Antarctica Diary
Imagine Cape Town - and then flying 3 ½ hours due south! That's what we did recently - flying before crack of dawn, to Ushuaia on the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego. Boarded "Fram", a Norwegian expedition cruise ship (which we are the agents for in South Africa). Only 230 passengers on board and everyone are nature-lovers and interesting people. More about this ship later.
Antarctica is without doubt one of the wildest places on earth. It is seriously remote, it is not easy (or cheap) to get there, there is no infrastructure, and the climate is as extreme as it can get. I was not only impressed by the overwhelming beauty of this vast continent, but I was also constantly aware of how special it was to be there. Every time I got off our zodiac and set foot on the mainland of Antarctica, I felt like an explorer who entered another world.
Tierra del Fuego means “Land of Fire”, it is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America mainland, the southern-most point is the legendary Cape Horn. The name comes from the first explorers who sailed here, they saw the fires from the local Yaghan tribe
Ushuaia is a real ‘frontier’ town. Generally chilly to cold all year ‘round. It is the hub for exploring the southernmost part of South America, as well as being the port where most of the Antarctic cruises depart from. It is a small town, one main street – a dozen or so restaurants serving the local speciality – King Crab – and of course we had to sample this. Absolutely delicious! It is so remote, so far from anywhere – the only feasible access is by air. And yet – after returning from the very remote Antarctica, Ushuaia didn’t seem so remote at all….
We sailed from Ushuaia at 18.00, out along Beagle Channel. On one side: Argentina. On the other side of the channel – Chile. We were lucky with the weather on our first day at sea, sailing towards Falkland Islands. We had balmy seas and sunny skies - but wind factor harsh so not much time spent on deck. Four fabulous lectures, on geology, wildlife and geography of sub-Antarctic region. This is yet another reason why I strongly recommend Fram as your Antarctic expedition ship of choice – more about this later.
On ‘sea days’ with no landings, we had a choice of 4 lectures, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. These lectures were given by specialists in their field – our Expedition team included 4 biologists (3 with PhD degrees), one Geologist, one Geographer and one professional photographer who was voted “Wildlife Photographer of the year” in 2013, his photos are often featured in National Geographic and many other magazines and websites. See below for lecture topics and lecturers. The lecturers were obviously chosen because they can make their subjects come alive, as opposed to dry tutorial lectures.
Each day, in the daily programme, there was information about the planned landing sites for the following day (see below).
Our first landing was at “New Island”, the westernmost island in the Falklands archipelago.
This morning misty and a strong wind. Dressed like Michelin-men (18 items of clothing), we had a splashy Polar Circle (rubber dinghy) boat ride and we landed on a beach. After 20 minutes’ walk we saw the most amazing rookery of black-browed Albatross and thousands of oh-so-cute Rockhopper Penguins. These photographs are possible because birds and animals have never been threatened so they have no fear of humans.
Back to ship and we sailed along the northern coastline, where we arrived the next morning in Port Stanley - capital on the Falkland Islands. Amazing that people live in these remote parts of the world! The 3000 inhabitants are extremely British, far more so than those living in the UK. I wondered why the fuss and the war with the Argentinians in 1982 over these islands – hardly anything grows, main exports is wool – but rich oil-fields have been discovered 160 nautical miles north of the islands (‘far richer than the North Sea oil-fields’), and all of a sudden it makes sense why Maggie (Thatcher) went to war over this outpost at the bottom of the world.
We did a walk-about in Port Stanley (there is one ‘supermarket’ there, everyone buys all their food, clothes, furniture, toys, stationery etc etc in this one shop!), and I also went on an excursion booked through the ship. We left Stanley and after ½ hour's drive we all piled into jeeps. Then across the wet and boggy peat-fields, slipping and sliding, down to a lagoon. To say it was cold and damp is a serious understatement. Once there, walkabout to a Gentoo penguin rookery, there were also a few Magellanic penguins amongst them. We were caught in a hailstorm and lashing winds – the hot chocolate we were served in the local ‘beach restaurant’ (see pic) was most welcome! Amazing – sitting with a cup of hot chocolate and watching a King penguin strolling past on the beach…. So now I can tick off 4 penguin species – Macaroni, Gentoo, Magellanic and King.
To really appreciate the Antarctic, one should also visit some of the islands in the sub-Antarctic region – to see the gradual change from temperate to frozen regions. Falklands lie in the sub-Antarctic region, as does South Georgia. This island is famous from the Whaling era at the beginning of the 1900ds, and it was also on South Georgia that Ernest Shackleton (famous explorer) landed after his miraculous crossing of the Scotia sea in a lifeboat.
We had the mother-of-all storms when we left Falklands, it was blowing 86 km/hr and the captain said it was a ‘force 9 gale’. Most passengers were lying low – the few that ventured out of their cabins had to hang onto anything fixed to the floor, to be able to move about. Luckily Nigel and I did not suffer from any seasickness, it was just an awesome experience seeing the force of the sea and a bit like being on a lengthy rollercoaster ride. The waves were huge, the wind howled but Fram handled the conditions without any problems at all (just dozens of smashed glasses, cups, bottles etc) – some people fell out of their chairs (chairs tipped over) in the biggest waves. The photo was taken from the lounge, showing the rolling of the ship in the storm.
Sailing from Falklands to South Georgia takes 2 days, and we crossed the “Convergence” – this is where the icy Antarctic water meets the ‘warmer’ (i.e. up to 4 degrees warmer) waters of the sub-Antarctic. This also regulates which birds, which fish and krill / plankton are found. We drifted with a large pod of humpback whales near “Shag Rocks”, north-west of South Georgia.
True to form – Fram doesn’t just stop in one location – at South Georgia we first landed at Fortuna Bay. Loads of seals (fur seals and elephant seals along the beach), as well as thousands of King penguins. In our pre-landing briefing we had been told: “keep away from the fur seals! If they try to attack, don’t run but make yourself as big as you can, wave your arms, clap your hands and shout – and they will (most often) stop!” Guess what happened – I was minding my own business walking and taking photos – when a feisty fur seal came at me, growling (yes, they do growl) and showing his teeth. Guess what I did? Ran as fast as
I could! But then someone shouted “don’t run”, so I stopped, waved arms, shouted and clapped hands – and he stopped in his tracks (but only a couple of meters away)! After that – a bit shaky – I made a BIG detour every time there was a seal in my path. The King Penguin rookery is massive, and these beautiful penguins (plus their furry chicks from last summer) filled the valley.
We went ashore at Stromness and later at Grytviken, an old Norwegian whaling station on South Georgia. Amazing to see remnants of what was a working community of 450-500 people here in the very remote part of the world. It is staggering to see how the world just thought killing thousands and thousands of whales (to use the whale oil, used for margarine, in ammunition and lubrication) was OK – nobody realised that it was not a limitless supply of whales for all times. Thankfully now most countries have stopped whaling altogether.
South Georgia also has the grave of Ernest Shackleton, and the local Norwegian church has been beautifully restored – and celebrated the 100 year centenary a few days after we were there. There is a UK research station on South Georgia now and much effort is made in removing the reindeer (introduced by the Norwegian whalers for hunting and meat) and the rats also introduced by the whaling ships (not intentionally!) – they don’t belong here and are doing the habitat no good at all (eating bird eggs, the South Georgia pipit is extinct on the main island due to the rats)!
In the afternoon saw out first two ice-bergs as we left South Georgia. Although the itinerary lists “South Orkneys”, we were not able to go there as satellite photos showed way too much ice. It seems the winter is longer than usual, by now the pack-ice should be further south. We saw more ice-bergs, whilst heading for Elephant Island (famous from Shackleton story) and then south to Antarctic mainland. Pic shows us in a fjord on southern South Georgia - glaciers coming down to the sea. Spot Nigel in shorts on deck.....
The following day we had calmer wind and sea. During dinner we had a fabulous “show” - right outside the windows where we were sitting, a couple of humpback whales swam alongside the ship. The captain switched the ship’s engines off so we drifted with a pod of whales for the best part of an hour. Close by, a small iceberg with a flock of penguins catching a ride. A few minutes later - Fin whale - the second largest whale (after blue whale). Later that evening we arrived in scattered pack- ice, so now we were really getting closer to the "white continent".
We arrived in the South Shetlands archipelago, the islands closest to the Antarctic peninsula. We went ashore to visit a Polish research station, where one of the on-board lecturers spent two years. One of the topics of our many lectures was the Antarctic Treaty and how this works in practice. Many countries have research stations here, some only used during "summer" months, others are in use on a permanent basis.
We also learnt about IAATO= International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators. Any ship bringing tourists to this "white continent" must be a member of IAATO. Landing sites must be applied for and granted by IAATO. Strict regulations govern the behaviour on land, and all refuse of any sort must be kept on board and only discharged once the ship is back in Ushuaia. IAATO also stipulates that any ship with more than 500 passengers, will not be allowed to land any passengers!! So if you know of anyone thinking to book on an Antarctic cruise, make sure it is on a ship of less than 500, otherwise they will just see this amazing continent from a distance.
As I am writing this I can see whale-blows close to the ship. It is foggy today, with ice-bergs scattered around. The pic was taken last night through our porthole, taken at approx. 23.00!
Antarctica is unlike anything else. How can I sum up the last few days in a couple of paragraphs? Remote. White. Silent. Inhospitable. Majestic. I have had my fair share of ice-bergs, penguins, seals, glaciers and snow. It has been snowing, and we have walked through deep snow. How the early explorers came here and survived, I have no idea.
The sun is still shining at 23.30 at night and up again before 4 in the morning. Some days were overcast, so all photos look as if I've used a "black n white" setting on my camera, a couple of days were sunny and stunningly beautiful. Still we are warned about the sudden winds which can come up and change conditions in a matter of minutes. Having a whisky "on the rocks" using Antarctic glacier ice (which went snap, crackle and pop in the glass as the trapped air was being released) was another memorable moment. I also saw a Minke Whale swim along the ship while we were lying in a frozen bay.
The captain wasn’t sure if we could sail through the Lemaire Channel, but when he heard that another ship had got through the day before, he decided to give it a go. It was grey, cold and bleak – and Fram butted her way through the pack-ice, dodging the biggest icebergs, pushing smaller ones out of the way. It was a slow procedure, once we got through we reached a solid ice-shelf but as it was ‘only’ 10 – 15 cm thick, the ship (thanks to having an ice-strengthened hull) managed to break through.
We visited a Ukrainian research station located 65 degrees 15 mins south. It was here that the hole in the Ozone layer was discovered, and this station monitors meteorological and astrophysical conditions around earth. The area was covered in solid ice everywhere, so we had to break our way through the ice to reach the point where the rubber boats were launched. Then - in the rubber boats, bashing our way through the pack-ice, whilst the penguins looked on in amazement and towering ice-bergs were all around us. Tour of the research station and a tot of Russian vodka completed the visit. The sun is out and it was stunningly beautiful, just look at these photos.