Into the Wild South: The Falklands, South Georgia & Antarctica

Your journey into the wild south begins in Montevideo.

Board Terra Nova Adventurer, settle into your cabin, and meet your expedition team and fellow travellers.

After your safety briefings and introduction to expedition life, you leave Uruguay behind and begin your journey across the South Atlantic.

Over the next three weeks, you travel from the temperate waters of South America through the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, before continuing deep into Antarctica.

Your first days at sea give you time to settle into the rhythm of expedition life as Terra Nova Adventurer makes her way south.

The expedition programme begins almost immediately, with presentations introducing you to the wildlife, history, geology and environments you hope to encounter.

Spend time outside too, where these waters offer opportunities to spot an extraordinary variety of seabirds. The ship’s decks become your first wildlife-watching platform.

Albatrosses and petrels may begin following in your wake, while whales and other marine mammals are always worth watching for.

Your first expedition landings bring you to the Falkland Islands: a remote archipelago of sweeping coastlines, rugged hills and wildlife-rich shores.

Depending on conditions, you'll explore by Zodiac and on foot, searching for penguins, seabirds and marine mammals while discovering some of the islands' fascinating natural and human history.

Rather than following a fixed schedule of predetermined sites, your Captain and Expedition Leader select the best opportunities according to local weather, sea conditions and wildlife activity.

Leaving the Falklands behind, you turn east towards South Georgia — but these are far more than transit days.

The Scotia Sea is one of the most biologically productive regions of the Southern Ocean, supporting an extraordinary abundance of seabirds and marine mammals.

Albatrosses and petrels range across these waters, while whales and other marine mammals may appear along your route.

Spend time on deck with the expedition team watching for wildlife, while lectures and presentations introduce South Georgia's ecology, history and remarkable concentrations of wildlife.

Eventually, one of the Southern Ocean's most dramatic skylines begins to emerge ahead: the snow-covered mountains of South Georgia.

Few places can prepare you for South Georgia.

Mountains rise almost directly from the sea, glaciers descend towards the coast and beaches can hold wildlife in numbers that seem almost impossible.

October makes this encounter particularly special. You arrive during the southern elephant seal breeding season, when enormous bulls compete for territory and beaches reverberate with the sounds of one of the Southern Ocean's great wildlife spectacles.

South Georgia is also home to immense colonies of king penguins, alongside macaroni penguins, fur seals and an extraordinary diversity of seabirds.

At this time of year, snow may still reach close to the shoreline, creating a spectacular backdrop of white mountains, glaciers and wildlife-filled beaches.

Over several days, you'll explore wherever conditions and wildlife opportunities are best, using your Zodiacs to reach remote beaches and bays.

Conditions permitting, you also hope to visit Grytviken, once a center of the whaling industry and today home to the grave of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

These aren't days to rush. Your aim is simple: make the most of every opportunity South Georgia gives you.

You leave South Georgia behind and turn south-west, setting a course for Elephant Island and Antarctica.

Over the next two days at sea between South Georgia and Elephant Island, the character of the ocean begins to change. Temperatures fall, Antarctic seabirds become increasingly common and you keep watch for the first icebergs appearing on the horizon.

Reaching the vicinity of Elephant Island, you enter waters steeped in Antarctic exploration history before continuing towards the Antarctic Peninsula.

Your route then takes you through the Antarctic Sound, where you may spend a full day navigating one of Antarctica's most spectacular waterways. Often referred to as "Iceberg Alley", the Sound is renowned for its enormous tabular icebergs, calved from the great ice shelves of the Weddell Sea.

Early-season conditions make this part of the journey especially fascinating. Sea ice may influence your route, and the expedition team monitors ice information, forecasts and local conditions as you approach the Antarctic Peninsula.

Lectures continue aboard, preparing you for an environment unlike anywhere else on Earth.

And then: Antarctica.

October and early November mark the very beginning of the Antarctic expedition season. Winter has only recently loosened its grip, mountains and landing sites can still be covered in deep snow, and extensive sea ice may remain along parts of the Peninsula.

Rather than seeing this as an obstacle, it's part of what makes this departure so extraordinary.

The Captain and Expedition Leader use the latest ice and weather information to find the best opportunities available each day.

You may Zodiac cruise beneath towering glaciers, navigate through fields of sculpted icebergs, step ashore among penguin colonies or simply stop to watch as the light changes across an untouched landscape.

Where conditions permit, opportunities may include kayaking, snowshoeing, photography, Zodiac exploration and the polar plunge.

No two days are the same — and at this time of year especially, the ice helps decide where the adventure takes you.

Eventually, you turn north and begin your crossing of the legendary Drake Passage.

These final days at sea provide time to absorb everything you've experienced: from the wildlife of the Falklands and the extraordinary breeding beaches of South Georgia to the ice and silence of early-season Antarctica.

Join final presentations from the expedition team, share photographs and stories with fellow travellers, or spend time outside watching albatrosses and petrels accompany you towards South America.

As Cape Horn approaches, you enter the Beagle Channel for your final journey towards Ushuaia.

You arrive in Ushuaia after an extraordinary journey spanning the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean.

Say goodbye to Terra Nova Adventurer, your expedition team and fellow travellers as you disembark with memories of three of the world's great wilderness regions.

From South Georgia's snow-covered mountains and elephant seal breeding beaches to the fresh snow and sea ice of Antarctica, you've experienced the Southern Ocean at one of its wildest times of year.

Note:
A note on itinerary and expedition flexibility
This 21-day / 20-night expedition operates from Montevideo to Ushuaia. The day allocations shown above reflect the planned itinerary and are approximate. Dates, operational days, landing locations and time spent in each destination are dependent on weather, sea, ice and other operational conditions. You aim to maximise the experience in each region rather than guarantee a fixed number of days, landings or activities in any particular location. The Captain and Expedition Leader adapt the programme throughout the voyage to make the most of conditions, wildlife and expedition opportunities.