SOUTH
AMERICA OVERLAND
#3
7-Jan-2009: Antarctic Expedition
Well here
we are again roughing it in South America!
We began
our Antarctic Expedition by moving into the Hotel Albatross on the
night before
the expedition was to begin. This hotel voucher was included in
the
expedition
package. We were in the hotel lobby ten minutes before midday
ready to
check in
and eager to make use of all the facilities available to us. We
particularly enjoyed
the free WiFi internet service for all hotel guests as well as the
spa
and
sauna and the complimentary breakfast. That night, we all went out
to
have an
Argentine “all you can eat” spit roast dinner with our travelling
companions. Eamon
was flying home to Australia while Simon was pushing
on alone with his motorbike on New Year’s
day.
On the day
of departure, our luggage was collected in the morning. We had a
leisurely day
in downtown Ushuaia window shopping. At mid afternoon, we met up
with
our Quark Expedition
representative on
the pier. We were transported by coach to where the Clipper
Adventurer
was
docked. There were 112 passengers altogether on this Classic
Antarctica
voyage.
We were both very excited about this trip of a lifetime. We did
not
really know
what to expect other than seeing icebergs, penguins and seals.
The moment
we walked up the gangway, we were greeted by the Expedition Staff
and
welcomed
by the crew members of the Clipper Adventurer. We were immediately
ushered into
the main lounge for chocolate chip cookies, sandwiches and drinks.
We
were
taken aback by the plush décor around the ship. The main
lounge
even had a baby
grand piano!
After turning
in our passports to the Reception, we were shown to our cabins by
our
room attendant. Our cabin was on the lowest level. It
was a very comfortable “stateroom” with ample wardrobes, dressing
table
and private
bathroom. By this stage, we both realised that this was going to
be a
luxurious
expedition. The ship was run like a Hotel with a Manager, dining
stewards, room
attendants to pamper us all day long for the next ten days. This
ship
definitely makes the ferry crossing we took across Lake Victoria
from
Tanzania
to Uganda seem like a paddle in a canoe in terms of comfort and
luxury!
Geoff’s
a bit worried that Kienny might never want to get back into Troopy
after living
in such luxury!
Geoff and Kienny
were like two children exploring the hallways, library, dining
room,
upper
decks and outer decks peering into the windows of the deluxe
cabins.
However,
we were very satisfied with our lower berth cabin as we figured we
might not be
rocking as much when we cross the dreaded Drakes Passage. It takes
two
days to
cross the Drakes Passage which is where the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans
converge and is reputed to be the roughest sea voyage in the
world.
After
unpacking and settling into our cabins, all the passengers were
gathered for
our first meet and greet with the Expedition Leader and his team
of
experts. We
had an Ornithologist, Geologist, Marine Biologist, Whale and Seal
Specialist,
Historian, Naturalists and Zodiac Drivers. Our Expedition Leader
has
had many
Antarctic voyages under his belt in the past 29 years. How
privileged
to be in
the company of such an expert team who will be educating and
informing
us over
the next 10 days. We also had to learn a new maritime vocabulary
like
stern,
portside, starboard and bow. When we hear that there are whales at
10
o’clock,
that meant the location relative to the bow, not to wait till 10
am to
see the
whales. We also had our “abandon ship”
drill so every passenger knew what to do and where to go in the
unlikely event
of having to abandon ship. We later learnt that there is at least
one
ship a
year that runs aground or is trapped by packed ice in the
Antarctic
area we
will be visiting.
After an
hour’s delay due to strong winds, our ship finally departed
Ushuaia and
steamed
through the Beagle Channel towards the open sea called Drakes
Passage.
We were
escorted a short distance by some sea birds gliding gracefully at
the
ship’s
stern. About 5 hours into the voyage, the going started to get
rough.
All night
long and for the next two days, the ship was buffeted by strong
winds
and 10
metre waves. The ship’s engineer came down to the lower berths to
seal
all our
portholes in case the waves cracked the outer glass layer.
Over the
next two days, the majority of passengers did not turn up for
breakfast,
lunch and
dinner in the dining room as most of us were too seasick to be
stumbling about
the ship’s corridors and to keep our food down. The hotel staff
were
fantastic
as they were busy delivering room service to individual cabins.
Sick
bags were
strategically placed on all the handrails along the corridors and
staircases.
Our expedition leader said the Drakes crossing rated about average
but
we were
sure that the rough crossing was close to the highest rating!
By the third
night of the Drakes Crossing, most of us have found our sea legs
and we
were
able to enjoy our New Year’s eve hat party. We were to show up in
hats
made
from any material on board the ship except for fire extinguishers
and
life jackets.
There were some amazingly creative hats. The Clipper lounge was
decorated with
balloons, streamers, midnight snacks and refreshments. It was
interesting to
note that many of the passengers on this expedition were mainly in
the
50 plus
age group. Then there was a small contingent in the 30 plus age
group
with
about 15 passengers in their late teens.
New Year’s
Day was a good day for everyone as we were in calmer waters. We
have
left
Argentina and were now in Antarctica! We were about 150 km north
of the
Antarctic
Circle as the ship navigated its way through ice bergs in the
Lamiere
Passage. Our
first destination was Vernadsky Research Station, formerly called
Faraday
Station but the British sold it to the Ukraine for the princely
sum of
one British
pound. Today, this station is researching and monitoring climate
change
and the
hole in the ozone layer. Vernadsky Station was our first Zodiac
landing. We were
also told by the Ukrainian scientists that they had picked up
seismic
activity
that caused the Boxing Day Tsunami two years ago. As we were
returning
to the
ship, we saw a leopard seal resting on top of an iceberg.
After an
early dinner, we made another Zodiac landing on Peterman Island.
What a
beautiful place! Our Zodiac navigated through numerous icebergs
which
were very
spectacular. The beach we landed on was a penguin rookery/nursery.
We
encountered our first Adelie and Gentoo Penguins close-up. They
were
not
perturbed by our presence at all. Whilst we tried to keep a good
distance from
the penguins, some of the more inquisitive penguins came up very
close
to where
we sat. It was a very special experience to be amongst such happy
and
carefree
creatures!
On our
second day in the Antarctic Peninsula, we were taken for a Zodiac
cruise in
Iceberg Alley. We weaved in and out of icebergs of different
shapes and
sizes. The
icebergs were also very colourful. Some had different shades of
blue
and turquoise,
some had arches and icicles while some icebergs were bigger than
our
ship. In
the distant background, there were very formidable mountains
covered in
white
and massive glaciers that emptied into the sea. Whilst on the
cruise,
we had a
close encounter with another leopard seal. It was very inquisitive
and
swam
around and under our Zodiac. The highlight of the encounter was
when it
hauled itself
onto a small iceberg and rested on it for a few minutes. It had a
very
smiley
facial expression and looked very cuddly and adorable.
Later that
afternoon, our ship continued on the Lamierre Channel towards
Useful
Island.
Once again we got into our Zodiacs and bounced over the rough
waves to
land on
Useful Island. We hiked up a hill in knee deep snow to see a
penguin
nursery.
This time we saw a third species of penguin called the Chinstrap
Penguin. We
also spotted a Weddell seal and another Leopard seal. The scenery
in
Antarctica
is just amazingly beautiful. We could not stop taking photos.
That
evening, the Clipper steamed into Paradise Bay and dropped anchor
for
the
night. This was a very magical place. It was like a winter
wonderland
and ever
so beautiful. The Bay was surrounded by tall jagged mountains
covered
with snow
and blue white glaciers pouring into the sea. We had a delicious
Barbecue
dinner outside on the upper deck with a panoramic view across the
Bay
to the glorious
mountain peaks all around us. Who would have thought that the
Antarctic
weather
would be so nice!
On our
third day in Antarctica, we sailed through Anvord Bay and
Wilhelmina
Bay to
Enterprise Island. We have been blessed with very good weather;
sunshine and
blue skies in the past three days. We were hoping for good weather
as
we made
land at Neko Harbour where we would be setting foot on the
Antarctic
Continent
itself. This was a historic moment for us, being that Geoff and
Kienny
have now
travelled to all 7 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, North
America,
South
America, Australia and Antarctica). Neko Harbour is another
awesome
place. We
hiked up to the highest point to get a better view of the ship
anchored
amongst
icebergs and pack ice as well as several glaciers with large
fissures
ready to break
off and fall into the sea. Geoff and Kienny plucked up enough
courage
to slide
down the steep soft snow-covered hill on our bottoms. There was a
family with
three teenage kids and they showed us how to do it. No Fear! It
was
quite a
thrill. For those who were very brave, there was an opportunity to
take
the polar plunge in the freezing waters. There were a good number
that took
up the
challenge, but we were quite content just to look at the pain each
swimmer went
through. What a fantastic outing we all had!
From Neko
Harbour we continued our voyage in the Gerlache Strait to Foyn
Harbour.
Once
again the scenery just took our breath away. We never dreamed that
Antarctica
would be more beautiful than all the other places we have
travelled to.
At Foyn Harbour, we went out for another
Zodiac Cruise. We cruised amongst amazing iceberg formations. Each
iceberg was
different and very interesting in size, shape and colour. We
checked
out an old
whaling shipwreck that was half submerged in the sea. We wondered
whether the
crew survived the icy cold conditions. There were also a couple of
wooden
rowboats washed up on high ground of a small island with two crab
eater
seals
sunning themselves close by. They were not the least bit
interested in
us.
After our
afternoon excursion, it was time to make our way from the Gerlache
Strait into
Bransfield Strait and head for Deception Island which is part of
the
group of
islands that make up the South Shetland Islands.
We got an
early wake-up call as the Clipper Adventurer was making its way
through
Neptune’s
Bellows, a very narrow passage with dramatic volcanic rock
formations
on both
sides of the ship. This narrow passage brought us out into Telefon
Bay,
our
first Zodiac excursion of the day. This time, we landed on a
pebbly
volcanic
beach. For the first time, we did not have to trudge through soft
snow.
We took
a short hike inland up to a big Caldera. Our Geologist was
delighted to
be able
to show us and teach us more about this volcano which last erupted
in
1970. It
was quite eerie standing on the edge of this large crater looking
down
into a
big hole where the volcano would have erupted violently. We
returned to
the
beach to visit two Weddell Seals and a small colony of Chinstrap
Penguins. Once
again, we took too many photos.
The next
excursion for the day was a swim in the warm volcanic waters at
Pendulum Cove,
another volcanic beach not far from Telefon Bay. The weather was a
little bleak
this time but there were still quite a few adventurers who went in
for
a quick
dip to earn their second certificate for swimming in Antarctica.
On
this beach we
also saw the remnants of a Chilean research base which had been
destroyed
during the last volcanic eruption.
Our next
destination for the day was Aitcho Island. It took about 3 to 4
hours
of sailing
in order to get there. Along the way, we were joined by three
humpbacked
whales. We spent almost an hour whale watching these large mammals
trying to
capture their every move on camera. They were accompanied by
groups of
penguins
porpoising gracefully on the surface of the water.
Aitcho
Island was our final Zodiac landing. This island was full of
penguin
and other bird
colonies as well as Elephant seals and Weddell seals. This was the
best
wildlife stop of the voyage
and everyone returned to the ship very content and smelling like
guano.
Immediately
after our final excursion, the Clipper Adventurer headed out to
open
sea. The
ship started to rock side to side once again and many passengers
retreated to the
comfort of their cabins to nurse their sea sickness. The crew
delivered
room
service meals and took good care of us. By the next morning
conditions
in the
Drakes Passage had improved and the ship was able to make good
time
back to Ushuaia.
As we
approached the Beagle Channel, we gathered for a final briefing
with
our
expedition leader.He gave us a first
hand account of the MV Explorer that sank in Antarctica on
23-Nov-2007
as he was the Expedition Leader on that final voyage and was the
third
last person to abandon ship! We were somewhat glad that he left
this
talk till
the end and not at the beginning of our voyage.
So, we are
now back on firm ground at Ushuaia. In total we sailed 2876km over
a
period of
10 days. We were reluctant to leave the Clipper Adventurer having
had
such a
wonderful voyage to Antarctica. We met and got to know a lot of
other
well
travelled adventurers. We have been
very
impressed with Quark
Expeditions.
Our Expedition Leader and his team of experts were just the best.
The
crew of
77, including 6 chefs on board the Clipper Adventurer were all
very
professional and always on hand to pamper us to the hilt. The
meals
were all excellent.
We would not hesitate to highly recommend Quark Expeditions to
anyone
contemplating
a voyage to Antarctica. Antarctica is the driest, coldest, highest
and
windiest
continent on earth. Despite this it is the most beautiful place we
have
ever
visited. It will always have a special
place in our hearts and memory.
From
Ushuaia we have no other alternative but to take the road North on
our
journey
to Alaska.
We trust that you will enjoy our pictures of Antarctica. The pictures for this
section of our trip can be found by clicking here and here or by
selecting the
Next arrow button at the bottom of this page.
A map of our trip can be
seen by going to http://kingsmilloverland.com/americas/GoogleMaps/Americas.html or by selecting the Map button at the
bottom of this page.
The WEB site containing
our travels in Africa, Russia and South America is http://kingsmilloverland.com or by selecting the Contents button
at
the bottom of this page.
Best Wishes,
Geoff
and Kienny Kingsmill
Email:
gkingsmill@yahoo.com
WEB:
http://kingsmilloverland.com