Antarctica - To the end of the world, for the end of the world

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12th December 2012, Excited about the trip ahead, Ushuaia, Argentina

One of the reasons that I have time to write a blog is that I have reached the end of the world, Ushuaia in Argentina to be precise. Its the most southerly town in the world and isn’t itself amazing, its essentially a lot of shades of grey with some none-to-impressive buildings, a chilly wind and rain that seems to be guaranteed almost every day. The title ‘end of the world’ therefore seems quite fitting! However, the town is blessed with snow covered mountains in the background and has the beautiful Tierra del Fuego national park on its door step which has been great to walk in. The main reasons for travelers coming here though is that this is often the end point of a continent or two long cycle ride or other epic journey and is the only practical route to provide access the white continent, Antarctica, and this is really the end of the world! Funnily enough, the supposed apocalypse at the end of the Mayan calendar was also approaching fast, so I would be at the end of the world, for the end of the world!

I flew in from pleasant Buenos Aires nine days ago with the intention of staying in the cold of Ushuaia for just three days. So what happened? Well, I had heard of the trips to Antarctica but knew they were expensive, so had no intention of going on one. I did though send out a few cheeky e-mails offering to take up a cancellation place if a massively reduced price could be offered. I got a few offensive e-mails back telling where I could get off, a few that didn’t offer much of a reduction and one that was much lower than I expected and much lower than anything else that I had heard of. The staff of the hostel hadn’t heard of anything that cheap also. This left me with a dilemma; I had a great offer on the table but it was still an eye-watering amount of money for a travel budget and I wasn’t prepared emotionally or financially or had the right clothes for the ten day trip into one of the coldest part of the world, albeit in the Summer. I had in fact decided that I wouldn’t travel anywhere in the world where I couldn’t get by in just a t-shirt, so I was totally unprepared!

I waxed and wained for a few days and generally annoyed a couple of friends I had made in the hostel by wanting to talk it through over and over (sorry about that if you are reading this). The prudent traveller wouldn’t have gone, but even the most seasoned travelers were coming back starry eyed saying that it was the most amazing thing they had ever done and talking of huge wind sculpted icebergs and the beauty of the white continent. They had all clearly fallen in love. I was really tempted, if I didn’t do it now, I wasn’t likely to ever do it all, Ushuaia isn’t easy to get to after all. The clincher for though was when I heard someone skyping a family member and talking about being shown David Attenborough’s The Frozen Planet on the way out, as means of preparation. If I had a list of my gods, Sir Attenborough would be on it. I loved his programs, especially The Frozen Planet, so all my resolve melted away. I could see the real thing there, the real deal, the reality behind the images! I signed up there and then.

After a day or so of circling between feeling physically sick at the money I had just spent and the elation at the fact that I would be going to Antarctica, I settled down and realized that I had made the right choice. Part of my therapy included convincing five other travelers to go. There is nothing like selling something to someone else when you aren’t sure, it makes you focus on the positives! They went through the same process as me, fighting it at first, then coming round. Plans and flights were changed and credit lines extended. Seeing what was happening, one guy even booked a flight out of Ushuaia to make sure he didn’t book a passage. The next day he changed his mind and his flight!

I spent the next few days sorting out cheap rental of the right clothes, buying sea sickness tablets for the rough journey across Drake’s Passage to the South Shetland Islands (before heading onto the Antarctic peninsula itself), reading up on the journey and making sure that my world wouldn’t fall apart when I didn’t have access to the internet for ten days. Blogs also got written, photo’s processed and I even made it to the gym for the first time in six months! Strangely I am much lighter now than when I was regularly going to the gym...

I leave tomorrow in the evening and I cant wait! Lets hope there aren’t any crazies on the steel can that is my boat. Ten days could be a long time in such a small space and there is no turning back. I understand though that its supposed to be like a five star hotel with mountains of quality food included, so I think I will be OK. There are also lectures by naturalists which should be interesting. I’ll let you know how it goes! Be prepared though for a long blog peppered with superlatives and the words white, cold, penguin and ice...



Friday 14th December 2012, Wobbling somewhere in the Drake Passage (out at sea)

Yesterday I boarded the boat that will be my home for the next days. The cabin is small, but is luxurious by dorm standards, so in a way the last ten months have prepared me for this trip! I am sharing with two guys from the Netherlands and an American from Portland, Oregon and fortunately it looks like it will be a crazy free zone :-) I couldn’t resist the ‘Double Dutch’ one liner when they started talking to each other in their own language, all said of course in good spirit! I have also lucked out with the American also as he is an avid blogger and has achieved minor celebrity status in the motorcycle world with his blog, 'Radioman Rides The World'. Recently he passed over a million hits on his site, so I have been picking his brains about the best ways to blog and the pitfalls to avoid. Note to self, I must put a donation button on my page, until then if you want to send donations contact me on my e-mail: [e-mail] ;-)

When we arrived we all did a little exploration of the ship to orientate ourselves and introduce ourself to the people we would be spending the next ten days with. Its a small boat, holding only one-hundred and fourteen passengers and it used to be a Dutch naval vessel. It was then sold to a Dutch tour operator who refitted it and, depending on the time of year, uses it for trips at the Southern and Northernmost reaches of the planet. For the most part it looks pretty comfortable.

Passengers and crew were gathered together for some orientation and safety talks which provided my first glimpse of everyone on the boat. It seems like there were a number of younger travelers but most people appeared to be of the baby boomer generation. The crew were interesting and generally seemed to be in the their mid 30s and had some interest in the ecology of Antarctica or were experts in camping or kayaking. There was also a doctor on board whom I guessed would be busy for the next days with people’s sea sickness.

After the presentation and a very cold safety drill which took us outside, we ate a sat down meal. Again, this was way beyond my usual traveller ‘knock it together’ meal, so I was feeling in the lap of luxury. The conversation to avoid at dinner was how much I paid for my passage, because as part of the working world many people had booked their ticket months in advance and couldn’t afford the luxury of waiting around like me. We were all getting the same trip and were sharing on the boat together, for a number of days so the last thing I wanted to do was to tarnish their trip in any way...

At dinner we were negotiating the Beagle Channel so the waters were flat, but we all knew that we would soon be heading out into the turbulent waters of Drake’s Passage. The big question was whether to take the sea sickness meds before we got there, but in the end we all decided to do so because once you get sick, there isn’t much that you can do about it, especially if you are trying to keep the pill down. The meds made us sleepy, so we all hit the sack early. I slept as well as I had slept in a long time! While not a mirror, the Drakes Passage was being kind and we were calling it 'The Drake Lake'! Lets hope it holds...



Saturday 15th December 2012, Out at sea and still calm, The Drake Passage, Antarctic Ocean

The first day at sea was thankfully largely uneventful. The Drake’s Passage was still being calm and the motion sickness medication had helped provide a good nights sleep. I had been told that breakfast and the lectures would be largely empty because everyone would be laid up in their quarters, but there was a good turnout for both because of the clement weather. We had a lecture on the birds we would see and another dedicated to penguins (which of course is also a bird, but held in high esteem by teh expedition team). All good stuff to help me get the most out of the trip.

I never quite understood the thrill of bird watching back home, but here I started to see the attraction and felt like there was something Zen-like in watching the wide open ocean and the various birds that danced and glided through the gentle swell. These ranged in size from the tiny Storm Petrels to the huge Wandering Albatrosses. This morning we were also rewarded with fin and humpback whales hunting next to the boat. A period of excitement as reward for our long patience.

For the most part though, this was time to kick back and sort stuff. Maybe its a shame that the Drakes Passage wasn’t a real experience, I still want a t-shirt though that says ‘I crossed The Drakes Passage and survived’. There is always the way back though...



Tuesday 18th December 2012, Wowed, amazed and happily exhausted, Antarctica

I haven’t written for a few days because there is always something unfolding and the days never end...almost literally in fact, because while the sun sets for just a few hours, there is always daylight and so always something left to see. Night time, the natural end of the day doesn’t apply in summer time Antarctica, she always has something to show you. It feels like we have been here for weeks as we have seen so much, but it has just been a couple of days. I feel guilty pulling myself away from the vast snow covered mountains and glaciers that are passing both sides of us, but I don’t want to forget the detail of what we have done, so its a trade off...

The Drake Passage

The Drake Passage remained calm, if anything more calm, for the end of the two days voyage through it. We sat down for an evening meal with the our vista of the open ocean through the restaurants windows and were treated to an incredible display. A large number of Fin whales were also heading south to feed on the swarming Krill, but for them it was part of their migration pattern and put them on the same course as us, south to Antarctica. Huge jets of water spurted into the air from their blow holes which first gave away their position, the calm waters helped also. Soon they were all around us. The scale of it all, our incredible luck with the calm waters and so many whales close to the boat, left us feeling privileged and humbled.

The South Shetland Islands

We kept heading on to the South Shetland Islands and we felt like we had arrived in the Antarctic when we first spotted the snow and ice covered peaks soaring out of the ocean. Their true back and brown hues could be see on steeper faces where the snow and ice couldn't take hold. There was no sign of towns or other human activity. We also spotted our first iceberg on the horizon which was soon followed by others. It must have been huge to have been seen so far away and yet to sit so high on the horizon. Penguins jumped and danced in and out of the water around us. I started to feel like I was going somewhere special, somewhere unique.



Thursday 20th December, Finally found time to write, The Drake Passage (again)

We have bee so busy and seen so many things, this is the first time I had to write in a number of days. Amazing...

Half Moon Island

Our first stop in the South Shetland Islands was on Half Moon Island, not surprisingly it was snow and mountain covered and is moon shaped. We took our first trip on the zodiacs, tough rubber speed boats and the work-horse of these expeditions, over to a landing area. We walked up the hill to a colony of Chinstrap penguins and you could immediately smell the Krill that is the staple of their diet. These little birds, while not the brightest creatures in the world, were cumbersome and cute, at least out of the water. They wandered down their tracks in the snow and seemed largely oblivious to us and got very close at times. The rule was that we had to stay 5 meters away from them but they were allowed to approach us and they often waddled by. We went and looked at some nests and it was funny to see the power plays that were going on. The Chinstraps would steel rocks from each others nests, after a few screeches to indicate a handover, parents would be carefully exchanging their egg on their feet so that they could rotate shifts and birds of prey (mainly Skuas) would circle ahead opportunistically looking for an egg or chick to steal. There was even a lost Macaroni penguin that had taken up home with the Chinstraps. When we asked why it didn’t realize that it wasnt a Chinstrap? The guides said that would you know what you looked like if you didn’t have a mirror? After a couple of hours we wandered back, the views on the snow covered mountains were stunning...

Deception Island

Heading on towards Deception islands we gained our first site of Orca killer whales. They were my favorite animals on the whole trip. We broke out direct line to our destination to circle and observe these magnificent animals that are the top predators in the ocean. They kept a respectful distance from the swarm of clicking cameras. I took a few tantalizing shots of fins, but more often than not they were shots of the ocean just after they had submerged.

Still part of the Shetland Islands, Deception Island is something unique. It was an old abandoned whaling, then military (British) station and active volcano. After passing through the entrance, Neptune’s Bellows, you could see where the 7km wide crater had collapsed and filled in to become a caldera and natural harbor. At the edge of the water it was warm and steam and sulfurous fumes filled my nostrils. We wandered round and saw the abandoned station (Port Foster) with its whale blubber boiling tanks, old boats and abandoned buildings that weren't standing the test of time very well. The last inhabitants had left in a hurry in the 70’s when the volcano had last erupted. It was the third time in as many years that they had to leave and they decided not to return.

The challenge that we had all been looking forward to though was the dreaded ‘polar plunge’. The sea water was warm a couple of meters close to the shore which lulled me into a false sense of security. I dived in and found that the ocean floor dropped away and underneath this small area of warm water close to the shore were the Antarctic cold waters. I felt like I had been punched in the chest and quickly turned round back to the warmer waters so that I could breath again. I had a lot more respect for the cold waters after that. Another reason to head back quickly was that we had seen Orcas close by and while it was very unlikely that I would be hunted, I has seen too much footage in documentaries about Orcas hunting close to the shore...

The Gerlache Straight and The Neumayer Channel

Our journey onwards took us through the Gerlache Straight and Neumayer Channel. In the former we saw more Orcas, but this time there were 40 or so and they came close to the boat, swimming along side and in our wake. Incredible! Apparently this was exceptional as few are only ever observed in a season and they rarely come so close to the boat. It felt like they were circling us. They were certainly curious about us, but to me it felt like they were trying to see if we could be prey..Again we felt special and incredibly fortunate.

Port Lockroy

At the beginning of the next day we reached Port Lockroy. It is an old British Antarctic base that is now a heritage site. It has only four inhabitants, three females and one male, who were staying for four months at a time,. The other inhabitants were Gentoo penguins that had decided to join the base, so you had to watch where you trod because they were literally everywhere. You learnt a lot about the inhabitants of the base lived and how planes used to land on the glacier close by. It was a great insight to what Antarctic life was like on a base back in the 40-50s. I also posted some post cards home from the most southerly postbox in the world and got an Antarctic stamp in my passport.

It was also a good chance to observe more penguin behavior, this time mostly Gentoo penguins. They were just as dippy as the Chinstraps, but equally as cute. We were also shuttled round the bay on the zodiacs to look at the ice formations and shelves and access some of the less reachable parts of the bay to observe the penguins. A good piece of advice from the guides was to put the camera down and just observe and enjoy the penguin behavior.

Almirante Brown Station, Skontorp Cove and Paradise Bay

Antarctica (and the South Shetland Islands) is rightly heavily protected against human activity. Tourism is only allowed on specific designations and for the most part, the only inhabitants are scientists studying the white continent. You cant bring food onto the continent and cant even relieve yourself there either. All our boots were disinfected prior to stepping anywhere on land.

Base Brown, an abandoned Argentine research station with a very large flag painted on it, was to be our only stop on Antarctica itself. We wandered round the base but were all soon attracted to the large hill at the back and climbed up. At the top we were treated to a large snow-slide/ avalanche on the surrounding mountains in the distance. It was beautiful to see this and the other mountains. We slid down the icy path we created as it was like a slide. One Asian guy used his arms to break rather than his feet and grazed them badly. Only when we got down and did a tour of the bay in the zodiac did I realize that there was a sheer drop from the hill on two sides. I hate heights, so I winced at how close to the precipice I had been. I had just assumed that it was as soft a decent on the other side as it was on the side that I had climbed...

There were a lot of very large glaciers in the bay as well as icebergs. Its amazing to see how some of these end getting shaped and to conceive the size of them, they were huge. To put them into perspective, a meter cubed of water weighs a ton and many of the icebergs were almost as large as our ship. We toured the bay in the zodiac to view the icebergs and glaciers. It was incredible how blue some of the were, apparently the bluer they are the less trapped air there is. The icebergs were moving a lot also and our waiting ship was forced to constantly maneuver as it waited for us. They even prevented some of the group leaving the base for a while as they congregated at the departure point.

We were very cold when we got back and were treated to a barbecue and free bar. Imagine that, a BBQ in one of the coldest places at the end of the world! We were all elated, we had been on Antarctica. We drank and ate happily before heading go to sleep for the night. Some of the group camped on Antarctica for the night, but they all came back tired because they had to leave at five in the morning to get back for breakfast. It was great to watch the camera in the ship that night which shoeed us dogging icebergs in the bay all night. It looked like a computer game, but had more serious potential.

On leaving the base we headed into The Gerlasche straight and were treated to forty or so Orca whales Type B that came very close to the boat. This was unusual and this time everyone got great shots of the whales. Even the guides were jumping up and down.

The Lemaire Channel and Port Chalcot

The next day we passed through The Lemaire Channel otherwise known as the ‘Kodak Gap’ due to its incredible beauty. On entering we were treated to the site of four Minky Whales feeding on Krill close to the ship. The Lemaire Channel was a steep valley with water at the bottom and a vast number icebergs that we had to navigate round, some of the smaller ones bounced off our hull. It was both beautiful and nerve racking. We put our faith in the crew though, they knew what they were doing. We found out that there was an unusual amount of icebergs because an ice-shelf had broken up a year or two back.

Coming out of the channel we came to Port Chalcot, an elephants grave yard of icebergs and equivalent to an asteroid belt to negotiate. This area is known as ‘Iceberg Alley’ because the shallow water and wind grounds a lot of icebergs. We were due to land but there were too many icebergs to do so. Instead we did a tour of the ice-field on the zodiacs. It hard to imagine that our original destination could be as good as this, so we were happy with plan B. We saw all kinds of iceberg of all different sizes. May seals and penguins had hitched a ride on these and the weather was picking up, so the blue of the sky complimented the blue and white of the ice bergs. Postcard perfect...

Petermann Island

Every day and event had been a step up in terms of wonder on the one before and Petermann Island took me to a whole new level. We arrived on the island and got a chance to try some snow shoes out. We put them on and walked about a large hill, zig-zagging as we went. At the top of the hill we saw out for miles in every direction. There was no human activity to be seen. On one side we had the ocean and glaciers as far as the eye could see and on the other there were snow covered mountains as far as the eye could see also. You could hear but not see avalanches as they echoed through the mountains. It was all breathtaking and worth the climb up.

One of the guides, crossed the giant zig-zag we had made on the snow covered hill, so that his initial, ‘A’ could be seen. This put a big smile on my face, this is the only kind of graffiti that you can leave in Antarctica!

Hydrurga Rocks

The next day we had arrived at Hydruga Rocks. This was an extra complimentary stop for us, the only price we paid was that we had to get up at 05:00 in the morning to do it. Not being one for lack of sleep and the previous days had been long, I was tired heading over to the rocks. We saw more seals and penguins, Dalies this time. The mountains in the distance were less steep, so were completely white. We were also told about the geography of the region .

Cierva Cove

Our final stop on the trip was at Hydruga Cove. Again we did a zodiac tour of the cove and it was perfect conditions. The sky was pure blue and the water was dead calm. Icebergs sat there waiting to be inspected and photographed. Even the worst photographer in the world could have achieved an epic shot here. We also saw a Leopard seal on an iceberg which was something I really wanted to see. He wasn’t eating a penguin though... As our time came to an end, our guide instructed us to put down our cameras, not to move so that we didn’t hear rustling Gortex and to just listen. I laid down on the prow of the boat with my head close to the water. It was only then that you could appreciate the vastness and calmness of where we were, it was magical.

A short while after we left Cierva Cove we saw a two humpback whales which came close to the boat. As they dived you saw their signature tail descending into the water. It felt like we had seen everything that Antarctica had to offer at this time of year. It was the perfect end to my time on the continent and I didn’t want to leave.

The Drake Passage (homeward bound)

Leading to the Drake the ocean was surprisingly dead calm, it felt more like a lake. The next day I woke up and the Drake was less kind but still nowhere near its full strength. However, the rocking to and fro made me sick and I put a motion sickness patch on behind my ear which people were calling the on/off button because it was round and looked like one. I slept for the next 6 hours after that and felt a lot better for it at the end.



Friday 21st December 2012, Floating adrift in the Drake’s Passage

It looks like our extraordinary period of luck has finally run out. We had been heading in the same direction as the waves, effectively surfing them. This gave us 13 knots of speed, when the usual speed was about 10 knots and we were due to arrive a day early back home. Unfortunately, it seems that the engines died last night and we are floating like a cork in the Drake’s Passage. Lets see if they can fix it and if not, see what plan B is...

We are all making jokes about the 21st of December being the end of the world on the Mayan calendar. I had a long discussion with one of the guides about how we would have to go and settle on Antarctica and eat penguins and seals if the rest of the world was laid waste. She argued that it might be better for the wildlife if people died out. If we couldn’t start the boat again, there was also the possibility that we could resort to cannibalism. Someone argued that it made sense to eat the vegetarians first as they wouldn’t enjoy the future menus and, having eaten lots of fruit and vegetables, they were probably packed with the vitamins and minerals we would need... I had better keep quiet though about my intention to go vegetarian...Way too much time on our hands I think...

The staff put some more educational lectures together to keep us entertained and I also spent some time swapping best photos with friends that I had made on the trip. So, if you really like the photos of the trip, its very likely that I wasn’t the photographer. There were a lot of people here that have a passion for photography and the kit that goes with it. Its the perfect destination for it. I like photography also and have a SLR but don’t have the space in my meager backpack for all the other expensive toys. Thats a different kind of trip.



Saturday 22nd December 2012, Limping through the Drake Passage

It looks like the Mayans got it wrong, well for us on the boat at least!

We bobbed up and down and tilted to and fro in The Drake Passage for most of the day and for a while the wind and waves took us in the wrong direction, south. The ship’s engineer tried to fix the transformer motor that was broken but he couldn’t do it. He did however manage to bypass it to give us one third power, by this morning this was up to half power. At this speed we will arrive in Ushuaia Christmas Eve which means I will miss my onward bus, but for most people it is more serious and they will miss flights and Christmas with their loved ones. The cruise company is doing all it can to help make sure that this doesn’t happen, however this is a challenge for them though as it is the weekend and that will be followed by Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The crew have been pretty good at keeping us in the loop and apparently some of the more disgruntled passengers were videoing the assurances that were given so that they could comeback on the liner at a later date if needs be. It is tough for them as internet is tantalizingly available but the rate and cost of data upload make it unpractical to do anything. I didn’t bother. There are also passengers that booked Christmas cruise and they will be inconvenienced also.

This was in contrast to myself and the other backpackers on the boat who weren't too bothered. We are after all getting a 12-13 day cruise with three meals a day and lodging for the price of a 10 day cruise! It actually helps our journey last a few days longer... Another saving grace is that the liner has opened a free bar for the rest of the trip :-)

Update - The liner just transferred an engineer from its sister ship to ours via a zodiac as he had spent many years working with this ship. Lets hope he can fix it, or fix one of his old fixes...

Update 2 - Its the end of the day and the ship is moving again at normal speed, we are raising a glass to the engineer



Sunday 23rd December 2012, Made it, Ushuaia, Argentina

We have arrived safe and well and just only a day late!

In the end...

Firstly, I am alive! We didn’t sink and made it back safely, so great, more of an adventure... :-) In reality we were never in much danger as long as the weather held.

This was an expensive trip but in the end it was worth every dollar, I have no regrets at all other than the fact that that I didn't book a longer trip going via the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and am ruined my frugal traveling ethic! I can see why some people grab the next boat back after doing the trip! Its so different to anywhere else I have been and I found it hard to leave. The white continent was pristine, relatively untouched, vast and amazing. There were huge glaciers, icebergs and mountains that remain unexplored or climbed and they stretched out as far as the eye could see when you climbed up, but its also a landscape in flux as the weather shapes the snow and thats part of the attraction. Its a bit of an illusion though as the weather can change and make everything much more difficult, and these are the hospitable summer months.

How the trip unfolded was something special for me, as each day it got better than the one before so we were all permanently in a state of wonder. The first couple of days on the Drake Passage and the absence of internet helped me to leave all my baggage behind so that I could fully embrace the new experiences that followed. I have seen a lot in the last 10 months and in other trips but this tops them all. There were some great people on the trip also, which helps to make a place be to you as good as it can be. This is true of anywhere.

So, what of the other travelers I convinced to go? They had as great a trip as me and were in fact on the ship that came to rescue us, so in the end it worked out perfectly for everyone. I would recommend to anyone to ditch the internet for a couple of weeks and cross The Drakes Passage to see the wonders of the white continent...! Be careful though, you may end up hurting your teeth like me from smiling too much in the cold.

P.S - I am off the boat but everything keeps wobbling...

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Comments

[Home and Away]

I hope that you go back and blog the beginning of your trip.
Antarctica...on so many bucket lists. but so few make it there. Congratulations!