To experience Antarctica, you must sail across the Drake Passage, named after the 16th-century English explorer Sir Francis Drake.
It is one of the most dangerous seas in the world. Currents at its latitude meet no resistance from any landmass, and waves top 40 feet, giving it a reputation for being “the most powerful convergence of seas.”
After two days of sailing across the Drake Passage from Ushuaia, we arrived at Ensenada Escurra, a bay in the South Shetland islands in the Southern Ocean. This was our first sight of the Antarctic, and it was amazing! I remember telling myself this was worth every sen I paid to be here, every flight difficulty, and every discomfort with crossing the Drake Passage. Even if I had thrown up all the way due to seasickness (which I didn’t), it was well worth it. I cannot begin to describe the beauty and its magnificence. I had never seen anything close to this, although I have travelled to many places.
From Ensenada Escurra, we began our expedition. We sailed along the Antarctica Peninsula and made two daily stops over the next five days. Each stop was unique in its own way, with different landscapes and wildlife, each breathtakingly beautiful and amazing. We would stop in bays where the water was calm so we could go on the zodiac boats or kayaks to get up close to
the icebergs and wildlife. Being so close to the icy blue water as we ploughed through the ice, absorbing the beauty of the surroundings, and seeing penguins jumping from the water was surreal for me.
Often during our zodiac outings, there were shouts of “humpback” as everyone shared information on humpback sightings. Eyes would then stay gazing at the sea to spot the whale spout and once you spotted that, a few minutes later, the whale would surface, showing its hump before diving and flipping its tail up, what’s called a fluke. To capture on camera the perfect fluke is what photographers, and there were many among us, try to achieve.
We stopped at Danger Islands, discovered in 1842 by a British expedition under James Clark Ross. He so named them because, appearing among heavy fragments of ice, they were almost completely concealed until his ship was nearly upon them. These islands are home to one of the largest Adélie penguin colonies on earth. Until quite recently, headlines ran worldwide. “A hidden metropolis of 1.5 million penguins has been discovered thriving out of humanity’s reach in Danger Islands.” Even in the summer, thick sea ice fills the nearby ocean, making it extremely difficult to access, but we made it there!
The weather had been so absolutely glorious for us that one of the expedition team members told me, “I don’t know what weather this is! I have never seen it before!”. The shades of blue from the sky and sea and the white of the magnificent icebergs against the sun were so mesmerizing that I would just sit on the deck to watch these icebergs of numerous shapes and sizes pass by.
Equally stunning were the sunsets on a clear sky. We were there during Christmas, which means it’s the summer solstice in the South Pole, so the sun never sets. It never got dark during this time, and seeing the sunset and sunrise merged into one was quite extraordinary.
The expedition team surprised us on Christmas Day by trying to land on a floating ice sheet. They found one that was steady enough, and our zodiac went for it. That experience was pretty cool.
I will never forget Charcot Bay; this place’s beauty was insane, and as though this was not enough, a shout from the PA system, “Humpbacks!” was called. There were whales everywhere, and a few swam very close to the ship. The icy, calm, clear water was like a mirror reflecting the beautiful surroundings, and the only thing moving was the whale spouts and the whale humps. I was staring at the view as we sailed out of Charcot Bay when a fellow passenger came up to me and said, “If someone told me this was paradise, I would believe him.”
Recess Cove sits on the continent’s mainland. Many of our previous landings have been on islands. This time, we get to set foot on the Antarctica continent itself! We were excited! As we approached our landing area, it was just white pristine snow against beautiful blue skies on one side and the orange skies of a sun about to set on the other side. The sun sets at about 10:30pm, and we were out there
at about 7pm. “Take your time to reflect on Antarctica, find a spot, and just sit down,” said Danny our expedition leader, as we got ashore. You just cannot get enough of the serenity and beauty of this place.
I felt totally humbled and small in this wondrous vastness of God’s amazing creation. So glorious is God, the Best of creators” (Quran 23:14). Recess Cove was the perfect place to camp if you ever wanted to camp out on the Antarctica continent and 40 of the passengers did! For them, ice camping is a once-in-a- lifetime experience, surrounded by Antarctica’s pristine wilderness as they sleep in their bivouac bag under the polar open sky.
At our last stop in Palaver Point, we got to hike to a viewpoint and being the hiker, I got so excited. The trail was a steep uphill, and the snow was pretty thick when we got onshore. It was not easy to walk in this thick snow. Armed with our hiking poles, we hiked up. It took a lot of effort to hike uphill in thick snow. I was sweating profusely and had sweat dripping down my face in this sub-zero temperature. We made it to the viewpoint but didn’t get much of a view because the weather, for the first time on our entire trip, was the typical Antarctica weather of cloudy skies and mist. But the enjoyment of the hike and having made it to the top through thick snow made up for the lack of view.
On 29 December, we made our way back to Ushuaia, and as we left the Antarctic waters, someone spotted a whale, then two whales, then three whales, and suddenly, there were countless whales around us. The whales were doing tail flukes everywhere, and three whales did what we hadn’t seen before, a breach! They jumped out of the water and fell back in with a huge splash. This spectacle of whales was the best ‘send-off.’ What a way to end our already spectacular trip. With Captain Nino’s expert navigation, we avoided the turbulence of the Drake Passage as much as we could. On the crisp, bright morning as we approached Ushuaia, the view of Argentina on one side and Chile on the other with the Andes mountains was stunning. Sea birds were flying everywhere. Just as we had the whales to bid us farewell when we left Antarctica, we had the birds to welcome us ashore! Surely, it was only by God’s Grace and blessings that made this entire expedition so wonderful and amazing. We had no control over the weather, the landscape nor the wildlife.
Antarctica is an environment of exquisite isolation often described as a continent of superlatives. First-time visitors are typically overwhelmed by its staggering beauty: glaciers, icebergs of every conceivable shape and size, pristine snow-covered terrains, and deep icy blue waters that shelter rich wildlife.
Antarctica is the largest wilderness area on earth and needs to be kept that way. All Antarctic species are protected.Its unique ecosystem is valuable to science, climate change and the environment, so it needs to be conserved. For this reason, IAATO (The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) limits the number of visitors; no more than 100 people can go onshore at any one time and not more than one ship can be at any one place.
It was truly a super amazing and sublime expedition for me. The images of Antarctica will be etched in my memory forever. Thank you God for freeing my mind to see YOUR ways of creating beauty and splendor that Only YOU can create. All Praise be to YOU.
