After our initial attempt at Antarctica, we were lucky enough to rebook on a full cruise from the southern tip of Argentina. Originally we chose the flight option because we heard the crossing can be extremely rough. We were lucky though, on the way out max seas were 3-4 meters and on the way back they didn’t top 2 meters, for the Drake Passage these are low seas. We did take dramamine on the first day but after it smoothed out I didn’t take it again. During the 2 day crossing each way we were entertained with many educational talks on Antarctica, we had talks on whales, penguins, other birds and geology. Each one was done by an onboard expert from the Expedition team, all very informative, fun and well presented. We also had some safety briefings on riding in the zodiacs, bio security, ensuring we were safe and didn’t bring along any invasive species to the fragile environment. The busy schedule made the crossing time go fast. We saw our first iceberg around lunch the second day and sighted land in the early afternoon. Due to the easy crossing we arrived early, so they squeezed in our first excursion already that afternoon.
The excursions were our twice daily experience while in Antarctica, usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon. At each site the Expedition team would unload all the Zodiacs and load them up with groups of 10 for the landing. Half of the passengers would land at the site while half went Zodiac cruising. Each landing had us visiting some unique feature of Antarctica. We visited 3 different types of penguin colonies, Adelie, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins. Getting up close to the penguins, seeing them interact with each other and their chicks, and seeing the huge size of the colonies was very cool. We saw some historic sites, visiting some old huts and a base, but others were just a nice place to walk and enjoy the views across the water and Antarctica landscape. A couple of the landings were on islands, but there was definitely a landing on the mainland so we could get our 7th continent checkmark. The zodiac cruisings were always unique, we took advantage of whatever was on offer at each site. We might find a whale feeding and get up close to see them or cruise along the coast to see more penguins and seals, or we might cruise around the ice to spot seals and just marvel at the unique shapes and colors of all the ice. One trip we also saw a shipwreck of an old whaling factory ship that had caught fire and sank. Between excursions and overnight the ship would relocate to a new location for our next excursion, sometimes just a couple miles up the coast, but sometimes over 50 miles. So even when not in excursions there was always changing landscapes to see, I spent a lot of time on the front deck searching for whales or just taking in the epic views. It felt the crew really worked hard to show us as much as possible of Antarctica. Thanks to some extra effort we were able to see 2 cool places that not all trips get to see. First we were able to pass through to the East side of the peninsula, the Weddell Sea side, because of this we were able to see the largest penguin colony, over 80K mating pairs. On this side we were also able to see tabular icebergs, these are the huge flat top icebergs that break off of floating ice shelfs. Huge chunks of ice that are miles wide and stick up over 80 meters out of the water, just giant ice walls, that also have hundreds of meters of ice underneath the surface. We were lucky enough on our zodiak cruise to have a humpback whale up close to the tabular iceberg, this site was truly awesome.
The other amazing spot was the Errera channel. A narrow passage between the mainland and islands with black granite mountains towering on each side. The passage was filled with huge icebergs that made me wonder if we could fit through. The towering landscape, blue green waters and white icebergs on this sunny day made for an awesome experience. The chef also had a BBQ at this time on the outer deck, which only added to the great experience.
2 excursions were a highlight for me, both involving whales. The first happened to be the day I was Standup Paddle Boarding, there were options to do SUPing or kayaking in place of a zodiac cruise. So on my SUP day, we stepped out to see a juvenile Minke whale coming in quite close. Once we got out on the SUPs we were able to interact with this whale for 30 minutes. It kept surfacing right next to us, sticking its head out of the water to check us out, and rolling onto its back as it weaved between us. This whale was playing with all of us which made for an awesome experience. The gopro video from a SUP was pretty shakey, but Charissa ended up on a zodiac nearby and got this pic.
The second amazing experience was out on the zodiac, we happened to be on the zodiac with the whale expert Jimmy, he brought us out in search of whales and boy did we find them. We ended up about 3 miles from the main ship, but in this cove were tons of humpback whales. We followed a couple differnent whales during the hour, and were able to get in quite clsoe with a few of them. Getting close to a few was magicall, but we were absolutely surrounded by them there were at least 20 different whales in our vicinity, as soon as one passed through a few more would pop up behind us. I was able to capture some nice video as well as a few fluke pics too.
One other thing we did was the polar plunge. Surprisingly over half of the passengers took advantage of this opportunity. We were tethered in case something happened. I did it, it wasn’t quite as shocking as I expected, I think my time in the sauna / cold pool with my Icelandic friend Aever helped me to know what to expect. So now that I have landed on all 7 continents, I now have the new challenge of swimming in each of the 7 seas. Charissa didn’t partake, she was able to take this albeit off color pic.
I have shared with you what we did on the trip but I think from the outside this trip probably does not appear as cool as it really is. While I can’t compare it to a standard trip, as it totally lacked any cultural aspect, I can compare it to other nature trips I have done. I think its uniqueness that sets it apart. The ecosystem and it’s wildlife are utterly unique. The basis for the whole ecosystem is zooplankton and phytoplankton, antarctic krill specifically, which feeds on the phytoplankton. This one species is the whole basis for life, almost everything else feeds directly off of this, with only 2 species that feed indirectly, leopard seals and orcas. And the number of species overall is very low, around 12 species of penguins ( 3 on the peninsula we saw ), half a dozen seal species, half a dozen different whale species, and then the birds, skuas, petrels, albatross, and cormorants. And underneath the surface the same, antarctic krill make up 95% of krill, there are a handful of invertebrates living on the ocean floor, and a handful of fish species. But the other side of this is the sheer scale of the wildlife, very few species, but those species thrive. Huge penguin colonies of 200k individuals, seals scattered everywhere, and thousands of whales. So while other places, say Africa safari land have the same vastness of wildlife, it is much more diverse, and other places where diversity is low it does not have the same scale, making Antarctica utterly unique. The ice is the other thing that makes it so unique, again it comes down to scale. The arctic has mostly sea ice, and some glacial ice. Antartica has mostly glacial ice while the sea ice stays locked up. We saw giant tabular icebergs that were miles wide rising 100 meters into the air, meaning they have over 600 meters of ice below them. And everywhere there are giants chunks that broke off of these that have been shaped by wind and waves into every shape imaginable, and the light coming through them shows every shade of blue you can imagine. Not so unique are the mountains that jut up around them, black granite jutting into the skies, often 1000+ meters steeply up from the clear blue green waters. But combined with the glaciers between them and the icebergs in the water, it made for some epic landscapes that rivalled any I have seen in my travels. Here is a big gallery of our best Antarctic pics, enjoy!
The other unique part was how few people get to see Antarctica, we are now part of a very small club. While this brings some mixed emotions, it mostly adds to the trip that we are so lucky to be one of the few that can witness this directly.
The cruise aspect I enjoyed more than I had expected, I think because it wasn’t like your average cruise. The ship itself while nice, the onboard entertainment wasn’t the selling point, but just a nice diversion while transiting between stops. The main attraction was Antarctica and the twice daily zodiac landings. The food was quite good, which is likely better than your average cruise, but only marginally better than your average chain restaurant experience. The people were as expected, 80% retirement age, in the generally richer part of society. Though in the 20% left we found some cool people to hang out with. But inevitably we ended up at dinner tables we people we would have preferred to avoid.
So if you read the first part and thought “Seals, penguins, whales and ice, So What” then I have failed to portray how great this trip was, it will be the pinnacle of our trip away and currently is the 3rd greatest trip we have ever taken. I hope everyone who reads this will be able to make the trip themselves some day.
And I have to give a shout out to the excellent Quark Expeditions and Laurie and her whole expedition team. They all worked hard to bring us a wonderful experience, they all had their own unique background which added to the overall experience. I would totally recommend them for your Antarctic adventure.
