"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised".
Another quote refers to the icebergs' appearance as "...
tombs in some vast cemetery".
My recommended equipment list read like a list for people preparing an assault of Mt.
Everest with things like polartek socks and 3 layers of mittens.
The temperature charts insisted the range was between minus and plus 5.
Seasickness was likely but only while crossing the Drake Passage.
My mind was jumbled as I set off for Antarctica.
What would I find to be my truth? I am happy to say that my trip on Akademik Ioffe with Peregrine Adventures was a treat! It was a 19 day journey from Ushuaia stopping at the Falklands, South Georgia and my 7th continent - Antarctica.
Stanley town Falklands presents a dilemma: it's recent history of a war between England and Argentina is seen in the ship wrecks, war memorials and land mine signs but mostly it feels like an island lost in oceanic wilderness occupied by 3000 hardy souls of 32 nationalities.
The rocks on the shore read "endurance" which speaks to the temperament of the people here as much as it does to Shackleton's ship name.
The inhabitants of the Falklands could never tame this collection of rocky shoreline, tussock grass and penguin rookeries.
Falkland families have lived there for generations and have learned to adapt to the environment, not the other way around.
The feeling of subjugation to the land was reinforced over and over again as the journey continued.
South Georgia was our next stop: 15 people living on an island 170 x 40 km of sub-Antarctic wilderness.
As we got into our zodiacs my diary reads "mini icebergs all around, lots of birds noises, thick fog, what will we see?" Excitement grabbed us as we neared land: we could hear and smell the 80,000 kings, King penguins that is, living with a few elephant seals on Salisbury Plain.
Diary excerpts as we journeyed south along the South Georgia coast " it looks like the Antarctic today, grey rolling seas and lots of icebergs.
The winds are force 12, not actually a hurricane or a cyclone but the winds are as strong as they would being during either.
We did sit off shore on the leeward side of a ½ mile long iceberg; hovering in this position did help protect us from the full force of the wind so we were not rolling too mucs.
The storm continued as we rounded the south tip of the island...
got sick...
went to bed...
stayed there.
" Fortunately I was up and about the next afternoon, back on the bridge that is accessible 24 hours a day with 3 officers always on call.
The crew spoke only Russian.
Did this add to the mystique of the journey? Perhaps yes.
I took to getting up about 0530, pulling my windproofs on over my pj's and standing out on the bridge wings until breakfast at 0730.
It was quiet and humbling to watch the sun bring red, yellow, pink, orange, blue green and purple light to the vast expanse.
Half the time we followed the wandering albatross: days of occasional icebergs and the relentless dependability of rolling waves.
The rest of the time were days like jewels: pristine in both spirit and environment.
More and more icebergs appeared - flat-top rectangles in abundance in the Antarctic Sound - but these giants are constantly reworked by a mix of wind and water.
"Few other areas of the world present such a fascinating mix of naturally shaped beauties and weirdnesses: a dragon, a minaret, a castle with shattered colonnades, the bow of a sinking ship...
silently we pass them in their monumental stillness, caressed and polished by the softly heaving sea.
" An apt description I heard of the devastation caused by the whaling in the 1900's was "Nothing of the whale was wasted ..
..
except the whale itself ".
The pressure on the whale population grew tremendously during WW1 and WW11.
The world need for the meat, oil for lubrication, tanned skins, soap, fertilizer and margarine was intense until finally in 1994, the oceans were declared a sanctuary.
Some refer to the whale as "the living gold of the ocean" and the deserted whaling stations dotted along the bays laid testament to the merciless hunt.
A few more diary excerpts (from our stops on Antarctica peninsula): "...
now have reached Wilhelmina Bay entrance and whales already...
supposed to be a 3 hr cruise...
so many whales...
" " this was the best yet: sun mountains glaciers seals and whales" ...
"3 Minke whales toyed with us for 90 minutes around the ship...
the captain even had his video camera out in Paradise Bay as the Minke whales cavorted around the ship...
" We had advance mixed weather reports for the Drake Passage on our last full day in Antarctica - at Paradise and Neko Harbours.
But our captain found a window of weather opportunity.
We merely undulated across the Drake fighting 40-knot winds and we as we neared the Chilean cost we turned east and had the wind at our backs for the last afternoon.
3292 Nautical miles; 3 continent landings; 8 zodiac cruises; 6 kayak outings; 14 landings; 19 days.
Quite the journey.
My diary's final entry: "...
it's 11 pm now and about 10C ...
we have anchored in the entrance to the Beagle Channel ...
we pick up the pilot at 2 am and it is a 5 hr ride in ...
have put my camera away ...
will just enjoy the scenery now ...
I remember seeing a sign in Ushuaia harbour before we left " the end of the world, the beginning of everything " And so it was.