Antarctica....the White Continent

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Well we´re back! We survived two storms on the Drake (called the Drake Shake), being hunted by a Leopard Seal, barked at by a Fur Seal, a mini Tsunami caused by a glacier calving and being covered in penguin shit (well Gordon shouldn´t roll around in it then.....)!

All in all it was wonderful, the landscapes, the icebergs, the animals (although we only saw 2 types of penguins - storms at sea made us miss a landing) and even the rough weather all made for a memorable trip down south (it´s rather exciting standing on the bridge and watching the waves crash over the boat and onto the window - that is 3 floors up from sea level!). The trip started a little slowly after the Professor Multanovesky (our boat) had a little engine trouble so we missed the evening cruise down the Beagle Channel as we didn´t depart until midnight. The night passed relatively uneventfully and we got to know our shipmates.....mainly the blue rinse brigade from Home and Away (ya Flamin Galah!) and settled in to enjoying the ship´s bar.

It takes 2 days to sail across the Drake Passage to get to the South Shetland Islands and then the Antarctic Peninsula. Day 1 was fine and we spent most of the day alternating between the deck and the bridge. Saw heaps of Albatrosses and even some Killer Whales. Day 2 was a different story as the Drake Lake turned into the Drake Shake and unleashed a Force 11 Storm..........think of being in a blender which is turned upside down and shaken like a cocktail. This confined about a thrid of the passengers to their cabins (luckily not us though)........fortunately the storm hit when we were close to the South Shetlands and we were able to shelter in a bay. However it meant that our landings for the south Shetlands had to be cancelled which was very disappointing since they presented our only opportunity to see Elephant Seals, Macaroni and Chinstrap Penguins! Worse still we were facing the prospect of the next days landings being cancelled unless we voted to move out of the sheltered bay and head to the Antarctic Peninsula......luckily the majority of us (who weren´t confined to bed) voted to move and we spent a rough night heading to the Peninsula.

Day 4 dawned and the water was calm......breakfast was a decidedly easier affair. The good weather lasted pretty much until we left the Peninsula on day 8, which meant the rest of our landings weren´t affected. Our first landing was at Neko Bay where 50 odd passengers enjoyed feeling land beneath their feet again! We wandered amongst the Gentoo Penuin colony, trying to avoid the wafts from penguin turds and took about 2,000,000 pictures of peguins - from big ones to little ones to baby ones and even the odd dead one! In the background the glacier cracked and moaned and eventually part of it gave way, which was spectacular to behold. That evening we had a Zodiac tour of the glaciers around Paradise bay and were lucky enough to witness a penguin being eaten by a Leopard Seal.......skinned first of course - basically we saw something slashing above the water and a lot of red water! the leapord seal shakes the pengiun and throws it around the water to skin it and then eats the meat (sorry vegetarians!); we all shouted with excitement as 2 whales swam by so close to our boat that the only picture we got was of the top 10th of one´s back!; and then finally we got some close up pics of a (the) leopard seal chilling out on an iceberg.......what a day.

We did another landing the next day at an Argentine Base with another colony of Gentoo Penguins and then headed through the spectacular Lemaire Channel (also known as Kodak channel due to it´s panoramic views), sheer cliff either side meant that we had fantastic scenery and the odd iceberg! We then anchored at Peterman island and did another walking tour where we saw our first fur seal more Gentoo penguins and our first Adelie penguin. The water was so still it was sensational and so tranquil!

The next day it was another zodiac tour around some ice bergs.......really pretty, though the highlight was the National Geographic moment of the tourists becoming the attraction as a big leopard seal stalked us for about 30 mins and even had a go at the zodiac......sensational! That afternoon we visited the Ukranian base Venadsky, which has the Southernmost Bar in the world and the purest Vodka! (the boys almost drank it dry!)

As we arrived back to the ship and our driver set us on the boat he got on with his next task - stopping a giant berg from crashing into us!! He put the boat in full throttle and drove the berg away........not an easy feat I must say! this must have been exciting as even the russian crew came out to take photos. Not quite as exciting as playing with spreadsheets surely???

Our final day of landing was at Dorian Bay......more Gentoo Penguins and a Weddell seal and a fur seal as well as sensational views.....Ahhhhhhhh.

We then hopped back on "the Prof" and came back to Ushuaia.......having 20 hours of rollercoaster until we reached Cape Horn......yep we rounded the Horn in a Force 9 gale and honestly......thankfully right after that we hit calm water because whilst rollercoaster s are fun.......after 20 hours of being tossed around its enough!

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Comments

[Laura]

HI There:)
Hi :) What a fantastic journey...not sure I envy the boat ....as I am terribly sea sick...but I definetely envy everything else.... Here in the English countryside is pretty boring....apart from the highlight of the month: Carlotta's birthday this week...she is 5 already...can you believe it? She looked at the pictures of the penguins and she was mesmerised!!!!! have a good time and write to you soon Love Laura xxx