Amazing Antarctic adventure
howdy folks! well antarctica seems like it was a dream - doesnt seem real at all - until i look at my pcitures and realise i was actually there! it was amazing! had a brilliant time... WHere to start tho (esp as there is a link up for the internet..)
The boat - Polaris- was a russian boat, so had russian crew - and russian shampoo and stuff in the bathroom (had a teeny tiny shower cubicle - was fun when it was rough!)! Got an upgrade on the boat - so was on the middle deck in about the middle of the boat and had a porthole (which had to be clsoed as we went across the drake passage) but was still great to have= We had 65 passengers which was great - got to know most of the people on the boat etc... The food - hmmm - was ok - they defintely cook the meat well!
I definitely dont read my itineraries well enough - took about 2.5days to cross the drake - looooong time! and had 7 zodiac rides and 6 landings while we were down in antarctica - they lasted 2-4hrs each, depending on weather etc. - one of the landings was on Antarctica proper, the rest were on nearby islands, including 2 bases - ukranian and chile... more than 98% of antarctica is covered with snow and ice so limited places where you can land (most of the uncovered part of antarctica is at the peninsula - which is where we were at). Apparenly Antarctica is the coldest (recorded at almost -90deg celc) windiest (190km/hr), has highest average elevation (2500m above sl), and iciest (which helps prevent mining exploitation!) continent.
OK so higlights from the trip:
- whales - we saw more whales on our first day of the drake corssing that they had previously all season (approx 97 individals). Saw lots of minkes and fin whales, a few humbacks doing some tricks... and my favouritist of all - a pod of killer whales - incl a calf! - they came really close to the boat (this was when we were in Antarctica) - they were brilliant!
- did a polar swim on the first day - jumped into 0degree water - chilly!
- saw 2 bases - the ukranian base was purchased from UK for one pound on the condition that they continue the ozone montoring for 25yrs or something (was one of the bases that first discovered the whole in the ozone). That was our southern most point - had a souvineer shop and bar at the base as well - had some base-made vodka - yum!
- saw lots of seals - weddle and fur and 2 young bull elephant seals. Also saw leopard seal chilling on ice, hunting and eating! The most amazing of all was being in the zodiac beside a leopard seal when he found some penguin tucker (horrid I know but felt i was part of a david attenborough documentary!) - he thrashed it around, the sea birds came to get the scraps - it was amazing to be so close... most of the guides had not seen the `dinner time`of the leopard seal before...
- penguins - LOADS of penguins! Was fantastic - gentoo, adelie and chinstraps... the best were the gentoo many of them were young - about 4mo, and very curious - they would come right up to you to check you out - and some would even munch on your rain jacket etc! They had lovely little brown eyes... Lots of the other gentoos were very morose as they were moulting - so had to stay put for a couple of weeks - no food or anything - poor fellas... Saw some funny little dancing jigs by a few of them as well, and some chasing their same-size mum for food and the mum hurrying away - pretty funny...
- the scenery. The scenery was amazing. Unfortunately on an old computer so cant post photos as the moment but it was fantastic! The ice formations were brilliant. The water was so clear and blue... It was hard to get perspective when you were in the boat seeing the bergs float past... but when you got out in the zodiacs you saw how tiny the boat was compared to everything - it was amazing... (keep saying that!)
- saw loads of sea birds as well... lots of different albatross - including the wandering albatross which has a wing span of up to 3.5m!
We had a series of lectures - mainly while we were crossing the drake... It was `Drake Lake`(ie pretty calm) on the way across to antarcitca. and we had pretty good weather most of the time... had some snow one day which i thought was nice... On the way back we had a grade 5-7 storm... - felt like you were in a washing machine... and the drake was a bit rougher... so was a wee bit sick on teh way back... managed to make all the lectures - missed the screening of march of the penguins tho. Also saw Al Gore`s inconvinient truth which i thought was pretty good.
Unforunately my camera died after the second landing :( luckily had taken some good photos before that - and others took photos for me on the other landings. Was worried that i would have to buy a new camera but when arrived in santiago today found a camera shop that directed me to a repair shop (I am still amazed as what you can say without words) and the lady just stuck her finger down the lens and prized it open and voila it started working again (lots of people ofn the boat had tried and failed to get it working again)! yay! was so excited... and then in the street they were playing the never ending story song when i came out! :)
Santiago - what i have seen - which isnt much - is ok - pretty much another city - but i have been able to find my way around and not get lost which is pretty amazing and usually have hopeless sense of direction! am off early tomorrow for my easter at easter island! yipppeee - cant wait! hopefully will find a computer to post some pics there.
Keep up the emails! (and sorry for any typos)
Em