Antarctica!

How to describe a place that is beyond description?

We spent four days cruising around the Antarctic Peninsula, and every day held experiences that made me say “oh, my.” I took over 6000 photos, and there is so much variety I can’t narrow it down to two or three. I’ll add several as a gallery at the end of this post for your viewing pleasure.

The first sighting of the White Continent brought tears to my eyes. I’ve wanted to go there for so long (including applying to work at McMurdo Base six years in a row and never getting chosen) that it seemed too wonderful to actually BE there. It was all I expected and more. There were more mountains, more glaciers, more wildlife than I hoped for.

There were whales, birds, elephant seals, and an incredible population of penguins. We would see the penguins “porpoising” near the ship-swimming along and jumping as they went. There were penguins on icebergs. There were penguins on the rocks. At first I was looking at a rocky hillside that actually had some rare plant life growing. But when I looked through my binoculars I realized those weren’t rocks among the plants. It was penguins! Thousands of them. That view happened again and again throughout the four days.

So, the details for those of you who are thinking of traveling there. What was the day to day experience?

First we had to cross the Drake Passage, renowned for being one of the most difficult ocean passages in the world. Having tried to go around Cape Horn on a previous voyage, I was ready for anything. That trip ended in our turning around due to high seas and 90 knot winds. The ship was literally leaning several degrees. This time, however, the trip was comparatively smooth and I breathed a sigh of relief. The passage took an entire night and day, arriving at Paradise Harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula in the afternoon. That afternoon was mostly icebergs and mountains and I thought they were spectacular. It was only a pale hint of what was to come. I admit I was out on desk a short time, because we had 30 knot winds and the wind chill was in the minus numbers. We were constantly reminded to take care to keep everything under control, because Antarctica is a protected environment that doesn’t need random scarves and cell phones flying off the ship.

On the second day we sailed the Neumayer Channel to Port Lockroy, where the staff of the UK Port Lockroy station came aboard. The station is a UK Heritage site, and is manned only during the Antarctic summer. They spoke of life at the station, the history of the UK presence in Antarctica, and sold us post cards and stamps so we could send mail home from Antarctica. I was tickled to hear that they loved it when cruise ships invited them aboard, because it meant they could wash clothes and take hot showers!

The third day started at Deception Island, which is a collapsed caldera. It was snowing and quite cold, but still we went out on deck to take in the view and take pictures. I admit I was out a fairly short time, because we had 30 knot winds and the wind chill was in the minus numbers.

That afternoon we went on to Admiralty Bay, where we viewed several more research stations and thousands of penguins, both on land and in the water. The weather there was much nicer, with the water being calm and reflective.

On the fourth day we sailed completely around Elephant Island and spent some time at Point Wild in the bay where the Shackleton Expedition sought refuge after their ship, The Endurance, was crushed by the ice in 1915. The story is an amazing one and I want to do more research on it. There is a monument on the spot where the stranded crew lived through the winter, featuring a bust of Captain Pardo, who rescued the crew.

As we left the island, we headed back across the Drake Passage and brought to an end our Antarctic adventure. It was four days I’ll always remember in awe.