Antarctica Here We Come!!!!

Here I sit in the boats lounge / bar which is adorned with tinsel, stockings and a Christmas tree with flashing lights, listening to Christmas carols. One more sleep.... What a different way to spend Christmas in the Southern Ocean, heading towards Antarctica, aboard the MS Explorer for a 19 day Expedition. The crew includes an Ornithologist, a Marine Biologist, a Naturalist, a Geologist and a Polar Historian. There is a huge mix of passengers from Uni students to backpackers to the retired. Each day we have had either educational lectures or landings, which totalled about 16. We landed on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, Elephant Island and the Antarctic Peninsula. Our aim was to be amongst the wildlife and scenery. We have followed the path of the explorer Sir Ernst Henry Shackelton (in the opposite direction) and even managed part of a walk on South Georgia that he did to find help from a Whaling Station in order to rescue his men from Elephant Island. My dad thinks Shackelton is a legend having read some of his books, so it is really cool to be doing this, and then to be able to show him what we did. I have been taking high potency sea sickness tablets 3 times a day, but did have to have a cabin call one particular afternoon from the Doctor, so I could show him my bottom and get a painful injection, because I had thrown up so many times!! The Drake Passage is renoun to be one of the worlds worst seas, but luckily for me it was just the Drake Lake on our return. Otherwise I thought I may have been getting another of those injections!! What an amazing National Geographic feeling actually pulling up in Zodiacs to shore walking through the masses of penguins, including King Penguins. There are so many different types that I have become an expert at the differences. Also the many seals that laze on the beaches, of which the elephant seals make noises that sound like a very loud burping growl! Although somewhat limited, compared to the buffet breakfasts, lunches and 4 course dinners, we did some walks and climbs to discover a large variety of birds, which included the Black-Browed and Wandering Albatross. The later one has wing span of 3 metres. 10 days into the Expedition we were still being told that the best was still to come. What more was there? Well that would be Fyords, Glaciers, huge iceberg sculptures, pack ice )broken up sea ice) that changed our route, and 3 large Humpback Whales that gave us a 45 minute graceful bubble feeding display right infront of the boat!!! Blessed or what! Over a 10 year period, until 2002-03 the tourists visiting Antarctica has doubled to 13571 people. Nearly half being from the USA, 11% from Japan, 10%from the UK and 5% from Australia. Antarctica is my 7th and final continent, of which doubles the size, due to the sea freezing in winter. It was an absolutely amazing experience that definately tops the travel charts!!!

Ian and I Christmas Day. 

I had obviously had far too much Baileys. 

Ian at the crew party with Captain Paul. 

Ian and Costas Christmas Day at the bar 

Big night Christmas Eve down in the bowels of the boat at the crew party. Me, Rebecca and Sue. 

Rebecca (who managed to get on the boat at the very last second!), and our favourite barman - Costas. 

Rebecca and I did a lively song and dance to ABBAs Give Me a Man After Midnight for the New Years Eve Show. Very bloody funny! 

New Years Eve after the ringing of the bell. Me, Ian, Rebecca, Sue and Scott. 

The ringing of the bell at midnight of New Years Eve was done by the oldest and youngest female on the boat. Here is Jenny whose 13 yrs old. 

Becsta and Lozza were the opening act for the New Year Year Show. Looking a real treat! 

The passengers that walked the last 5 kms of Shackeltons journey across South Georgia Island. 

Ian after his Antarctic swim. Many surprisingly braved it, but not me!  

We had Christmas carols in the Grytviken Church. All with our wet weather gear and life jackets on. I think I managed to sing the loudest, and throw a few harmonys in there for extra effect. 

The Grytviken disused Whaling Station on South Georgia. There is a great museum here, and of course a gift shop! 

Shackeltons grave at Grytviken on South Georgia. We all had a nip of whiskey to toast him. 

What Shackelton saw after 30 odd hours of walking, to come across a Whaling Station. 

Still part of the Shackelton walk. Ian doing his snow angle impression. 

Walking part of Shackeltons path on South Georgia, with a great Alaska couple, Sue and Scott. 

Ushuaia - our Antarctica quest

Our quest was to get on a boat to Antarctica for a cheaper price. We had heard stories that this could be done, although not realistic for what price we had understood and therefore put on it! We accessed a list of boats and dates that they were leaving, tried to get past security on the pier, which was not possible, and we blanket emailed 30 travel agencies requesting information on last minute deals, receiving 5 responses. We also visited 5 tour companies (which is actually the best way to do it)asking all the same questions, which slowly gave us a better idea about how it all works. Such as they do not all work with the same boats, and therefore tell you that other boats are not giving discounts. Bollocks to that! We debated that costs for a long time over beers in an Irish Bar and decided that it was a chance of a lifetime and "***k it!" In the end we could have gotten on two boats for discounted prices. The 1st was a 10 day "Classic" trip to the Antarctic Peninsula, and the 2nd one (which we went on), for only GBP300 more, was a 19 day Expedition that also took in Falkland Island, South Georgia and Elephant Island. Say no more - what would you have chosen?

End the road in Argentina - Transamerican highway that starts in Alaska. 

El Chalten - Argentina

A 4 hour bus ride then took us to a walkers / campers paradise. Our briefing from the Ranger when we arrived (and the fact that we did not have to pay to enter this National Park), and the well signed tracks, impressed us a lot. We did a 7 hour day walk, up 750 metres to Laguna de los Tres to view Cerro Fitz Roy up closer. The last hour there was totally straight up!! This view was the photo postcard that Ian and I sent family for Christmas. We also did a 5 hour day walk up 250 metres, to Cerro / Lago Torre. There were loads more people on this track, and many camping out for a number of days. Ian and I are very intrigued by how much gear some campers carry!! We hope that we will be smarter on the occasions that we rent gear to camp. From here we had a long journey to reach Ushuaia, which some may say was a nightmare. For instance, 4 hrs back to El Calafate, a 4 hr wait for a 3am bus to Rio Gallegos on the coast, then an hours wait for an 8.30am bus to Rio Grande and then across borders (4 stops for exit and entry stamps in our passport - why on earth does Argentina not have an agreement with Chile not to worry about the 4 hour drive into their country??) to our destination at 8.30pm!

Another angle of Cerro Fitz Roy. A great days walk. 

Our new UK friends - Brenda and Dave 

Cerro Fitz Roy 

El Calafate - Chile

El Calafate is famous for the Moreno Glacier. Opting for not taking a tour we took the alternative local bus option, which many other tourists. It was a days activity. The Glacier is HUGE. It is funny how everyone stands around in the cold and wind, waiting for ice to fall off and crash and thunder into the water, making waves. It is actually dramatic when it happens, and it does take your breath away. This is where we met an amazing retired couple Brenda and David from the UK. Brenda is 70 years old and has run a number of London Marathons and wanting to run again next year. She has riden an 80 mile bike ride and David an 88 mile endurance bike ride. They have travelled everywhere around the world, and so this was the 1st night of many following (as we were travelling in the same direction) that we had dinner with them and swapped stories. We also walked around Laguna Nemiz which is an easy walk from the town, where they are preserving a bird sanctury.

The supposed worlds largest glacier - The Moreno. 

It was HUGE, as you can see from the people in this photo. 

Esquel - Patagonia

Yet another treking paradise, with the National Park only 50kms away. We decided to stay for 5 nights. A hard steep 2 hour walk to the top of the Mountain with the Cross gives fantastic views of the town and surrounding mountains. We enjoyed sitting at the top for an hour with our lunch and taking it all in. And of course it was so much easier on the way down. We did another walk to the Lake via dirt roads (but thought this rather a boring way)so enjoyed using the compass to take a different way back, following fence lines and land marks, i.e. Mountain of the Cross. We took the bus into the National Park and then onto Lago Verde - Green Lake, which had a beautiful Mirador - look out. We thought there would be heaps of easy to follow hiking tracks, but unfortunately more research would have told us that not only were there not heaps of walking tracks, but also that they were not easy to find (even with the NP maps). We therefore hitch hiked back the 25kms (1 hour) to the entrance of the Park with a ranger, got confused by the tourist information we were then given, took a small walk to another Mirador, and then waited for an hour to hitch hike back the hour to where we were staying. The reason for all the hitch hiking was because the bus, which only runs 3 times a week during this time of the season, does not pick you back up until 7.45pm, and we were over it by 4pm and did not want to wait it out. The weather was drizzly and no tea houses were open. We caught a ride with a French tourist. We had resorted to flashing our block of chocolate to all the cars that went by, in the hope that someone loved the idea of eating some. We had actually wanted to stay the night in the Park, however, the timing of the limited buses and our bus onto our next destination just did not work. In the high season though the buses run every day. A 30 minute bus ride away is a very small Welsh town called Trevelin, which was founded in 1922. We went for a couple of hours, and it really did not need any more than that. Apart from a couple of museums, this is the place you would go to really get away from it all, to stay in a Cabana, or camp, and maybe take in a spot of fly fishing. The Lonely Planet talks about lots of tea houses and cakes. Most eating places were unfortunately closed when we wanted lunch about 3.30pm, on a week day.