#frozencontinent

We left London on a typically grey and drizzly November evening stoked to be starting our adventure and bound for Buenos Aires (BA).  Had a one night stopover in BA before getting an early morning flight the next day to Ushuaia on Tierra del Fiego (The Land of Fire) with the intention of trying to get Antarctic tickets ASAP.  We managed to get ‘last minute’ tickets relatively easily and quickly through a company called Freestyle Adventure travel (thanks Sarah and Gabby) who are based in Ushuaia and who specialise in these trips to Antarctica.  While there are a bunch of different options which can take you on longer trips via the Malvinas (Argentinean name for the Falklands) and South Georgia we settled on a 10 day expedition with a Canadian company called Quark which we got for about 40% by going ‘last minute’.  Randomly, while booking, we got talking to another Aussie couple who were from the southwest Queensland town of Charleville near where I grew up.  Turned out we would be lucky to spend a good bit of time with Georgia and John as they were taking the same Antarctic expedition as us….talk about a small world!  

With the trip booked we found ourselves with several days to kill so set about sussing out what adventures Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego had to offer.  At first we found Ushuaia to be a fairly uninspiring place but gradually the little ramshackle port / tourist town grew on us not to mention the stunning scenery which surrounds it.  While I wouldn’t want to spend more than 5 - 6 days there we easily filled our days.  Highlights included:

Spending a day hiking the tranquil yet stunning trails of the Tierra del Fuego National Park and getting lost in the Patagonian bogs on the way to the milky green Laguna Esmeralda

Reminding myself of my ever-increasing fear of heights by climbing to the top of Martial Glacier above Ushuaia before straddling fallen trees to cross gushing rivers on the way back down through the forest

Hiring a car and driving through towering glacial valleys and across windswept mountain passes to visit the glassy stillness of Lago Escondido before staying in a cosy little cabin (Hosteria Kaiken) overlooking the massive Lago Fagnano

Feasting on a King Crab ‘volcano’ and Cazuela de Mariscos (seafood stew) while sucking back some tasty local craft beers at La Mesita del Almanza in the scruffy little fishing village of the same name (Almanza)

Visiting Estancia Harberton (original sheep station of the area) for a bit of history on the original inhabitants of the area and the challenges faced by sheep farmers in the late 1800’s and first half of the1900’s

With Ushuaia and the surrounding area well and truly explored it was time for the trip, so around 4:30pm on 10/12 we boarded the gang plank of the MV Sea Adventurer pumped to be finally heading for Antarctica.  To try and wrap this up I’ve broken the next little bit up to a few words on our ship, the expedition itself, the wildlife and the ice.  So…the ship…

The Sea Adventurer is one of the flagship vessels for Quark and has an ice class of 1A meaning it can push through a bunch of ice which a lot of ships can’t.   It was way more luxurious than we expected and even though we had the cheapest cabins down in the belly of the ship they were still super comfy.   There were ~75 ships crew, expedition crew and ‘hotel’ staff for us 100 passengers.  They were all completely awesome from the obviously experienced yet slightly crazy Russian Captain to the definitely crazy but super warm Ukrainian waitress.  The expedition crew also included a bunch of experts in their field including an Ornithologist, Marine Biologists, a Historian and a Geologist who gave daily talks on various topics when they weren’t guiding us around the ice or through the water in Zodiacs (inflatable dinghies).

Our 10 day trip consisted of a very rough 2.5 day crossing of the dreaded Drake Passage (with 6 - 12m swells), 5 days on the Antarctic peninsular and in the South Shetland islands and then a very smooth and very fast trip back which allowed us to go via Cape Horn.  Some people did camping, others went kayaking but for most of us we had 2 excursions per day hanging out with penguins and seals, visiting British and Argentinean bases or cruising the water in inflatable zodiacs searching for wildlife and gaping at the never ending ice.  We had BBQ’s on the ships deck, climbed peaks for epic views of Antarctic goodness and even took a plunge in -1 degree water before thankfully guzzling down shots of Vodka to warm ourselves up again.  

Antartica isn’t really known for a huge amount of biodiversity but there certainly is volume particularly of Gentoo penguins of which we saw 1000’s (probably 10′s of 100′s).  Other than those cute and hilarious little buggers we saw two other types of penguins (Chinstrap and Adelie), 4 types of seals (Crabeaters, Weddell, Leopard and the amazing Elephant seals), 2 types of whales (Minke and Humpbacks), several types of birds (can’t remember them all) and some lucky buggers apparently even saw a pod of Orcas (Killer Whales).   Mostly the wildlife was completely non - plussed about our presence  and a lot of the time (particularly for the penguins) I think we were quite a nuisance.  The Humpbacks were easily the most impressive and we had the pleasure of sailing probably 10 - 15m from a pair of them for 5 - 10mins one morning.  Those massive creatures truly are breathtaking and outrageously cool!

Perhaps even more impressive than the wildlife (at least for me and I think Fi as well) was the ICE.  From the HUUUUUGE tabular bergs, to the tortured glacial ice which looked set to carve off at any moment, to the sea ice we churned through in the Sea Adventurer, we saw ALOT of ice and it was amazing.  It came in all different textures, shapes and every possible shade of blue you can imagine and never ceased to make me stare in wonderment!  Some ice was glassy smooth, some was jagged like sea born stalactites and then you would have the pieces that were dimpled like a giant golf ball eroded by the constant lapping of the ocean.  On one particularly perfect day in the aptly named Paradise Bay we went Zodiac cruising around the ice, up to a decent sized glacier and switched the engines off.  We sat for a spellbinding few minutes looking and listening to the ice all around us.  You could hear the water gently lapping against the bergs around us and in the distance you could hear the glacier creaking and groaning under the weight of a millennia of pressure.  The water was so still and flat it created such a picture of Antarctic perfection that no camera could ever appropriately capture it (mine was frustratingly on the blink at the time).  Not for the first time was I spun out at how the driest continent on earth can be made up of so much snow and ICE.