Camping in the ice and snow...BRRRRR...

The Camping Experience. Which we paid EXTRA for. The crew laughed!! After dinner one night, the conditions were deemed suitable for camping. I think about 60 of us crazy people got rugged up in lots of layers, and headed to shore at Damoy Point. There was a little hut there, an Argentinean 'refugio' which is like an emergency hut, but you are not allowed inside unless it is an emergency.

Sadly, this was not an emergency, so we had to pitch tents (one tent per 2 people) and that was hilarious. First we had to find some level ground, then stomp out a little area for our tent, then take stuff out of the tent bag, while hanging on to everything, as the wind picked up and blew things away! (one of our sleeping bags started to blow down the hill towards the water and needed to be crash-tackled). Plus, wearing gloves means your fingers don't work as well as they do without gloves, only when you take off your gloves, your fingers freeze. So. A conundrum for sure.

But, we finally got our tent up, spread out our little mats and sleeping bags, and then were so cold that we had to call it a night. It was only around 10pm. The sun goes down at 11pm, and rises again around 3am. not much darkness in between, so being in the tent was yes, warmer than being in the wind outside, but also very light and not really conducive to sleeping much!! Plus, at first I had my camera backpack in my sleeping bag with me, trying to keep my camera warm all night...but i gave that up pretty quick, it took up too much space. It was a very cold and uncomfortable night. but it was FUN!! Well. maybe not fun with capital letters...but it was an experience.

You are not allowed to bring food or drinks ashore. And you are not allowed to pee in the snow outside your tent, so the crew and some of us volunteers had to dig little areas where portable makeshift toilets could be put. Hilarious.

Polar Plunge - what was i thinking!!????

Well. The title of this post about says it all. What WAS I thinking!! it was a good idea in theory. Throw off all your clothes, run into the sub-zero water, hurl your body in, and then run out, grab a towel, get dressed, and head back to the ship for either a sauna or a hot shower. Neat and tidy, done and dusted.

So we arrived at Pendulum Cove, Deception Island. This is a volcanic caldera and kind of like a semi circle. For further detail, you will have to research as I cannot remember too much. Well except for small facts like, the shore is warm due to the volcanic activity, and there is like one centimetre of warm water on the surface right at the shoreline. But anyway, the wind was blowing 60 knots when we got there and we could not safely land. So we went to another location, Whalers Bay. This was an old whaling station, still with old buildings and whale blubber boilers, and gravesites. Kind of spooky and moody and WINDY!! VERY WINDY!! blowing snow and freezing.

Anyway, I was there for a swim. So after taking a couple of pics around the place, I was surrounded by other crazy people who for some reason were taking TOO LONG to get ready for the plunge (example, 'oh...should I take off my jacket first? or my boots? BLAH!). So in the end, it was me and another girl, and we ran as fast as we could into the water. Apparently it was -.5C and yes i can tell you, fricking cold. I threw myself in as fast as I could, and then instantly lost all sensation in my fingers and toes, and feet, and arms. I was concerned that I might lose my bikini top (as does happen to me strangely very often while swimming) but could barely think. I thought my head was going to explode.

Ran back to the beach, tried in vain to pull on my trackies and boots and socks and jacket...bleh too much to think about! Hopped into a waiting Zodiac (thank god) and a short trip back to the ship, where I hobbled to the cabin and stood in a hot shower for oh, about an hour I think from memory. What a horrible experience. But oddly...glad I did it!!

Antarctica - FAQs

So the main question people usually ask is, 'are there polar bears in Antarctica?' and the answer is, NO!!! They are NOT found in Antarctica. They are found in the north - like the Arctic, for example.

On our Antarctic trip we saw:
Gentoo penguins
Adelie penguins
Chinstrap penguins
Leucistic (white) penguins

We also saw crabeater seals, Weddell seals, leopard seals, elephant seals.
In the whale family we spotted minke whales, humpback whales, and orcas (which are actually part of the dolphin family, not the whale family). And of course...plenty of birds, most of which I cannot remember the names of, but albatrosses, shags, petrels and others.

The temperature was not that cold!! It ranged from -2C up to around +10C most days. The ship was warm inside (yes, this is a question people ask me!) and we had temperature-controlled cabins. We were lucky with the weather and had mostly sunny days - but the weather can turn really nasty, really quickly. Winds got up to 60 knots and we could not do shore landings a few times (but that's okay, the Captain usually had a Plan B, and a Plan C just in case).

Life on board the MS Expedition was surprisingly comfortable. No, it was not like a P&O cruise to the South Pacific. We did not get 'shows' or bingo, or Zumba lessons. We did, however, get talks and lectures about the environment, the South Pole, the explorers, the birds, the whaling history, slide shows, and once, they even showed 'Happy Feet' one evening in the lounge (with popcorn!). We had a 'black and white' night where some passengers got really inventive by wearing their bedsheets and towels haha funny.....

You run a tab on the ship - so extras like drinks, souvenirs from the gift shop mainly go on the tab. At the end of the trip you are expected to throw a tip into a giant tip kitty for the crew - only the ship's officers do not participate in this. The expected tip is US$12/day/person and they work hard for it, and deserve every penny.

On the ship they have a no-locked doors policy. When you are inside your own cabin, you can lock the door, but when you leave your cabin, it is unlocked. I never heard of any issues with anyone having things stolen from their cabins. It is a nice, intimate atmosphere with 120 passengers.

Plenty of people brought their own alcohol aboard, and there were no rules against this. You are not allowed to bring your drinks into public areas though, so be discreet if you want to drink your own alcohol. I did not find drinks very expensive - US$6 for a Bacardi and Coke (US$4 at happy hour) did not break the bank as I don't drink that much. They did sell Cokes and other soft drinks...but I never had one so cannot comment about the price.

Antarctica - the Zodiak experience

So...we didn't kayak *all* the time on the expedition cruise. We actually got into the Zodiacs a few times as well. The Zodiaks are fantastic things, they fit 5 people on each side, sitting on the edges. They are quite hardy, crunching through ice chunks, driving onto shore landings sometimes onto a pebbly rocky beach, other times, up onto an iceberg. We saw lots of great stuff from the Zodiacs - leopard seals and such, but I would not usually want to pick them over the kayaks. I prefer non-engine type boats like kayaks any day!

(Although having said that...after my polar plunge I was stoked to get into a Zodiac and quickly get whisked away back to the ship and a hot shower. But more about that in my next post! )

One feels quite safe in a Zodiac, however one of the expedition crew told me that once, his Zodiac (no passengers) actually flipped right over in the rugged windy Antarctic conditions, and he flew into the freezing water. Hmm. Anyway, not a problem on our trip!

Antarctic sea kayak bootcamp

Well. Bootcamp was a name that the other Expedition passengers gave to our group. Only 20 people could book to have the sea kayak experience. On our first night aboard the ship, we met our Kayak Master and had a meeting to discuss the program, and learn about the hazards and pitfalls of doing this. 4 people dropped out straight away! I was glad we had done some lessons before leaving home (paddling techniques, capsizing, self-rescue etc) but even with that, we felt a sort of nervous apprehension. It was suddenly very real, and a little bit scary.

So the idea is that we hope to get at least ONE kayak session, but it's all weather/condition dependent, so nothing is guaranteed. Antarctic conditions can change in an instant from calm and serene to blowing wind and sleet and big waves. Also, if we kayak then we will surely miss out on a Zodiac cruise and/or a shore landing. But it's all up to us, we will be having regular meetings and can make up our minds each time.

We worked out sizes and tried on drysuits, lifejackets, spray skirts, and got fitted into our double kayaks. The first session was quite exciting. This was our first view from the Mud Room. We had to manoeuvre the kayaks out the door onto the loading platform, and then down next to a Zodiac in the water. The crew helped steady the kayak so we could get in, they made sure we had our spray skirts on properly, and then....OFF WE WENT into the unknown....well actually, we all waited in a group until our leader was ready, and THEN off we went, paddling away, crunching through ice, navigating through ice chunks, bergy bits and icebergs. The scenery was AMAZING - I cried on that first paddle, I was so overcome with emotion. The rugged landscape...the freezing water...the snow, the ice, the huge icebergs, the penguins! Just the most incredible experience I have ever had.

Anyway, it all got crazy after that. We ended up having 7 options to paddle - we went five times in total (on one paddle we decided to do a Zodiac shore landing instead, and another time were just too tired!). The reason for the 'bootcamp' tag was that we had very little time to get ready. Some days we would be enjoying our nice lunch in the dining room and over the PA system...' all kayakers please meet in the library in five minutes'....we would have a quick meeting and discuss conditions, and make sure everyone had a partner for the double kayak, and then basically have 10 minutes in which to get geared up and ready to go...very crazy. But fun! some days we saw minke whales, or penguins swimming ('porpoising' they call it), or leopard seals on an iceberg. The longest paddle was 18 kms - 4.5hours of paddling......you can imagine, we slept well!

MS Expedition: a big red ship

The first couple of days on the ship were great. The crew offered plenty of lectures on various topics: the history of whaling, Antarctic explorers, birds, geology, you name it. We all had to learn, 'one hand for you, one hand on the ship' when the ship was rolling. Plenty of handrails around the place.

The ship was previously used as a ferry, and had undergone a major re-fit a couple of years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to see the lovely big cabin we got - twin cabin with window. Quite a large cabin, plenty of wardrobe space, boxes of tissues, a hairdryer, comfortable beds, a desk and chair.....perfect. It was so nice to unpack after 2 weeks of rushing around South America. And nice that they had non-slip mats on the bedside tables and desk, it really helped keep stuff stable. The bathroom was quite tiny but it did the job. and we had Raquel, our Filipino cabin steward, who visited our cabin about 5 times a day to clean, tidy, make the beds, clean the bathroom.

Food was really great - big buffet for breakfast with bacon, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, cereal, yoghurt, fruit, toast, pastries, you name it. Lunch was also a buffet style, crispy salads, herbed salad dressings, things like madras chicken, or quiches, or meat pies, lamb and so on. Plenty of choice, soup included as well. Dinner was usually a 4-course meal, there were 2 options for appetizer, main meal and dessert, as well as a vegetarian option. The Filipino wait staff did a great job.

Not only were the meals big, the 'extras' were lovely too. 24-hour coffee/tea/water/hot chocolate/biscuits available. Popcorn served during a movie. Pretzels and peanuts at happy hour. We never went hungry!

The expedition crew on the ship was experienced, informed, friendly, and all had their own specialty of knowledge. it was a pleasure to get to know them all.

We awoke to find snow on deck, very exciting. The temperature had dropped as well, around zero or minus one or two. ....

So from this post you can gather that i ENJOYED MYSELF....well it was more than that. The experience on the ship matched our experiences on the kayaks and on the shore landings. I rate it more than 10 out of 10.

Drake Passage: storm in a teacup?

So.....what can I say about Ushuaia except, it is a departure point for Antarctic cruises? (I'm trying to be nice here!). In my imagination, I saw a rough and ready frontier town, full of character and buzz. What I saw when I got there was....dust, dirt, broken-down cars, lack of vibe, no excitement. And still, I'm trying to be nice. Never mind, let's get to the good stuff.

Boarding the MS Expedition with just a little bit of excitement and thrill....Antarctica was going to be a trip-of-a-lifetime for me, it was expensive, it was a long way to go, and I had high hopes. I was worried, however, about the notorious Drake Passage. It is the narrowest part of the easterly flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the only place where it is squeezed between land. Yikes! Just google it on Youtube and you can see some of the horror 2-day crossings people have had to endure....

The ship's crew had plans in place. They told us to get ready in our cabins, 'there are only 2 types of things in your cabin. Things that are on the floor, and things that are going to be on the floor'. They handed out free seasickness tablets. The Doc was on hand 24/7 to dispense seasickness patches (not available in Australia anymore due to wide side effects) and give injections. Frankly....we had an easy crossing. Yes, the ship rolled. Yes, things fell off the tables. Yes, people were seasick for a couple of days. I had taken 2 tablets as a precaution, but they made me sluggish, dopey, and dry-mouthed. No thanks. It was, by all standards, a fairly easy crossing. A little disappointing!!

We spent that night getting familiarized with the awesome ship and eating a fabulous 4-course dinner served in the dining room. At only 120 passengers, it doesn't take long to make new friends and figure out who to avoid (kidding!).