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Published: March 7th 2013
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The time had finally come to embark on our way to Antarctica. My stomach was filled with as much excitment as it was dread of how I would fare on a boat crossing the Drake Passage - one of the roughest patches of sea in the world - with my notorious history of seasickness on even mild ferry trips. So with a scopolomine patch behind my ear, a decent ingestion of meclozine, ginger tablets and ginger ale, a couple of acupuncture sea bands on my wrists and armed with a prescription dose of metamide in case I did throw up, I boarded our boat, the Sea Adventurer. Things were all going well as we set off through the (sheltered) Beagle Channel and I enjoyed some time on deck and a big dinner.
...And then we hit the open sea... in the middle of a storm... A storm that was a 10 on the Beaufort scale (which goes up to 12) - 50 knot winds, 10 metre waves.
And so began the day and a half spent in bed - sliding up and down the bed to be precise. The sailer's motto of "everything on a boat is either on
the floor or will be" rang true as the contents of our cabin fell piece by piece. All of the kitchen's pots, pans, lunch etc also reportedly ended up on the floor and sandwiches were brought to the cabins instead. After three quarters of a day, Mum boldly told me that she wasn't going to spend her time on the trip in bed and attempted to venture upstairs to the lounge/dining area. Five minutes later she came back down, threw up and went back to bed.
BUT I never threw up! Woohoo! Major accomplishment. On the 3rd day as we were exiting the storm (but still on the open sea) I even managed a couple of brief outings to get some food and saw the first few icebergs and then also some Minke whales!
Our first excursion was a landing at Mikkelson Harbour on one of the sub-Antarctic islands and our first opportunity to mingle with the little gentoo penguins!
In the afternoon, we had a zodiac cruise around Cierva Cove, where we saw quite a few leopard seals - snoozing on ice bergs, chasing each other and chasing the zodiac! One of them was also disturbed
from his spot on his iceberg as we heard a thunderous cracking noise and saw the huge iceberg suddenly explode, with half of its peak falling into the water.
We also had our first landing on the Antarctic continent - given that Antarctica is so unpredictable, the expedition crew wanted to ensure we could tick the box in case the weather turned bad and we never got a chance to have any more landings!
But luckily our weather held out... The next day was an early start, with our first excursion a landing at Neko Harbour, where we climbed up a big hill to get an amazing view of snow falling over the island and the nearby icebergs. I opted for the easy route down and went snow sliding (on my bum) down the steep slope. Note that this was intentional and an activity offered by the expedition cruise - not one of my usual random sliding activities! We also spent a bit of time watching the gentoo penguins with their nests made of pebbles and their chicks - it is very comical how they all temporarily leave the nest to go and steal a pebble from another
penguin's nest (and then return to discover that another penguin has stolen a pebble from their nest)!
After lunch, we had a landing at Cuverville Island, where we saw the largest colony of gentoo penguins on the continent. And one Adelie penguin trying to blend in (he didn't have to try very hard for me, but the penguin expert ornithologist from our expedition team spotted him pretty quickly!) This was followed by a zodiac cruise where we followed a few humpbacks that were diving and feeding nearby.
Back on board I joined the group of crazy people who did the 'polar plunge' - a very brief swim off the boat. There were quite a few people who did it and I was 4th from the end. Just before I was due to do it, they stopped everyone and pulled in the platform etc for a few minutes because the bridge had spotted a leopard seal (and there is a report of a leopard seal killing a scuba diver years ago so they are considered dangerous). So when I did go, I was scared I might look like a tasty leopard seal snack! And my Mum didn't even watch
- she thought everyone had finished and went back to our cabin! It was quite hideous - for a moment after I jumped in I seemed to go into shock and everything froze up before the signals to swim seemed to go from the brain to the muscles. I got out pretty quickly! But the guy after me did it naked so he got out more quickly than I did.
That was the extent of my Antarctic craziness and we did not opt to join those who went camping for a night on the ice. They paid extra (!), to give up their comfortable cabin and spent the night in a tent on a thin foam mattress with a bucket (known as 'Mr Yum Yum' by the crew) for a toilet. Instead we had a civilised cruise amongst the icebergs in Paradise Bay and enjoyed a good night's sleep in our cabin on the boat.
The next day we went for a zodiac cruise around Orne Bay and then a hike on the glacier at Portal Point on the Antarctic mainland. We had been warned that we would probably not be viewing any wildlife on that excursion but
Weddell Seal
Mikkelson Harbour we also saw a young elephant seal moulting there. The climb up the glacier was a bit of work as every now and then you'd suddenly sink into powder snow up to the top of your leg. The view from the top of the hike was spectacular. Back on board, we ate dinner watching groups of Minke whales, which are smaller and more playful and headed back to the Shetland Islands.
The following morning we sailed into the caldera of Deception Island - an active volcano (last erupted in the late 1960s). The crew successfully avoided the rock that gives the island its name. We landed on the steaming beach, where you dig a hole and hit geothermal hot water. I was feeling a bit off but managed to hike up to the top for a great view.
Our final excursion was at Half Moon Island where there are heaps of chinstrap penguin colonies. One little penguin ventured off his penguin highway and came over to us. We moved out of his way but he kept coming after me and pecked at my boot. Then he went and flapped his wings about while jumping around in circles in
the snow. I think he was trying to woo me. I took this as consent to adopt him and am bringing home a friend for Fuzzy (I wish).
On our last day we were to get a charter flight from King George Island up to Punta Arenas in Chile (we opted to only cross the Drake once). It was an odd day. We were scheduled to fly out of Antarctica (from the Chilean military landing strip) at 9 am, so had to be up by 6 am. But there were strong winds and insufficient visibility so we were on stand by getting updates (and a new meal!) every hour until the plane finally landed in the Shetlands around 7.30pm to pick us up. I was too tired to think much about the plane travelling along the icy 'runway' to take off at the edge of the island.
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