We have literally thousands of photographs, so it's difficult to know how best to structure this blog, but I thought it would be good to start with a map.
After crossing the Drake Passage on Christmas, we sailed around Elephant Island at the top right of the map. This is where Shackleton's men waited for him to return with help. The next day we tried to get to Esperanza Station, but there was too much ice, so we went back north across the Bransfield Strait to Admiralty Bay, which was stunning. The real highlight though was Day 3 sailing through Gerlache Strait and the Neumaier Channel. Finally, we ended with Deception Island and back into the Drake Passage. We had a balcony on the port side, the kids club was on the starboard side, and there was a viewing balcony right at the end of our hall on the 11th deck that was directly under the bridge, so we had lots of good viewing options. We also had daily lectures from experts, as well as one given by the captain, so that we would know where we were going. This was the zoom in map we got of Elephant Island, our first stop.
We sailed around to look at Cape Valentine, Point Wild, and the Endurance Glacier. We were so excited when the captain announced we were approaching Elephant Island. We went out to the front balcony first.
We looked up at the bridge and got a kick out of the fact that they had a stuffed penguin and a Stanley the bear (Princess's attempt at a mascot) as lookouts.
Elephant Island slowly emerged from the fog.
The front was really windy and cold though, so we retreated back to the relative protection of our balcony.
Mom found an even warmer compromise.
They say the weather in Antarctica can change in minutes, and we experienced it ourselves as we sailed around the island to find blue skies.
We also spotted our first humongous iceberg!
The brown on the right side is penguins! Jeff managed to get some zoomed in photos of them. We're pretty sure they're adelie penguins.
Then we came around to the Endurance Glacier.
And then the mist came back to reclaim the island.
There were so many incredible combinations of rock and ice to see.
Plus, there were spectacular icebergs everywhere.
The most incredible iceberg we saw though was about 40 meters high, about 2 miles long, and about half a mile wide. There was no way to capture it in one picture, but we stood on the balcony in awe as we sailed past it.
You could see the places where the salt water had eaten away at it. Jeff even saw a piece of it calve off.
It faded back into the fog finally, the same way it had emerged from it. We had two ice pilots on board and a captain who was making his fourth trip to Antarctica, so we felt perfectly safe, but I cannot imagine trying to navigate these waters in the kinds of ships the earlier explorers had. The nice things about the icebergs is they help calm the water, so there aren't a lot of waves, but having one of those things appear out of nowhere would be terrifying.
The smaller icebergs were fun to spot too, because often they would have penguins hanging out on them.
We saw lots of penguins swimming alongside the ship too. They tend to swim in groups and porpoise or jump in and out of the water as they swim. It's incredible to watch, but impossible to catch in a photo.
It was slightly overcast when we entered Admiralty Bay, but there was still plenty of natural beauty to admire.
There was also some human action going on. The Polish Antarctic station is located in the bay. When they're not super busy, they often come on board ships to talk about their work, but their supply ship had just arrived, so everyone was working to unload the supplies they would need for the rest of the year.
We also got a glimpse at their neighbors, a penguin colony. All the little dots up the hill are penguins.
The best was yet to come though. We had beautiful weather through the Gerlache Strait and the Neumaier Channel, and the views were just surreal. It was as though someone had painted them all.
The beauty was constant and on both sides of the ship. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Everyone in the family loved it. It was quite cold, even with the sun, so we would bundle up, run out, admire and photograph, then come back in, warm up as we watched through the window, and then run out and do it all again. The cruise ship also thoughtfully provided blankets on the upper decks.
The icebergs never got old either. We especially loved the ones with hints of blue.
Occasionally, we had to refuel, but the buffet dining was at the front of the ship and surrounded by windows, so we wouldn't miss anything.
The captain said we were going to go into Charlotte Bay to "have a look around", because there were supposed to be whales there. Oh my goodness did we hit the jackpot. There must have been at least 100 whales. We stayed there for about an hour, and we all became experts at spotting the "blows" as well as the tails. Jeff managed to get a couple good pictures too.
It was a magical finish to a magical day. Of course, it is Antarctica, so the weather couldn't be perfect forever. The next day was gray and rainy as we sailed by Deception Island. It's actually the crater of a volcano, which makes it a protected bay area, but the only way in is an opening called Neptune's Bellows. It's narrow and there are hidden rocks under the water, so we were definitely not going in. This is the best picture we have of Neptune's Bellows.
While I'm sad we couldn't see it better, it's a good reminder of how lucky we were with the weather we did get. It was also easier to say goodbye to Antarctica on a cloudy day. In his talk, the captain acknowledged that tourism in Antarctica is a difficult topic. Obviously, we don't want to impact the fragile ecosystem at all, but it's also important for people to understand what an incredible place it is and hopefully galvanize them to want to protect it. I know that it is one of the most incredible places on Earth, and that the experience of seeing it certainly cemented my awe of it and my desire to preserve it.
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