Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica

Imagine a place as big as the United States and Europe combined.
Sunnier than California, yet colder than the freezing compartment of your refrigerator.
Drier than Arabia and higher than mountainous Switzerland.
Emptier than the Sahara.
Only one place in the world fits this description.
It is Antarctica.
The Strange but beautiful continent at the bottom of the Earth.

- Joseph M. Dukert, 'This is Antarctica'

Flying half way around the world from Auckland to Santiago, we crossed the international date line and conveniently added an extra day to our travels. We had one day to explore Chile's capital city, namely its beautiful colonial era architecture, the view of the city from the top of Cerro San Cristobal and the culinary and artistic enclaves of Bellavista and Barrio Brasil with a Pisco Sour to round it all off.

We then flew straight down to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world at the tip of South America, incredibly excited about our Antarctic voyage ahead and relieved to have made it without delay since missing our boat would have been an expensive option. After a day of sightseeing, it was time to board our ship, a Russian-crewed research vessel named the Akademik Ioffe.

Heading out through the Beagle Channel we sailed northeast for a day towards the archipelago of the Falklands which previously unbeknown to us there are 778 of. Our first landing was on the island of West Point which our zodiacs approached with an entourage of beautiful black and white Commerson's dolphins. West Point has a resident population of thousands of Black-browed albatross and Rockhopper penguins as well as one human family proudly flying the Union Jack on their front lawn. As with all the wildlife encounters we had, what was so special was that none of the animals have any land based predators and therefore had absolutely no fear of or concern for us. Being just a few feet away from so many courting albatross with their grey fluffy chicks sitting high on their throne-like nests made out of mud was completely unique. It was also fascinating to see them living in such close harmony alongside the Mafia looking Rockhoppers with their long yellow eyebrows. Walking across the island's windswept hills, it felt great to be back on British soil.

After landing on Saunders Island and spending an afternoon with its Gentoo, Rockhopper and burrowing Magellanic penguins, Black-browed albatross and Antarctic shags on the hills surrounding the white sand beaches, we sailed to the capital Stanley. Stanley, the one and only town in the Falklands had the feel of a village on the South Coast of Britain perhaps twenty years ago, albeit surrounded by marked landmines from the 1982 conflict (oops, can't mention that here in Argentina). After fish and chips in one of Stanley's eight pubs, we set sail on the Scotia Sea for bleak and remote South Georgia two days away, another overseas territory of the UK.

Despite being on roughly the same latitude as the Falklands, South Georgia sits on the cold side of the Antarctic Convergence where the Antarctic chilled Southern Ocean meets but doesn't mix with the relatively warm waters of the sub-Antarctic. This gives it a completely different climate with the rugged mountainous island being permanently covered by ice and snow. A force ten storm as we approached the northwest corner with waves crashing over the bow meant we had to miss our first planned landing and continue around the sheltered east coast.

Our first stop was the magnificent Salisbury Plain with its glacier-covered mountain backdrop, home to one of the largest King Penguin rookeries in the world estimated at well over 100,000 pairs. The inquisitive and incredibly photogenic Kings with their Jeeves-like appearance were fascinating to watch as the males courted the females and the oversized brown woolly young squawked for more food in the form of parent regurgitation. Other adults were busy undergoing their annual catastrophic moult whereby they change their entire plumage in one go with the new feathers pushing out the old. Thousands of newly born Atlantic Fur seals paraded the shoreline which made for a hilarious walk across it as the cute little beings chased after us in an effort to impress their peers.

The next morning we awoke at Prion Island which we were incredibly fortunate to have been given permission to land on, the only place in the world to see nesting Wandering Albatross. At up to 3.5m, the majestic Wanderer has the largest wingspan of any bird.

The next landing was at Fortuna Bay, home to a mere several thousand King penguins, bombarding Antarctic Terns protecting their nests and herds of reindeer which were introduced to the island by Norwegian whalers in the early 20th century as a source of food. It was here that we felt our first hurricane strength gravity driven katabactic wind coming off the slopes of the polar plateau which literally hit us like a brick wall from nowhere. Walking from Fortuna Bay over a mountain pass to Stromness in the bright 5am sunlight, we retraced the end of Ernest Shackleton's ordeal of his failed attempt to cross the Antarctic continent and subsequent eighteen month bid to reach the outside world in one of the greatest feats of survival in history. At Stromness are the rusty old remains of a whaling station and a beach littered with old whale bones which along with those at Grytviken were interesting to learn about, despite their gruesome past. In the first half of the 20th century, the worldwide whale population was totally decimated to the extent of an estimated 95% having been captured and slaughtered. With only a few thousand remaining by the sixties, it became uneconomical to continue whaling and it virtually ceased. Sadly the population today has barely recovered at all. By example, humpbacks are thought to have been reduced from up to 1.5 million to 20,000 today. Amazing to think that the consummation of whale meat continues in some parts of the world, mostly Japan, with the International Whaling Commission having next to no power to stop it.

Grytviken is home to South Georgia's permanent human population of two and also the final resting place of Shackleton. Accompanied by some enormous Elephant seals and Fur seals we undertook our first kayak trip at Grytviken and subsequently Gold Harbour with its incredible hanging glacier backdrop. With the water temperature at around -1°C and capsizing being a fairly risky event, we had to don dry suits with multiple layers underneath.

As we moved further South along the coast of South Georgia, we passed our first icebergs which had drifted up from the Antarctic continent, some taken hostage by penguins. Our last excursion on South Georgia was sailing up the incredibly picturesque and narrow Drygalski Fjord with its totally still brash ice filled blue waters and multiple glaciers draped over the surrounding high mountains descending right down to the sea.

Rounding Cape Disappointment and leaving South Georgia behind, we turned southwest towards Antarctica for a three day sail against the clockwise flow of the Southern Ocean which thankfully and unusually was relatively calm. Our days at sea were spent on the bridge or the observation deck looking for the white splash of a whale blow or a fluke as it dived deep. We were also frequently accompanied by seals and penguins, and constantly by a whole host of seabirds from albatross to petrels and skuas. When not, the crew provided us with numerous interesting presentations on the wildlife and fragile environment around us.

The South Shetland Islands were our first port of call passing Point Wild on Elephant Island where the majority of Shackleton's men had to over winter for 105 days under an upturned boat with the resident Chinstrap penguin colony as they waited for him to return with help from South Georgia. The inhospitable outpost of Half Moon island with its Chinstrap penguins and towering ice cliff backdrop provided us with a great opportunity to kayak as did the volcanic caldera of Deception island with its dramatic red and brown walls high above us as we maneuvered through Neptune's Bellows, the narrow opening that allows access to the active volcano. A quick swim in the ice cold water of the crater was called for, made bearable only with the aid of some geothermally heated water dug up from underneath the beach to recover.

Finally it was down to the Antarctic peninsula, the white continent good and proper. Antarctica covers almost one-tenth of the earth's surface and supports the greatest mass of ice in the world with 99.6% of the continent being covered in a very thick cloak of it. Having travelled overnight across the Bransfield Strait towards the peninsula, we awoke to the marvel of the frozen world in a snowstorm; the outer edges of the enormous ice sheet, the ice cliffs as it pours off the continent and the free flowing intricately textured blue icebergs in a myriad of shapes from small to outright scary. Traversing the Gerlache Strait, Wilhelmina bay was our first stop and the scene really was beyond words. Kayaking around the amphitheatre like bay with its totally still water was just entrancing as we paddled through the crackling brash ice, past the most spectacular icebergs with the silence only being broken every now again by the calving of a glacier into the sea, the loud rumbling of an avalanche or an iceberg breaking up and turning in the water. The experience became even better when we heard the loud snort of two minke whales surfacing near to us as we were getting out. They breached right in front of our zodiac and then later took an interest in our ship for about twenty minutes giving us the most spectacular viewing. One was close enough for us to see her eyes as she looked over the strangers in her domain before diving in the crystal clear water in which we could see her every move as she swam underneath and twisted to see us from below.

The afternoon took us to Cuverville island which we kayaked around, again with sheer ice cliffs all around and this time several thousand resident gentoo penguins who would porpoise towards us, poke their heads up and have a good look as if to say 'what the hell are you', and then swim off. The break in the silence as the penguins leaped out of the glass like water around us and reentered brought a real feeling of being at one with the environment in our kayaks. Coming across a reptilian looking leopard seal dozing on an iceberg brought home just how big they are, particularly for Susie who drifted within a few metres of it and sent support guide Sergey into a panic. A huge iceberg collapsing not too far from us created a tidal like wave in the bay and highlighted our vulnerability to the hostile surroundings. A scenic evening barbecue on the deck with some gatecrashing humpback whales circling the ship brought one of our best days ever to a close.

The scenery just got even more spectacular as we sailed down to Paradise Harbour, dodging icebergs along the way. Neko Harbour was our first landing there which again made for a spectacular kayak, and subsequently Almirante Brown where we kayaked with a leopard seal, cruised on a zodiac past numerous weddell seals resting on an ice floe and set foot on the Antarctic mainland.

With a breathtaking pink and orange sunset to finish it all off, it was a two day sail across the notorious Drake passage back to South America, AKA the roughest stretch of sea in the world. Having been briefed by our crew to expect the worst, we were let off relatively lightly. Whilst we said it would have been great to experience the wrath of the high seas, we were both quite secretly relieved. We rolled around Cape Horn in light winds with little swell to speak of and sailed back down the Beagle Channel to the port of Ushuaia where it all began nineteen days and 3,109 nautical miles earlier.

Visiting the wildlife of the Falklands and the wildlife and scenery of South Georgia was just amazing and most likely a once in a lifetime for us. The Antarctic was even more so, truly like nowhere else in the world and a place that we feel unbelievably privileged to have visited, particularly having been able to kayak there as well.

From here our travels through South America begin, starting with Argentina.

Click on the album cover below to see some more of our pictures (quite a few this time).

Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica

Lots of love,
Susie and Dan xx