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Travel Antarctica

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My avatar is a chinstrap taken on an island (Danko, I thnk) just off the peninsular, Feb 2012.

It is expensive, but if you have any intrest in it and can scrape together the money it is mind-blowing. It is expensive top get to South America, and takes a while to get there. If you can make a longer trip out of it do that.
I had about 3 weeks in Argentina and 3 in Peru, making the trip overall a bit under 8 weeks.

Unfortunately due to booking resonably late I only had a short time there. (9 days, and four of that was crossing the Drake, so only a few days of landings, etc - I'd love to do longer, maybe at a different time of year to get a different experience.)
Ushuaia is nice little town. About Bendigo size I guess, 60k or so residents - but very touristy. In summer it is geared towards the Antarctic cruises, in winter its a ski town.
Its sort of wierd being in a city at sea level in the middle of summer with snow half way down the mountains. Its worth spending a couple of days there, you could do Beagle Channel cruises etc, but there is little point given you will be spending time on the ocean and going through the channel anyway.
There's a national park nearby, so a few short hikes can be done. If you forgot to pack something there are plenty of options for last minute cold weather gear.

Generally speaking, the smaller ships are better. Each ship gets a certain amount of time at each landing spot, and has a maximum number of people who can bo on land at any one time.
So with a large ship, you might not spend much time on land. Even with a small one you don't hav ethat much time, but we were generally doing 90 minutes or so each landing.

Landings are weather dependent. The landing craft only go out if the winds are less than (I think) 30 knots, seas aren't too choppy, visibility is good, etc. Sometimes a ship goes without doind landing the whole time, but as I understand it this is very rare - all the crews know where some good harbours are and most of the designated tourist landing places are in such places.

Weather wise, we were lucky. We missed two landings on one day, but got to all the others and had a relatively calm crossing of the Drake Passage. (Things, and people, still went A-over-T; but by Drake Passage standards it was calm.)
We had a couple if gorgeous days, clear skies, and at dusk the colours changed in the ice. A couple of the girls were even tanning themselves on deck at one point. It is summer when the cruises go there, the ice is melting, so the temperature is averaging aboe zero. It probably reached double figures a couple of times in the few days we were down there.

In February, most of the penguins have left. We mostly saw gentoos, who seem to nest later into the season. Plenty of seals, and some whale species are probably at their peak.
Even if you saw no wildlife, the scenery is amazing.

I went on the MS Expedition, but I'm sure all the ships are good.
Its not like the typical tropical island cruise. No casinos, shows, etc on board. They seem to work on theory that people are interested in where they are going, whet they have seen, etc; so after dinner and during the day if there are no landings they conduct talks on the wildlife you hve seen/may see, the history of exploration there, and matter relating to Antarctica.
But don't worry, there are bars on board if you don't wish to attend; or for afterwards. Personally, I would recommend at least attending a few - it really helps to know what it is you have seen and the eperts we had were experts.
Typically the night was dinner, one of these talks, an episode of Frozen Planet and either off to the bar or just out on deck to watch the ice and look for seals and whales.

Its not for everyone. Its not a city escape with bar-hopping and clubbing (you can do that in Buenos Aires before or after). For anyone with even the slghtest interest, its more than you might expect.

Due to the expense, the age group is somewhat older than many other activities. That's fine by me, I'm older than most on this forum anyway but it may be an issue for someone in their early 20s. We had people from that sort of age through to their 70s (one couple had their 50th anniverasry on board).

Thus, endeth my essay.
 
Great stuff, Howard Littlejohn.

I think my greatest hesitation is the boat aspect of the trip. Not because I'm susceptible to sea sickness- I've been on the Spirit of Tasmania three times and have been clear of nausea in sometimes quite choppy conditions- but just because I just don't especially like being that confined for that length of time. I would imagine the reliability of the crossings from Ushuaia to Antarctica would be pretty volatile, just because of how bad the Drake Passage's reputation is. Having been on Bass Strait and seen that whip up into quite a state a couple of time, I tend to imagine the Drake as being worse, much worse even.

The idea of combining it with a trip to Chile and Argentina certainly appeals- I know a couple people who've been to Patagonia and they highly recommend it.
 

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I would still take the sea-sickness pills. Even a calm Drake crossing saw some who thought they didn't get seasick find out they in can in some circumstances. The downside to a smaller ship is it is going to roll a bit more on the Drake.

Even on the smaller ships (unless you take the hire a yacht and sail yourself option) there will be over 100 people, so you'll find someone you get along with; and they seemed to try and time various things to avoid people having time to get bored. While it is multiple days, you have more a lot more freedom to move around than on a long distance plane or bus trip.

I'm not sure how often conditions stop ships from sailing. I expect it is not all that often as they are built or modified specifically for the trip.
 
Power Raid said:
I worked there in the mid 90s whilst in the military.

I was detached to a joint defence CSIRO group called hodsu.

It was cold but spectacular. I did a heap of diving which was amazing due to the brilliant blues shining through the ice.
Click to expand...

So jealous.
As a fairly experienced scuba/cave diver, ice diving is one thing I would love to do. It would be literally so cool.
The local dive store is organising a trip to Antartica but its something like $12K - way outta my league
 
Doss said:
Fascinating stuff.

Were you on the Antarctic Peninsula or elsewhere? I've heard it can get to a barmy high of six degrees in summer on the peninsula. Still considerably warmer than elsewhere, mind you.

Think I remember stumbling across something once which alluded to the most extreme of extreme surfers actually trying to surf a few of the beaches at the extreme north end of the peninsula and some of the nearby islands, like the South Shetlands. From memory, if you can brave the cold the waves are enormous because that region lies right in the path of the 'screaming sixties'.

The water would be just a little nippy though!
Click to expand...

Minus 8 would be the average whilst I was there but with 30 knot winds would mean wind chill of minus 26.

The diving was in minus 2 waters which is pretty fresh even in a dry suit.

Mawson station, Holmes bay and mount Henderson were some of the many places.
 
after doing a bit of research some time ago i decided i'd rather get to the arctic circle rather than antartica.

easier to get to, more animals, polar bears, my understanding of the aurora's is there are more in the north (but could be wrong).... but no penguins in the north, but you've guillemots which look pretty cool.

even better would be to go to both one day.
 
Black Thunder said:
after doing a bit of research some time ago i decided i'd rather get to the arctic circle rather than antartica.

easier to get to, more animals, polar bears, my understanding of the aurora's is there are more in the north (but could be wrong).... but no penguins in the north, but you've guillemots which look pretty cool.

even better would be to go to both one day.
Click to expand...

Yet Ask most people if polar bears eat penguins; the answer is yes.
 
Simple Jack said:
It seemed like you were implying that was a way to 'visit' Antarctica.

I wouldn't class merely flying over somewhere as visiting it.
Click to expand...

From memory it took around 4 hrs to fly there, you'd spend 4hrs flying around and then fly home. They'd have various -ologists on board to given detailed talks on what you were seeing.

iirc, they'd make sure the plane was too full so that everyone could get a good look.
 
Reacher said:
So jealous.
As a fairly experienced scuba/cave diver, ice diving is one thing I would love to do. It would be literally so cool.
The local dive store is organising a trip to Antartica but its something like $12K - way outta my league
Click to expand...

It has been almost 20 years since but still remember the experience clearly.

I wish I was more sober to remember the other 7 years in the military.
 
Howard Littlejohn said:
My avatar is a chinstrap taken on an island (Danko, I thnk) just off the peninsular, Feb 2012.

It is expensive, but if you have any intrest in it and can scrape together the money it is mind-blowing. It is expensive top get to South America, and takes a while to get there. If you can make a longer trip out of it do that.
I had about 3 weeks in Argentina and 3 in Peru, making the trip overall a bit under 8 weeks.

Unfortunately due to booking resonably late I only had a short time there. (9 days, and four of that was crossing the Drake, so only a few days of landings, etc - I'd love to do longer, maybe at a different time of year to get a different experience.)
Ushuaia is nice little town. About Bendigo size I guess, 60k or so residents - but very touristy. In summer it is geared towards the Antarctic cruises, in winter its a ski town.
Its sort of wierd being in a city at sea level in the middle of summer with snow half way down the mountains. Its worth spending a couple of days there, you could do Beagle Channel cruises etc, but there is little point given you will be spending time on the ocean and going through the channel anyway.
There's a national park nearby, so a few short hikes can be done. If you forgot to pack something there are plenty of options for last minute cold weather gear.

Generally speaking, the smaller ships are better. Each ship gets a certain amount of time at each landing spot, and has a maximum number of people who can bo on land at any one time.
So with a large ship, you might not spend much time on land. Even with a small one you don't hav ethat much time, but we were generally doing 90 minutes or so each landing.

Landings are weather dependent. The landing craft only go out if the winds are less than (I think) 30 knots, seas aren't too choppy, visibility is good, etc. Sometimes a ship goes without doind landing the whole time, but as I understand it this is very rare - all the crews know where some good harbours are and most of the designated tourist landing places are in such places.

Weather wise, we were lucky. We missed two landings on one day, but got to all the others and had a relatively calm crossing of the Drake Passage. (Things, and people, still went A-over-T; but by Drake Passage standards it was calm.)
We had a couple if gorgeous days, clear skies, and at dusk the colours changed in the ice. A couple of the girls were even tanning themselves on deck at one point. It is summer when the cruises go there, the ice is melting, so the temperature is averaging aboe zero. It probably reached double figures a couple of times in the few days we were down there.

In February, most of the penguins have left. We mostly saw gentoos, who seem to nest later into the season. Plenty of seals, and some whale species are probably at their peak.
Even if you saw no wildlife, the scenery is amazing.

I went on the MS Expedition, but I'm sure all the ships are good.
Its not like the typical tropical island cruise. No casinos, shows, etc on board. They seem to work on theory that people are interested in where they are going, whet they have seen, etc; so after dinner and during the day if there are no landings they conduct talks on the wildlife you hve seen/may see, the history of exploration there, and matter relating to Antarctica.
But don't worry, there are bars on board if you don't wish to attend; or for afterwards. Personally, I would recommend at least attending a few - it really helps to know what it is you have seen and the eperts we had were experts.
Typically the night was dinner, one of these talks, an episode of Frozen Planet and either off to the bar or just out on deck to watch the ice and look for seals and whales.

Its not for everyone. Its not a city escape with bar-hopping and clubbing (you can do that in Buenos Aires before or after). For anyone with even the slghtest interest, its more than you might expect.

Due to the expense, the age group is somewhat older than many other activities. That's fine by me, I'm older than most on this forum anyway but it may be an issue for someone in their early 20s. We had people from that sort of age through to their 70s (one couple had their 50th anniverasry on board).

Thus, endeth my essay.
Click to expand...

This.
 

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