Your vacation to Antarctica: Sleep when you get home

Tourism to Antarctica: “The ship is strengthened for ice, and we’re not afraid to scratch the paint.” Said expedition leader Howard Whelan to 54 new passengers crowded in the bar of Aurora Expedition

Tourism to Antarctica: “The ship is strengthened for ice, and we’re not afraid to scratch the paint.” Said expedition leader Howard Whelan to 54 new passengers crowded in the bar of Aurora Expeditions’ Polar Pioneer, bound for Antarctica.

Travel to that desolate continent has increased. Approximately 27,000 tourists landed in the 2014-15 austral summer season, compared to 23,000 a decade earlier, and 11,500 in 2001-02. But the number remains minuscule — less than 1% of international visitors to Toronto, my hometown, in 2014.

Are you one of those few whose spirit is called by wind-scoured empty vastness? Then Antarctica is already on your list. Here’s how to book wisely and get the most out of your trip.

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Photo ยฉ Katy Paul-Chowdhury, Ph.D.
1. Choose the Smaller Ship

The Polar Pioneer is a sturdy Russian-crewed vessel, used for hydrographic research before its current incarnation running tourists around Antarctica and European Arctic. I didn’t appreciate how small it was before seeing it beside the behemoths lining the dock in Ushuaia. But small size yielded major benefits:

Access. Tour operators cannot land more than 100 passengers at a time, leading to complicated arrangements on the larger boats. We all got onshore, usually twice a day. And Polar Pioneer was able to navigate bays and channels impassible for a larger ship.

Logistics. Decanting a boat-load of tourists down a narrow ladder into Zodiacs — and hauling them safely back up, gum boots cleaned and disinfected after each landing — is a process. The smaller the ship, the faster it goes. But logistics extend to the little magic bits too. When 15 orcas appeared off our port side in the Gerlache Strait, everyone was out of the breakfast room and on deck in 90 seconds flat.

Social Life. Though we likely lacked the variety of entertainment available on a big cruise ship, there is an camaraderie that comes from a small group sharing an adventure. A cozy charm that comes from knowing everyone in the bar, and who took the best photo of the humpback whales under the zodiac.

2. Scratch the Paint

Intensify the experience — scratch the paint! Push yourself. Get wet. Do the extras.

My friend and I kayaked, with a dozen other intrepid souls, and two excellent guides. First day out, we battled fierce wind and chop, salt spray off the paddles stinging our eyes. Days later, a handful of bright kayaks floated blissfully on the indigo water of Paradise Harbour, as we listened to the other-worldly song of courting leopard seals.

The climbers left their lonely footprints up untouched mountains, and fulfilled long-held desires to descend into a crevasse. We had groups of snorkelers and photographers. Hardcore adventurers stripped down for the polar plunge. Each activity provided the precious opportunity to experience Antarctica in a more intimate and visceral way.

3. Expect Bumps and Medicate Accordingly

When crossing the Southern Ocean, the world’s roughest body of water, expect bumpy. Save natural remedies for dry land. Bring strong sea-sickness meds, and take them early. With luck they will work, and you can enjoy the rock and roll as part of the adventure.

We crossed the Drake Passage from Porto Williams, a Chilean naval town, to the Antarctic Peninsula in high winds and waves. Experienced tour staff rated the seas a 7/10, “rough but not terrible”.

The expedition doctor was a godsend, enquiring into each passenger’s meds on the first night, and pressing tablets on the unprepared. Nevertheless, the crowd at breakfast on the first Drake morning was noticeably thinner than at dinner the night before.

The rest was easy. Aside from a wild night along the Bransfield Strait, the water was calm around the Peninsula, and almost disappointingly flat on the return across the Drake. Don’t let fear of sea-sickness prevent your trip — but do plan for the worst.

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Photo ยฉ Katy Paul-Chowdhury, Ph.D.
4. Say Yes to Everything. Sleep When You Get Home.

Memorable moments happened when sensible people were in bed. One 4:30am wake-up call came en route through an ice-choked Neumayer Channel, water mirror-still, and exquisite morning light washing the ice cliffs with gold.

Another heralded the rare opportunity to land at Bailey Head, boasting 100,000 pairs of chinstrap penguins. Those of us who had closed the bar were a trifle subdued, but were nevertheless boarding kayaks or zodiacs by 5am. Paddlers were further rewarded by the ferocious spectacle of a leopard seal demolishing a penguin.

Then there was camping. Travelers not wedded to actual sleep spent the night onshore, under the long twilight of the polar summer sky. Zipped into sleeping bags, we dozed to the continuous squawk of surrounding gentoo penguins, and periodic booms from a melting ice cliff below.

5. Be Flexible

From the expedition guide: “itinerary may endure changes depending on weather, ice conditions and the movements of other vessels.”

Unusual quantities of sea ice prevented our traveling as far south as planned. The expedition leader and the ship’s captain continually monitored ice and weather, locations and plans of other vessels, and which accessible locations would offer paddling, snorkeling, climbing, and landing opportunities. (Though we occasionally glimpsed other ships, not once did we overlap with other people.) This feat of improvisational decision-making was seamless from the passenger perspective. But it illustrates why one must approach Antarctica free from expectations about a particular place or experience.

Flexibility yielded small joys as well. I invariably drink scotch with just a splash of water, never ice. But when the ice is thousands of years old, heaved from the ocean into your zodiac, all air pressed out so it flashes as dense, clear and brilliant as a diamond in the sunshine… you put it in your scotch!

Secret: you can journey to Antarctica without chipping your manicure. But it would be a wasted trip. The continent’s gift is the chance to push your edges. Wholeheartedly embraced, it makes you feel alive!

The author traveled independently, and the tour company did not review this article.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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