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Antarctica

By : Francis Andrews
Trip Begins February 17, 2008
Trip Ends February 28, 2008

At 65 degrees south latitude, we reached our furthest point south and landed on the actual continent of Antarctica. Now we were actually on the continental land mass.
See my photos : Antarctica

Want to go? The Antarctic Dream: Antarctic Dream Expedition

I went to: Antarctica, Antarctic Peninsula, Argentina, Ushuaia, El Calafate, South Shetland Islands, Drake Passage
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February 17, 2008
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The Journey Begins

Ushuaia, Argentina

Sunday, the day we were leaving for Antarctica, we took an early morning stroll to the waterfront and spotted our industrial looking little red “expedition” ship. It was docked on our side of a long pier that ran parallel to our position on shore. There was also an enormous cruise ship tied up on the other side of the same pier. We had no problem seeing most of the sparkling white cruise ship as our little red dwarf was only big enough to obscure the bottom quarter of the cruise ship’s prow.

In the afternoon when we were taken by bus to board our red dwarf, we rode onto the pier and gawked up at the Cinderella boat and down at our ugly duckling. We wondered whether or not we had made a bad decision or not as we the inspected the bay windows of the princess and the portholes of the ugly stepsister. Oh well, too late now!! At least, our 78 passengers were able to get aboard in about 15 minutes while the 3,000 cruise ship passengers had to be brought aboard in organized tsunamis.

We departed Ushuaia on our 1,000 kilometer journey to Antarctica on February 17th, at 6:00 PM. The ship’s activities planner warned us that once we exited Ushuaia Bay, we would be in the open seas and that they could be quite rough. He said we would almost immediately enter the stretch of water known as The Drake Passage. This Passage is famous for its turbulent seas and our ship was going to take 2 days to cross it. He recommended that everyone take a Dramamine pill now and another in the morning. I had heard about the Drake Passage before and thought I would wait and see how bad it was and how well I withstood it. However, the activities planner was pretty convincing; we got our two pills each and followed the advice given.The ugly duckling took about two hours to waddle out of Ushuaia Bay on its way to the Passage. As soon as we hit the open seas, the Drake Passage began to live up to its reputation.

Initially, we had some rolling swells that came at us from the west of our southbound ship. The ship began rocking and rolling from side to side. We would tilt to port as the wave pushed in from the west and then we would roll to starboard as the wave passed underneath. The pills worked. After a couple of hours, neither Janice nor I had experienced any queasiness. We turned in and fortunately our bed was positioned abeam (I think that’s the correct term.) so that our feet faced starboard and our heads were to port. As the waves rolled in throughout the night, our feet would lift and our heads would sink. Then, a couple of seconds later, we would get the reverse effect.

February 18, 2008
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Rockin; and Rollin'

Drake Passage, Antarctica

The next day, the waves got bigger. We were told that the swells were reaching 18 feet. The waves were big but I really couldn’t guess how big. The swells continued relentlessly all day. As the second evening approach, the ship started to get rocked by large waves in one-two punches, i. e., a couple of large back to back swells. At lunch, one or two people got rocked completely out of their chairs and landed on the floor. The chairs are all lashed down, but they can still tilt far enough to one side or backwards to pitch the occupant out of his seat.

At dinner the second evening, the seas were the worst. I got rolled out of my chair twice as my prow facing chair tilted to the port as far as the tether allowed. I was able to land on my feet both times, but only with great difficulty. A few other folks were thrown completely out of their seats. One man whose chair faced the starboard side went out of his seat backwards and landed on the floor. Another small woman went flying out of her chair, sliding across the floor and only stopped when her head crashed into a support beam. No one was seriously hurt, however. Finally, by midday the next day, the seas began to calm as we reached the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands.

That same afternoon as we returned from a lecture on Antarctic bird life and entered our cabin, I could see through our front window an ice berg on the horizon – the first of the trip. We went outside to get a better look. We could see three or four large bergs on the starboard and as many or more on the port. We continued to pass these towers of ice for the next two hours.

In the evening, we learned that we would be making our first landing at 9:00 the next morning. The crew had already placed pairs of boots, parkas and life vests in our room for the following days adventures with the Zodiac shuttles and on shore hikes.

February 19, 2008
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Penguins on the Moonscape

South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

At nine sharp, we were all decked out with our gear as we joined our group, which had been designated for the first landing. The staging area was filled with people in red parkas, orange life vests and black boots. It was reminiscent of a WWII movie with paratroopers standing in line preparing to jump from the side door of the plane. One by one a red parka would disappear out of the side of the ship and onto the bobbing steps that led to even more bobbing Zodiacs. There was a mix of snow, rain and ice pellets in the air and an icy breeze of about 20 knots. Cool!! Or, should I say cold?

Now, we were in our landing craft like some other WWII movie of Omaha Beach. We got on shore in about 10 minutes. There was no machine gun fire, only penguins to welcome us and everyone landed safely.

My first impression of the terrain was that we have landed on the moon except that it had penguins and ice. The landscape was stark, but magnificent. We were led up a hill by one of the guides passing through colony after colony of penguins. The rain/snow/ice changed to all ice and then stopped for a while. The penguins were adorable, unafraid, curious and a little smelly.

We spent about 2 hours on shore going up and down hills, over crags to edges of cliffs. Everywhere, there were more penguins. The guide said that a month ago there were so many penguins on this island that they couldn’t land because there was no space to maneuver around them.

February 20, 2008
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Zodiacing among the bergs

Antarctica

Our first stop in the area of Antarctica was actually the South Shetland Islands, which are considered to be sub-Antarctica. On a map, the South Shetlands look to be very close to the continent but I think technically they are not considered part of the continent. These islands do, however, get iced-in in winter and at that time if viewed from space would appear to be part of the expanded Antarctica continental ice shelf.

The day after our first landing, we had our second landing at Port Lockroy. Port Lockroy is located on an island that is off the Antarctic Peninsula and more clearly part of the continent just as Long Island would be considered part of North America. Port Lockroy used to be a research station for Britain but is now a souvenir shop. Can you believe it, a souvenir shop in Antarctica? Sometimes, I don’t like tour groups because the mandatory stops at souvenir shops are too long. Some spend more time at the souvenir shops then they do seeing the sights that I came to see. I remember thinking before embarking on this trip that “at least this tour group won’t be able to stop at some tacky tourist shop in Antarctica.” Wrong!!

The good news is that the tourist shop was pretty nice as it felt like a wilderness outpost. And, there were some adorable penguins to look at and a nice view or two. We also didn’t have to stay too long as the Zodiacs were coming and going from this stop to another non-tourist-shop landing on the other side of this small island.

The penguins here were even friendlier than those at the first landing point. Several penguins waddled over to Janice looking for food or caresses from its mother or father. (Tourists are not allowed to feed them.) I guess they thought Janice looked like a red penguin in her parka and boots. The chick kept hanging around and eventually started pecking at her boots and jeans to see if they tasted good enough to eat. Then, it came over to me and did the same thing. We learned also that if you flap your arms, the young penguin will start to flap his arms/fins/wings, too.

In the afternoon of the second landing day, we were supposed to go to another island, which is a research station manned by Kryzackistan (of all places). However, they were low on vodka and cancelled our ship’s invitation to land. Instead of landing at some other place, our planning director decided that we would go on a Zodiac tour of some ice bergs. Good decision!!

There was a good field of ice bergs floating nearby. We got all bundled up again, like you would do to go skiing on a cold day. There was a little snow falling and some ice pellets like the first day. Once we started to get close to the ice bergs, you forgot about the falling ice and snow. The ice bergs up close were fabulous. Many had a blue inner glow that looked like there was some kind of blue neon light inside. All of the bergs had a similar blue glow under the water where you could see the outline of the berg below the water. Sometimes, the blue under the water extended far out from the base of the ice above the water.

The Zodiacs plowed through the icy water, which was occasionally littered with small chunks of ice that almost completely covered the surface of the water. We went up close to some of the bergs, so close that you could have touched them if you were brave enough to lean over the slippery sides of the Zodiac. No one did that, but the wily Zodiac did bump into the sides of a berg or two as the driver tried to get as close as possible. A couple of bergs had some very large leopard seals relaxing on the flat surface of a hefty berg. All the while, other seals and penguins could be spotted here and there frolicking in to cold blue waters.

This ride amongst the ice bergs may have been the highlight of the whole trip.

February 21, 2008
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On the Antarctic Beach

Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica

At 65 degrees south latitude, we reached out furthest point south and landed on the actual continent of Antarctica. Our other landings had been on islands that are part of the continental plate/shelf, but now we were actually on the continental land mass. Everyone was pretty excited because most of us felt you couldn’t really say you have been to Antarctica without a pied-a-terre (not an apartment in New York, but a real foot on the real ground).

The biggest problem with trying to land on the actual continent is that there are not many places where you can just pull in your boat and hop out. Most of the coast of the continent projects uninviting obstructions to the seafarer. There is either the down slope end of a huge glacier that meets the sea in a vertical wall of ice a couple of hundred feet high. The ice breaks off (calves) at more or less a 90 degree angle to the water line. Or, the coast is a sheer mountain cliff that ends at the sea. If the mountain is not a sheer cliff, the sea sloping hill side ends up being covered with ice and snow and looking like the end of a glacier. Or, the coast is an ice shelf that has built up on the sea over the previous winter or winters. The ice shelf does the same calving as the valley glaciers. The ice shelf also breaks off in large chunks, too. About 15 years ago, a piece of ice shelf the size of Connecticut or Belgium broke off and floated out to sea.

Anyhow, there are a few spots where recent volcanoes have built up cinder and ash beaches down to the water’s edge. And, there are some other rocky beaches formed by more recent erosion or crumbling of the seacoast mountains. In both the volcano and erosion cases, snow and ice have not had thousands of years to build up and these black beaches warm up sufficiently in the spring and summer to clear the ice enough for a landing.

When it came time to land, our zodiacs pulled as close as possible onto the rocky shore, but the large boulders and chunks of ice made it necessary to jump out of the boat and into a foot or two of icy water. No one minded, however, because they just wanted to get on the land (and they had boots). Once on shore, we couldn’t really travel very far. From the small point of land where we hopped ashore, we were able to walk about a half mile along the rocky shore that curved into an inlet of ice filled sea. We couldn’t go far inland off the shore because we had a steep, penguin-littered, ice covered slope to our right and a wall of ice straight ahead.

Across the inlet from our beach, was a giant glacial wall. This wall of ice occupied the whole other side of the inlet and stretched from the side of the inlet opposite us to the most inland point of the inlet. The ice wall proceeded across the back end of the inlet all the way to our side. In other words, our stroll was blocked at the end of the inlet by a huge wall of ice. We were able to walk to within a hundred feet or so of the glacial wall and get a feel for its immensity.

Of course, penguins were there too, and we had to be careful not to get in their way as they waddle to the water. Most had finished breeding and the chicks had lost their fuzz. We could see small pods of penguins darting in and out of the water and splashing around the boulders that sat on and in the water’s edge.

Across the inlet, we could also hear the ice groaning and cracking every now and then. Everyone was hoping to see a calving, and we were not disappointed.

I was surprised by the fact that the ice made a lot of noise before a big chunk would break off. So, we were able to direct our attention to the spot from where the cracking seemed to be coming. Twice we saw pretty good size pieces break off and splash into the water. Getting a photo of such an event is another story, however. We would hear the cracking, wait to see where the movement was and then try to pick up the falling ice in the camera’s lens and zoom in at the same time. (Wait until I show you the calving I caught on the camera a week later in El Calafate.)

This setting on the shores of Antarctica made the trip worthwhile. Here we were on the shores of Antarctica, strolling around a stony beach watching penguins swimming and playing in an ice-choked bay, listening to the groan of the million year old ice of a glacier a stone’s throw away -- hoping that the calving ice didn’t create a tsunami too big for us to get away from. And, I forgot to mention, the sun was setting and we had an incredible sunset over the bay.

February 22, 2008
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Blue sky, warm winds and fantastic views

I forgot to mention that before we landed on the continent, we had a rather long afternoon cruise to get to our landing point. The afternoon turned out to be the most glorious day of our entire trip. The sun came out and we were comfortable out on the decks with just a sweater. The views were unbelievable. We took a million or so photos. We couldn’t stop taking pictures with the brilliant blue sky, the pristine white of the snow covered mountains, eerie white and blue ice bergs floating by and the incredible reflections of all of these in the blue glass top of the water. What an incredible prelude to our much anticipated continental landing.

After completing our landing on the continent, our ugly duckling boat began heading north on our way home.

February 23, 2008
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Volcanoes and Calderas

The next day, we had one more landing on Deception Island, which is actually the rim of an old, but recently active - 1997- volcano. The caldera of the enormous volcanic cone was flooded years ago when a small section of the rim fell into the sea and the ocean rushed in. We had been told we might be able to go swimming in a pool fed by hot springs heated from the geologically active earth below.

Our ship arrived early in the morning at the narrow and only navigable entrance into the caldera of the volcano. However, the wind was gusting to 40 knots and the captain was tentative about attempting to slip through the narrow opening that was guarded on both sides by shear rock cliffs. He was concerned that an unpredictable gust might blow us onto the rocks. After waiting outside the entrance for about an hour, another smaller boat that was also waiting to go in decided to give it a go. The smaller boat got through and made a bee line for the hot springs. Our boat followed but we lost our place in line for the hot springs. Because only 40 people can land at any one time at any one spot on Antarctica, we went instead to a black sand and cinder beach inside the caldera.

Our plan now was to hike up the wall of the crater rim and get some views of the island and surrounding sea. Almost nothing was growing on this scorched earth and there was very little ice, snow and no penguins. At the top of the ashy, cinder hill that led up from the beach, we came to the remnants of smaller but more recently active cones. The crest of the hill from the beach ended abruptly with sharp drops into the pits of the more recent volcanic cones. The crests of the cinder hill and the rims of newer volcanoes were very granular and about as stable as your average sand dune. The views were stark, dramatic and a little scary. The wind was also howling at the top making me nervous about standing too close to the unstable rims. It was quite a march of the red-jacket penguins up and down the black hills.

February 24, 2008
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Whales Watching Tourists

Back on the boat, it was time for another leg home that took us through humpback whale territory. The boat slowed to give us a better chance of spotting some whales. I’m not sure who spotted whom first, the whales seeing our boat or the tourists spotting the whales. But, before long, trios of whales were coming for a look at our boat. They would swim on one side, circle around the back of the boat dive and come up on the other side of the boat. They would come up right next to the side of the boat; dive under the boat and come up on the other side. I’m positive they were getting a real kick out of watching the tourists run from one side of the boat to the other to get a better look.

A few times the whales would come right next to the boat and stick their heads straight up out of the water and hold that position for 10 seconds or so. I think they were trying to get a good look at the passengers or maybe take a photo.

February 25, 2008
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Doing the Drake Again

Drake Passage, Antarctica

Re-read Day 2, February 18th.

February 26, 2008
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More Rockin' and Rollin' on the Drake

Drake Passage, Antarctica

Re-read Day3, February 19th.

February 27, 2008
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The End of the World

Ushuaia, Argentina

This day we arrived at our Antarctic voyage jumping off point. We didn’t think there was much to see in Tierra del Fuego even though I’ve always loved the sound of that name. I once had an outstanding and very funny accounting instructor for a CPA exam review course. I know, I know a funny accountant is an oxymoron. Anyhow, this instructor would always say “where have you been for the last 3 years, Tierra del Fuego?” to anyone who gave a stupid answer to one of his questions. After the class got used to hearing his sarcastic question, he began to just say “Tierra del Fuego!” when he heard a stupid answer. Soon, it became just “TDF”. Eventually, the class would shout TDF when it heard a stupid response and everyone would crack up. Ever since then Tierra del Fuego has had a special place in my memory.

Ushuaia may be the biggest pleasant surprise of the trip to Antarctica. Before coming here I had continuously checked the Ushuaia weather forecast and it was always the same: High 52, Low 42, cloudy with showers or rain. Plus, any photos of the town of Ushuaia that we had seen were always from a distance and primarily showing a miniscule town with drab mountains in the background with a few blotches of snow on the peaks. Even as we flew in skimming the tops of some pretty tall mountains, the earth below looked mostly treeless brown.

After checking into a crisp, modern “boutique” (whatever that is) hotel, we took a stroll along the main street. Not Bad! Some nice shops, a lot of cafes and many restaurants. A few restaurants had positioned their kitchens so that one could peer in from the street. These kitchens displayed three or four whole flayed lambs stretched on steel racks that stood on end. The racks were arranged in a circle with the top end of the racks slanted inward to form a sort of a teepee around an open pit fire. We learned that this kind of lamb barbecue is a specialty of the area. Other restaurants displayed large fish tanks with enormous ‘southern’ king crabs, another specialty of the area. We tried both specialties and they were excellent.

February 28, 2008
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The End of the Trip at the End of the World

Tierra del Fuego

On our last day, we explored the area outside of Ushuaia. One trip took us to a ski area where a ski-lift ride and short hike led to glaciers. There were trees and other green things all along the way. A look down the mountain provided a beautiful panorama of the town and Ushuaia Bay that is almost totally surrounded by mountains (the end of The Andes). I was impressed.

The next day, we went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, also called “The Park at the End of the World.” Rushing streams of clear cold water, black and green lagoons and forests of deciduous and evergreen beech trees made it worthwhile. The trails were the most unique. Instead of dirt or rock or pavement, the paths had a hardy grass covering ground that was spongy like a bog. It was the most comfortable path we ever walked on.

All in all, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, was delightful.

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