Antarctica wasn’t a destination that I would have picked to go on a holiday, but Robyn had it on her bucket list and asked me if I would like to go. I actually went with the attitude that if you see some snow, ice and a few icebergs, then you have seen it all. Boy, was I wrong!
Our first and last two days we stayed in Buenos Aries and luckily we were provided with our personal tour guides who were very informative about the culture and history of the city.
I was totally mesmerized by Antarctica. I couldn’t believe how many different shapes, sizes and colours there are in the icebergs. We saw plenty of wildlife, seals, whales and umpteen penguins. Penguins are just too cute for words and luckily we spotted a few that had babies. Before we went on our trip, we were warned about the stench of penguin poo, and as I learnt from the research crew it is known as guano. It was a bit smelly, but definitely not as bad as I was expecting.
We learnt a lot from Chimu’s very enthusiastic research crew about what is being done to keep Antarctica in a pristine state. We were told to stay 5 metres away from the penguins and to stay still while they travel along the penguin highways. In some cases this rule became difficult as some of them would come straight toward us, that is until they realised we weren’t a rock, then they veered off in another direction.
The ship, Ocean Endeavour was not like the gigantic cruise ships that take thousands of passengers; it was a small ship and catered for about 200 passengers. Because of its size, they were able to venture further into the Antarctic Circle and all passengers had the opportunity to go ashore on the Zodiac boats.
We were lucky on our trip that it snowed on two days. Even though the temperature was apparently about zero, you didn’t really notice that it was that cold. The operation of the daily outings by Chimu, actually the whole trip was very well organised.
I am so glad that I took this trip, it was definitely something different.
Denise & Robyn
New South Wales