described is that it´s the nearest a living being can come to seeing heaven! Crossing the Drake passage on our return (sea between Argentina and Antartica), it felt more like we were crossing some ethereal body of water, more like that river that took Orpheus to the Underworld (except unfortunately not quite so smooth - the Drake is known as the roughest sea on earth!).
Antarctica is breathtaking - vast, empty, clean, and pure. The whites are perfect and the blues and greens in the ice are so vivid they're almost electric. The sounds are huge - (animal and bird colonies at fever pitch and glaciers cracking with sounds like cannon-fire) and then, in contrast, there is a silence that is absolute and eerie. The wildlife is incredible too. Many species of penguins, seals, whales and birds.
The penguins deserve special mention. They´re brilliant! You´d be in stitches from just watching them. They
swim in the sea like salmon trying to get upstream - jumping out headfirst, one after the other. On land they waddle from side to side on their tiny little legs trying to cross rocks etc and on the ice they slide on their bellies, pushing themselves from behind with their feet. They had just had their chicks when we were there, so the place was full of nests with adult penguins looking after their chicks. The chicks were even funnier than the adults, all grey and fluffy. And they have a brilliant party trick - projectile pooing. They lean forward, put their bum in the air and fire out a poo out that lands about 6 feet away! The penguin colony is exceptionally noisy, with all the penguins shouting at each other about something or other (like Israeli backpackers).
The ship we were on was very luxurious, it had just been completely refurbished so everything was new. We got delicious 4 course meals twice a day and a huge breakfast served in a really fancy restaurant on the upper deck with glass walls that provide a 360 view. Cabins were really smart too with brand-new sumptuous beds, en
suite bathroom and tv with movies and documentaries (in case you get bored looking at Antarctica!). Lovely people on board too - made some good friends.
Every day we made at least 2 landings by zodiac. We visited colonies colonies of seals (the elephant seals are GIGANTIC and you can hear them roaring and snorting from very far away) and penguins, saw whales in the water (unfortunately not very close up) and eerie whale skeletons strewn on the beaches. We cruised around huge icebergs that loom in the water and give the place the appearance of some strange theme park. We even got off the zodiac and on to one of the icebergs.
One of the most memorable landings we made was at a place called Deception Island - a volcano that had become flooded by the sea when part of the volcano wall caved in. We sailed in to it and landed at this black beach, where if you dig the sand, boiling hot water comes up from below below and fills the hole. The crew dug a huge bath and toned it down with some freezing sea water to make a piping hot bath for us
all to get into while snow and icy winds screamed around us! Quite surreal!
The whole trip was 11 days long and we felt very emotional leaving.
We had a pretty unnerving voyage on our return. The Drake produced 10 metre waves and our ship was pitching and rolling so much that the porthole on our cabin would be completely submerged for a count of about 5 seconds before being instantly replaced by about 5 seconds of empty sky! The 5 seconds of submerged window passed very slowly while we prayed feverishly that the sky would appear once more! A wave hit one of the big windows on the posh rooms on the upper deck and broke it, waves poured into the ship and covered the couple who were cowering in bed trying to stave off sea sickness! When someone heard the crash and opened their door, the water poured accross the hall and into the library room which then flooded and had to be temporarily closed. Pretty scary stuff! Tash thought it was great though, the captain said she should have been a sailor!
Anyway, to sum it up - Antarctica is incredible, go there! There´s
nothing else like it.
(Since Antarctica we´ve been to Argentina, Uruguay and arrived here in Brazil for Carnival! We´re up in the north east now hanging out on Paradise beaches, surfing and swimming in dolphin filled waters...more blogs to follow...)
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Debs
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Absolutely breathtaking! Those penquins are gorgeous. Ummm Dave, why the freezing water when hot, lovely, bath like water available?!...... Keep the blogs coming, carnival stories please.......