Hi Cyber Travelers,
Well this is it... the ultimate....I finally made it to Antarctica....
I managed to flash pack my way down to the south of Patagonia to a small town called Ushuaia. ...... which happens to be the last place on earth you want to go to.....literally...its the last town on the bottom of the globe.
I negotiated a half price ticket and was set to leave in a few days after being fitted out with my cold weather gear... including penguin poo proof boots.
I was so excited as you can imagine... a dream of a lifetime was about to come into reality. When I was picking up my ticket I was talking to a traveller in the office. She just informed me that she had been moved onto my ship as her ship almost sunk. Her ship was on its way back from Antartica and hit uncharted rocks....... it took in 300 tonne of water into the hull.mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Do I still want to do this?
And of course there was the Clelia II, which was an icebreaker which got hit by 50ft waves when crossing the Drake passage last year........ the impact punched out one of its engines.
Great ......I was just about to board the Titanic......
After many prayers we all finally borded the Antartic Dream (Dream....yea right)and headed for a 10 day expedition. First off....a 2 day crossing across the infamous Drake passage. This passage (named after Sir Francis Drake) happens to be one of the roughest stretches of ocean in the world.
Let me just give you the picture.... this crossing is not for the faint-hearted..... (I get sick catching the Manly ferry on the way to work). Equipped with my herbal ginger tablets...(I chose to go natural).....I watched people stick on their illegally imported sea sickness patches .....and the excitement was uncontainable. We spent the next 2 days battling the rough seas (15m (50ft) )and 55 knot winds of the Drake Passage.
Now might I say.... god bless ginger.....I think this is the seventh wonder of the herbal world. As some people spent either the next 2 days in bed.....or throwing up...
I had a great time....working out at the gym, eating fine food and hanging out in the sauna....Although running on the tread mill was more like a cross country race.
Day three..... we woke to find ourselves in calm water and surrounded by beautiful mountains. Equipped with our life jackets and penguin poo proof boots we motored across to land on our zodiacs.
Then one of those magic moments in life occurred..... a memory that I will never forget. Awaiting on land were the most welcoming group of locals cheering us on and waving their little arms...... eager to get us on their home land and show us around.
Hundreds of little penguins chatting to us in their own language, pecking at our boots and very excited....they were so friendly and curious.
Over the next several days we had great opportunity to hike across the great white continent. Observe several thousands of penguins and families of seals.....
As we were hiking... my hiking buddy and I were watching a seal which was about 20 metres away..... Thinking he knew what he was talking about... I was listening to his instructions on what happens if a seal approaches you .....He tells me to wave your arms in the air and make noise.... So as I was taking a photo of a seal I noticed that the seal was getting larger in my view finder. I could hear my buddy making noise as he was standing next to me...
As the seal was now several metres in front of me and now completely filled my viewfinder there was a deadly silence from my buddy.....Yep, you guessed it...... my buddy was now no where to be seen and the seal was now chasing me..... great..... I didn't see my last minutes on this planet being eaten by a seal....
The Antarctic region covers 20% of the Southern hemisphere. The passage to get in and out is only open 8 weeks of the year as most of the year round its frozen. There is a small post office there and recently there was a vacancy for a job there.... anyone interested.....???????
The scenery is beautiful... in fact one of the best I have seen in the world...It is so majestic..... Have you ever seen something so beautiful .....it just takes your breath away.....???????
One morning I came up to the dining room for breakfast and was alarmed to see an iceberg floating past our ship. What was so disturbing was that the iceberg was bigger than the ship we were on. Our ship was 12m wide and 83m wide. Now considering that icebergs are 80-90% below the water... that was pretty scary.
Well I must say ... put this one on the bucket list.....
warm hugs
Katrina
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