South to Antarctica – a journey to the white continent
A travel destination with no classy hotels, no resorts, no theme parks, no shopping malls, not one sandy beach; a place where no visitors are permitted to spend a night. Antarctica, the world's fifth largest continent is 99.7% covered in permanent ice, holds records as the world's driest, coldest and windiest continent and yet receives 33000 visitors of whom fewer than 19000 actually set foot on the continent every year. And these 19000 are people looking for a 'different' travel experience; an experience that most will endeavour only once in their lifetime; an experience that is certainly not inexpensive and one that involves long hours of travelling but at the end of it all one that leaves you with memories and photographs that are incomparable.
Antarctica! Few, if any Indian companies are able to help you plan a trip to a destination that is as distant and remote as can be. Months of research, reading and exploring possible travel alternatives convinced me to opt out of the luxury cruise ship option. Yes, there are some cruise companies that offer a limited number of polar sailings every year but the size of the ship and their style of operation restrict you to experiencing the polar continent without actually setting foot on it. My choice was to go with one of the smaller specialist expedition style cruise companies that operate small, ice strengthened ships, mostly ex Russian research vessels. The enormous advantage of this is that you are not shielded and protected from the elements by the artificial luxury of a giant cruise ship; sailing on the smaller expedition ships, you experience the wild ferocity of crossing the heaving waters of the Drake Passage but also the eerie silence of gliding into the frozen waters of the Errera Channel and Paradise Bay.
Of the four or five small expedition ship companies that offer polar tours, Oceanwide Expeditions is perhaps the best known. Registered in Holland, this Dutch company operates their own mid sized ship called the Plancius and also, based on demand, put on additional polar expeditions using a couple of small ex Russian research ships. Tours to the southern polar regions start from Ushuaia, the southern most town in the world more or less at the tip of the continent of South America. Visited by tens of thousands of travellers every summer from November until March, this Argentinean town on the shores of the Beagle Channel has comfortable hotels, an interesting museum housed in the former jail and several interesting places to visit within a couple of hours drive. A 3 hrs flight from the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires brings one to Ushuaia's small but smart little airport from where a short taxi ride takes me to the port. A quick customs and passport check later, I am walking with my suitcase along the windy jetty towards Professor Multanovskiy, the 48 passenger Oceanwide Expeditions polar expedition ship.
On the dot at 5.00pm, with a blast of the ship's horn, we set off from Ushuaia and head east along the Beagle Channel that separates Argentina from Chile. We go through the initial briefings, get familiar with our ship and the facilities and then undergo the compulsory and comprehensive safety and survival drill including actually evacuating to the life rafts and experiencing the cramped conditions first hand. That evening, I meet my 45 or so fellow passengers, many from the US with the rest from a dozen or more different countries. There is a journalist from Guatemala, a couple of Japanese youngsters, a pleasant elderly German doctor and couples from the UK, Spain and Canada. Apart from the ship's Russian navigation crew, we are introduced to Troels, the Danish Expedition Leader, Daniella, our Argentinean housekeeping manager, to Hermann, the Austrian head chef and to Anjali Pande, our guide and ship board lecturer from New Zealand.
After an excellent inaugural dinner, we meet in the ships lounge and library to exchange introductions and listen to our nightly briefing on the following days planned activities. Over the next two days as we sail south across the Drake Passage time is spent listening to ship board lectures on Antarctica’s early explorations by the famous Scott and Amundsen expeditions, the continent’s geology, its wildlife and climate.
Early on the morning of the third day as we wake up and head down to the dining lounge for breakfast, the constant rolling of the ship and the sound of things moving around that we have become used to is replaced by an eerie silence. I look out and see the Professor Multanovskiy gliding slowly amongst giant icebergs. There is a rush to our cabins to grab our cameras and jackets before lining up along the outside decks to get our first close up photographs of an awe inspiring landscape revealing itself in brief glimpses through a shallow sea mist. As we glide quietly past icebergs of fantastic shapes and sizes, some glowing brilliant white in the misty morning light, others shining an iridescent blue, the realisation that we are experiencing something rare and in a place where very few people have been is humbling.
The ship comes to a stop in Petrel Cove off the snow cap covered Dundee Island and we hear the rumble of the anchor being dropped. Within minutes the zodiac power boats are lowered from the rear deck, the gangway is taken down and the first team is ready to head to the gravel and black volcanic sand coast of Dundee Island weaving through chunks of ice that have calved off the larger icebergs. As I step ashore to our first outing on an Antarctica island, we are greeted by barking Antarctica fur seals crowding the beach area in the hundreds.
The highlight of our excursion on Dundee Island is a walk on the permanent ice cap that covers 99% of the island. As we slowly ascend the dome shaped ice sheet and gain height, I look back and see our home, refuge and shelter, the ship Professor Multanovskiy, dwarfed by towering cliffs of ice and looking tiny in the immense landscape.
By mid March, the southern summer is over and autumn is firmly in place. On the Antarctica Peninsula, that long finger of ice shrouded mountainous land that sticks out of the continent pointing north towards the tip of South America, the seas are actually beginning to freeze with winter fast approaching.
Over the next four days, our exploration of the Antarctica Peninsula and the sub Antarctica South Shetland Islands brings new wonders on an hourly basis. On crescent shaped Deception Island, actually the rim of a volcano that collapsed into the sea, we visit Whalers Bay and see the remains of a whaling station that was once part of the cruel industry that slaughtered millions of whales to obtain precious whale oil before the days of petroleum. Deception Island’s volcanic origins are very evident in the steam vents and pools of warm water that can be seen at several places along the shore at Fumarole Bay.
On King George Island, we land ashore and are greeted by gentoo penguins. The Fildes Peninsula on King George Island is home to several scientific research stations and we walk past the Chinese Great Wall Station to reach colonies of chin strap penguins and numbers of elephant seals lolling on the shore. The Russian Bellingshausen station has the only church in the Antarctica, one of Siberian design perched on a lovely site overlooking Ardley Cove and the ice sheet that covers parts of King George Island. On the nearby Eduardo Frei research station run by Chile, we get our passports stamped with an ‘official’ Antarctica stamp formally recording our presence on the southern continent.
Heading further south, we made landfall at Brown Bluff, on the very tip of the Antarctic continent itself one lovely evening. The flat sea mirrored the icebergs and the calm of the moment was only broken by playful fur seals that we sometimes had to dodge in a hurry. Gentoo penguins with their orange beaks nested in the hundreds on the nearby slopes and we even saw a few of the smaller and more elegant Adelie penguins for the first time. As we weaved our way back to our mother ship in the zodiac through small and large bergs, some of fantastic shape, the icy continent was bathed a gentle shade of rose pink in the fading evening light.
Sailing down the western side of the Antarctica Peninsula, a part known as Graham Land we encountered ‘normal’ polar weather with a rising wind, a choppy sea, dark clouds and flurries of snow showers. We were greeted by young and adult gentoo penguins staring curiously at us as we landed on Cuverville Island with some of the chicks still in their fluffy down feathers looking cute. The storm clouds parted to let in rays of evening sunshine as we sailed gently through the freezing waters of the Errera Channel to Paradise Bay and Neko Harbour to reach the southernmost point on our journey. The stunning walls of blue ice towering within a few metres of the ship, the roar of ice breaking from the ice cliffs and crashing into the half frozen sea, the sheer magnificence of the surroundings made us speechless for once.
On the three day long voyage heading north across the Drake Passage back to Ushuaia, we had time to spend with our fellow travellers who had become good friends by now and think back on a trip that would likely remain the highlight of our travels in this lifetime.
Why go there: Antarctica is likely to remain a specialized and niche destination offered by a small number of experienced tour operators focusing on expedition style journeys to people really wanting to get away from the crowds to areas of great natural beauty in very special and unique locations.
Getting there: Several airlines fly to Buenos Aires (Argentina) either via Europe or via the USA. From Buenos Aires, you ca book your own flights online to and from Ushuaia directly on the websites of Aerolineas Argentinas or on LAN Argentina. Both are reliable carriers.
Visas: An Argentina visa is required for Indian citizens.
Where to stay: Hotel accommodation in Buenos Aires and in Ushuaia can easily be booked on any major hotel portal or through any reliable travel agent. While Buenos Aires has a wide range of hotels to suit every budget, the choice in Ushuaia is limited to 3 and 4 star hotels. Prices during the southern summer season ( November-March) can be in the range of US$ 120-150 per room per night.
Weather: Antarctica voyages operate only during the November to March period (spring and summer in the southern hemisphere). Temperatures can range from a comfortable 15-18deg C in Ushuaia to a chilly 1-3 deg C in Antarctica. The ship is comfortably heated.
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