Flexibility helps: Prepare to have a changing itinerary for an Antarctic expedition

There’s no such thing as a sure thing in Antarctica as sightseeing plans can change several times a day, but one thing is guaranteed: Everything you see will be amazing.

A tourist ship steaming towards Antarctica. Picture: iStock

There’s one fact every traveller considering an Antarctic expedition needs to grasp before settling on a ship, deciding on dates and paying the deposit. When it comes to exploring the frozen continent, there’s no such thing as a firm itinerary.

The ship’s crew and expedition team will have a plan on where they want to go, and do everything in their power to get passengers to the best locations, but there are so many issues beyond the guides’ control that could force the sightseeing plan to change several times a day.

During this visit to the Antarctic Peninsula with Chimu Adventures, our expedition leader intends venturing south through the Gerlache Strait, landing at Neko Harbour and Cuverville Island on the way — but an unseasonal abundance of ice blocks our path and forces a revision that takes the MV Sea Spirit in the other direction.

THE BIG SURPRISE ABOUT ANTARCTICA

PASSENGER JET LANDS IN ANTARCTICA

LONELY PLANET ANTARCTICA GUIDE

Instead of heading towards that invisible line marking the Antarctic Circle we sail for Antarctic Sound. The reward for this change is encountering magnificent tabular icebergs that emerge from the Weddell Sea and coming close to the locations that feature in Ernest Shackleton’s story of survival.

So while I recommend not setting your heart on anything in particular, but hoping for a menagerie of wildlife and profusion of ice with weather conducive to disembarking, here are locations every Antarctic explorer will be lucky to savour.

An iceberg floats in Andord Bay on Graham Land, Antarctica. Picture: iStock

HALF MOON ISLAND

After two days ploughing across the Drake Passage from Ushuaia, we make the first landing at Half Moon Island in the South Shetlands. This excursion is an easy introduction to Antarctica and the chance to master riding a Zodiac boat, trudging in heavy expedition boots, dodging wildlife and evaluating the usefulness of personal gear. Half Moon Island is home to hordes of chinstrap penguins, but we also see gentoos and a pair of misplaced macaronis and one lost emperor, with snow-covered peaks on the neighbouring islands reason to complete the lung-stretching climb to take in the 360-degree view.

CIERVA COVE

The wind is blowing in the wrong direction to make a landing at Cierva Cove, the inlet on the Peninsula’s Danco Coast, so we take to the Zodiacs for a waterborne safari and cruise around icebergs that look like Disney castles, spotting crab-eater seals slumbering on frozen wedges of water. Cierva Cove is home to a string of monumental glaciers that calve to drop new icebergs into the sea — it sounds like a whip cracking when there are new fractures and a canon firing as pieces break away and crash into the water — and we hear the snap, crackle and pop of chunks rolling in the ripples around the boat.

ORNE HARBOUR

An unremarkable bay on the Peninsula’s west coast will always be significant to me because it’s where I complete my continent collection, setting foot on each of the planet’s seven continents. The surrounding mountains are so lofty our 90m ship looks like a toy anchored in Orne Harbour. There’s a square of flat land to step from Zodiac to terra firma and then an uphill climb in hip-deep snow to reach a mountainside penguin colony, and while other passengers ascend, I make a seat in the powder beside the first switchback in the track carved by the crew to sit in silence and marvel at this magnificent travel moment.

It’s the coldest landing of the expedition. The mercury drops to five below with wind chill wiping another 10 degrees from the temperature, and it’s so frosty the automatic focus on my DSLR fails and I record the moment with my humble iPhone.

King Penguins in Salisbury Plain in South Georgia Antarctica. Picture: iStock

DECEPTION ISLAND

Visiting the South Shetland’s Deception Island is a chance to become immersed in Antarctica’s human history. The ruins of a whaling camp that became a British research station stand in the weather-beaten caldera of an active volcano.

I spy abandoned radios in an old workshop, rusting oil tanks dotting the beach provide temporary shelter from snow being driven sideways by the morning blizzard, the former seaplane hangar looks like the crew just departed, and two lonely crosses mark the graves of scientists lost when a seismic mudslide swept across the camp.

Whaler’s Bay is home to thermal springs, with heated water dribbling down the sand, and some of my intrepid travelling companions take the chance to indulge in another Antarctica tradition making the polar plunge by running from the beach into the grey sea.

Arriving and departing Deception Island is also a marvel. Sea Spirit passes through a narrow opening in the black cliffs called Neptune’s Bellows, a breach that appeared during an ancient eruption, and the surrounding peaks tower above the vessel like a menacing gothic structure.

The Sea Spirit waits for trekkers in Orne Harbour, Antarctic Peninsula. Picture: AAP

ESPERANZA STATION

An early morning radio call is made to Esperanza Station, the year-round camp on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, and soon we’re in Zodiacs racing ashore to meet the small company of Argentinian soldiers and their families just about to complete a 12-month deployment at this most remote of locations.

We’re shown around the compound where soldiers conduct global-warming research and monitor the weather, visit the school where kids aged six to 16 are educated, survey the small museum, and congregate in the community hall nicknamed the Casino where we leave fruit and vegies for locals craving something fresh to eat.

BROWN BLUFF

This is my favourite shore excursion because the weather is perfect — a flawless blue sky and the temperature hovering around an agreeable 5C — and we visit a slither of land flanking Antarctic Sound that’s home to a million Adelie penguins. These regal creatures are now my preferred species of the continent’s waddling residents.

Instead of strolling, I find a spot to sit silently between the rookery and the place the birds are launching into the water on fishing trips, with a view of the icebergs floating offshore, and it’s not long before the fearless penguins are breaking the 5m wildlife rule and brushing past my legs as they make the afternoon commute to find food.

When we return to Sea Spirit, afternoon tea is served on the ship’s sundeck with tiered cake trays and icy cocktails, and we sip and sup while the captain circumnavigates tabular icebergs as big as Whitsunday Islands that have broken away from an ice shelf in the Weddell Sea.

Penguins at home in their frozen land.

AITCHO ISLANDS

It’s back to the South Shetlands for the last landing and we spend a few hours on a sunny afternoon traversing a plot in the Aitcho islands that’s home to a zoo of polar animals, including elephant seals sunbaking on the beach between battalions of noisy penguins. It’s nesting season for the gentoos and while one parent stands guard over the egg the other finds stones to build up the camp. The easier option for many is simply stealing pebbles from the neighbours rather than venturing out to find their own building material.

The writer was a guest of Chimu Adventures

ESCAPE ROUTE

ANTARCTICA

Chimu Adventures Classic Antarctica is round-trip voyage from Ushuaia on MV Sea Spirit visiting the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula — there’s no set itinerary as destinations depend on weather, ice and wildlife — with 10 departures scheduled between November 2018 and February 2020.

MORE

chimuadventures.com

For more travel news and inspiration sign up to Escape’s newsletter.

Originally published as Flexibility helps: Prepare to have a changing itinerary for an Antarctic expedition