Somehow I managed to tell you about going to Antarctica in one post and coming back from Antarctica in another without telling you anything about Antarctica itself. With this post I remedy that shortfall.
When going to Antarctica, getting there is not half the fun. In pre-Panama Canal days, the seas around Cape Horn were called "the roaring forties." Today the 500 mile belt of rough water between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula is called the Drake Passage. "The Drake" is some of the roughest water in the world. Furthermore, expedition ships tend not to be stabilized because stabilizers would not survive encounters with ice. So, the water is rough and the relatively small ships pitch and roll for a day and a half in each direction. Passenger injuries are not uncommon and deaths are not unheard of. A woman on my ship dislocated her elbow in a fall. She and her husband were taken to a Chilean base for medivac home.
Once you get across the Drake the seas calm and the neat part of the adventure begins. I expected to see thousands of penguins and plenty of seals and sea lions and some whales and many flying-type sea birds. We saw all of these and more. The penguins are charming and unafraid even if they do smell pretty fishy. We saw several species of whale, and several of seal. We went ashore 8 times by Zodiac and also took an hour and a half Zodiac ride in "Iceberg Alley."
What I didn't expect is the natural beauty of the region. Somehow the Antarctic documentaries I'd seen on TV didn't convey its stunning scenery. Sharp, jagged mountains soar out of the icy seas with glaciers hanging from them. Icebergs erode into fantastic elaborate shapes. My overwhelming impression of Antarctica is of its scenic beauty. While the weather can be nasty even in summer, we had quite good weather for most of our stay.
On board ship we had a geologist, a marine biologist, an ornithologist, and a historian. They gave talks on their specialties that were well attended and appreciated. Once we got into calm waters along the Antarctic Peninsula meals were well attended as well. On our final day in Antarctica we visited Deception Island which is a six mile wide volcanic caldera into which our ship sailed. Hot springs there make swimming along the shore possible and perhaps a third of our party donned swim suits and went in the water. All too soon our tour of Antarctica was over and we had to face the Drake again.
With this entry travel blogging is over for the next six weeks or so. Now it is back to the management thoughts, domestic politics and world affairs we usually cover.
