antarctica…”mostly uninhabitable”

“A journey is a person itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” John Steinbeck

let the facts speak for themselves…

-the coldest, windiest, highest (on average), and driest continent; during summer, more solar radiation reaches the surface at the South Pole than is received at the Equator in an equivalent period; mostly uninhabitable

-about 98% thick continental ice sheet and 2% barren rock, with average elevations between 2,000 and 4,000 meters; mountain ranges up to nearly 5,000 meters

-the Antarctic ice cap has 29 million cubic kilometers of ice. This is 90% of all the ice on the planet and between 60 and 70 % of all of the world’s fresh water.

-only about 0.4 percent of Antarctica is not covered by ice.

-if Antarctica’s ice sheets melted, the worlds oceans would rise by 60 to 65 meters (200 – 210ft)  – everywhere.

-there are NO permanent residents and NEVER has been a native population.

-3 factors rule in Antarctica – cold, wind and altitude. Antarctica holds the world record for each of these three things.

-the first time anyone set foot on Antarctica was in 1821.

now that we have set the stage for you, please join us in recapping the most amazing adventure that we have experienced over the past 11 days!

our route

Day 1 /Depart Ushuaia Today is the first day of our adventure and our anticipation is running wild . With 2 bottles of dramamine in hand, we board the Akademik Ioffe with high expectations of one of the most remote and extreme places in the world. In the meantime, we get acquainted with our new home, our russian ship crew, and our new friends/shipmates. Delayed a bit due to several factors, we popped some dramamine and drifted off the sleep dreaming of a peaceful crossing of the drake passage…duh duh duh…notorious for some of the roughest waters in the world.

home sweet home

7 short, 1 long...lifeboat drill

Days 2 — 3 / Drake Passage AKA “Drake Lake”  We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the stormy weather that was predicted in the drake passage (duh duh duh) had subsided. One staff person said that this was the calmest crossing that she’s had in her 20 trips to Antarctica! Lucky for us, we did not get seasick and we had time to enjoy our voyage and the view from the outer decks. We also had the time to brush up our knowledge of antarctica (the elusive continent we learned about in 4th grade geography but never thought in a million years that we would actually see it in person, not to mention camp on it!)

"the drake lake"

the best ship on the waters (originally designed for science and spying)

Days 4/ Arrive in Antarctica Finally, after 54 hours at sea, the day had arrived that we sail in to Antarctica through the iconic Lemaire Channel (“kodak corral”). After that, we went on our first expedition in small zodiaks – inflatable boats – around Peterman island and even got to do some hiking amongst gentoo penguins and leopard seals. Later that afternoon, we explored another section of the peninsula by boat and did some more hiking, ending at Vernadsky Station (a Ukrainian research station with the southernmost bar in the world) and warmed up with some homemade ukrainian vodka. To top it all off, that night we enjoyed a night of camping on antarctica. It was completely surreal to be in such a remote place and be able to wander around at night until 1 am (when the sun was setting) and then fall asleep right next to our wild neighbors (a seal and some penguins) and to the sounds of icebergs crackling in the distance. With only a couple hours of dusk, we awakened early the next morning sure that we were still dreaming.

julie wakes with a morning coffee and our first glimpse of antarctica

and this is only day 1...

view from the zodiak

sweet view from the zodiak

first sign of life!

vernadsky

cheers..warming up the insides

look at our tent on antarctica!

midnight hike on antarctica, iceberg

Day 5 / Iceberg Alley and Dorian Bay On just a few hours of sleep after our night of camping, we zoomed back to the boat for breakfast and to get ready for another mind-blowing day in antarctica. The boat continued south along the peninsula into “iceberg alley”. As we headed out on the zodiaks for our morning excursion, it could not have been a more beautiful sunny day (very rare for this extreme continent with extreme weather). We will never forget the feeling we all had as we weaved in and out of huge, elaborate icebergs. It was as though we were taking a tour through a real life natural museum filled with impressive icebergs, each with their own unique shapes and textures. We were also lucky enough to have a curious leopard seal who spent a few minutes swimming around our boat and coming to the surface to take a look at us…he even nibbled on our boat! Later that afternoon, we landed in Dorian Bay for a scenic hike to a glacier along the penguin highway.

see the ice arch in the background

"who are you guys?"

view of dorian bay from the ship....at the end of a rare sunny day!

Day 6 /Paradise Bay and Nekko Harbor After catching up on some zzzz’s, we were very happy to wake up to another sunny day in paradise. And we knew that today would bring yet another amazing day of adventures. In the morning, we loaded the zodiaks and quickly sighted 4 humpback whales swimming around near our boat. It was so magical watching the whales breech the glassy water and take deep dives under the water, exposing their elegant tails at the surface. At one point the whales came so close to us, that we got sprayed by their blow! Later that night, our ship had a big bbq in Nekko Harbor. It was a true outdoor bbq on the stern deck of our ship, complete with hot red wine and grilled kabobs…not sure that any bbq will ever be able to compare after that!

the zodiaks

bird perched on a rock with our ship in paradise bay

2 humpback whales headed in our direction

whale going deep for some krill...(look closely for the tail above the water)

true antarctic bbq

Day 7 / Cuverville Island and Wilhelmina Bay Today, again we were fortunate to get wonderful sunny weather. First, we headed over to Cuverville island and completed a nice strenuous hike to a beautiful 360 degree overlook, followed by some fun sledding down the mountain. Later that afternoon, as the ship sailed through the calm waters of Wilhemlmina Bay we opted to hang out on the bow of the ship with the captain’s private tour. We will never forget cocktail hour as we marveled over the scenery, conversed with some of our new friends on board, listened to classical music, and enjoyed hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies! What a day!

fletcher giving julie a lift at the top of our antarctic hike

sunset as we sail out of wilhelmina bay...cocktail anyone?

Day 8 / Deception Island We were awakened early before breakfast this morning and called to the deck to enjoy the views as we sailed into deception island. It is actually an active volcano, that errupted most recently in 1970! Deception island is a glacier, compacted with volcanic rock on top so it was quite different than the other islands we had been too. Our hearts were thumping as we realized we were sailing into the middle of an active volcano so far from civilization in an antarctica…good thing our evacuation insurance policies are up to date! We went on an extreme hike up the steep volcanic rock to find a blizzard happening at the top (finally, a taste of true antarctic weather!). Although we did not get to experience the surely amazing scenery since visibility was minimal, we did get to experience the fierceness of the wind and snow! We also got to stroll around old ruins and whale bones of a once operational whaling port. The highlight of this area, though, definitely had to be fletcher deciding to take the polar plunge!

summit in the snow on deception island

fletcher flaunting his muschles before taking the polar plunge!

Day 9 – 11/ Drake Passage to Ushuaia Boohoo! All good things must come to an end. And as much as we prayed for some rough waters to test the capabilities of our ship, the gods would not answer. We were offered, yet another, peaceful and uneventful crossing back to the mainland.

drake lake - round 2

last sunrise on the ship

boohoo...back to land

Now, we are are still trying to adjust to land and moving on from all the visions of glaciers, icebergs, snow, penguins, seals, and whales. We were definitely a bit sad to return to civilization again after such an amazing experience, but we know that our adventures are still just beginning!

The photos in this post only scratch the surface so please go to our online album. To view our entire antarctica album, please click here.