My Travels: Antartica

As my friends and colleagues know, I have a very long travel bucket list. No where on that list was Antartica.

And so, when a dear friend asked me if I had any interest in going to Antartica, which was her dream trip, my first thought was “Why?, Why would anyone want to go there?” Then I immediately stopped myself and redirected my thoughts to my travel motto, which is “Why not?!” . Why not experience something new, meeting new places, seeing new lands, especially if those lands are melting? And so, we went to the bottom of the earth!

The scenery in Antartica was absolutely AMAZING! It was so perfect it looked fake! Mother Nature really knows how to show off!

Of note, no filters, nor any other editing, was done to these photos taken via my cell phone.

Antartica on a wondrously clear day!  Even the crew and scientists aboard were speechless.  

Another breathtaking photo from Antartica.

Even though we were inexperienced kayakers, we kayaked in Antartica. We took a zodiac boat away from the ship, before we got into the kayaks. The team gave was what was essentially an adult fleece onesie and a dry suit to wear. Gloves were also provided to us.

During our kayak trip, we heard a whale blow through his blow hole! It was amazing to hear but also VERY intimidating, considering how very large he is! It’s one thing to hear a whale blow when you are on a ship’s deck, it is quite another to hear it when you are in the same ocean, so close to him!

Kayaking in Antartica

This trip was the dark horse trip I never knew I needed to have had on my bucket list! If you get the chance to go, take it!

There were a lot of icebergs in this part of Antartica, on this particular day.

At our last stop, we also did the Polar Plunge before we headed towards the Drake Passage. No where better to do the Polar Plunge, than Antartica! One and done for me!

This is a picture of our last landing spot in Antartica.  As you can see, the snow is melting.

From a lower vantage point, is where we did the Polar Plunge before quickly dressing and getting back on a zodiac to take use back to the cruise ship.

The Hurtigruten cruise at a landing in which we hiked up to see the penguins.  This day was quite warm at 40'F, which turned the snow into slush.  It definitely made the trek to see the penguins a bit challenging.

This was from picture from a colony of Chinstrap penguins.  As instructed by Hurtigruten, we kept our distance while admiring these beautiful animals.  

We were told that due to Global Warming, the penguins are moving further and further south.  The weather at their current location is too warm for them.

This is a penguin superhighway.  As you can see from this photo, it is essentially a single lane road they travel to/from their home to the water.  When they have to pass another penguin on this superhighway, they turn sideways and shuffle pass the other penguin, similar to how we could pass someone in airplane aisle.  

“I HAVEN’T BEEN EVERYWHERE, BUT IT’S ON MY LIST.”

– SUSAN SONTAG