That wasn't on my bucket list?!: Antarctica

My phone bleeps..."Are you going to Antarctica?"

It was a message from this one friend that I speak to maybe twice a year, but she always thinks I am aware of everything going on in her world 😆

I am confused and ask her what this is all about.

Apparently, our group of nomads announced their next trip is going to go to Antarctica and that there are limited rooms available. More information will follow shortly, but my friend tells me it has been on her bucket list forever. She wants to go, but is afraid the timing is terrible.

I have to be honest with her. It wasn't really on my bucket list. But I am extremely sensitive to FOMO, so it is added to the list while we speak about it. Especially if she decides to go!

The following week, we ask around who else is considering going. At least one other friend. And there will probably be other people on board that we know (it isn't our first trip together)

The info meeting is there... And I get more and more excited. I'd never go on my own, but with this group it sounds like a plan. It's super expensive, but we'll probably never go to Antarctica cheaper.

I sign up....
My friend doesn't... (she wanted to, but really couldn't organise it)

So suddenly I am going to get someone else's bucketlist item sorted.

So Antarctica, how does one get there?

I am not rich enough to get on a plane and fly there. So what you do is go on a boat from Ushuaia, a small city in the very south of Argentina. I have been there before, in 2018. But back then, I was focussed on speed-running Patagonia instead of taking a boat to the south pole.

I shared a cabin with a different friend. And the rooms were surprisingly spacious and comfortable. You'd store your luggage underneath your bed, so the room is almost clutter-free. The curtains in front of the window were quite essential, since the nights were very short. All the gear is stored just behind the door.

And you have a bunch of gear! Before the trip starts, you get a lot of information about clothing requirements to even be allowed on board. I found it surprising that it being wind/waterproof was more important than it being warm. But after reading more about it, I learned that it wasn't extremely cold on the part of Antarctica that we were going. Unless it started to snow and the wind would pick up.

If I would have started shopping in specialised stores, just a jacket would have cost me at least 300 euro. Not to mention the price of the pants. And they recommended 3 layers!! I started to worry about my savings (Thank you Hive for sponsoring part of this trip!) and also how it would all fit in my travelbag!

It is also possible to rent your gear in Ushuaia. But I wouldn't be me, if I didn't do some research to check out the price difference in the gear they offer and the price if I bought it. Those clothing items weren't a special polar expedition brand, but I thought that if they rent that gear out, I would be allowed with that stuff on board. The rental price was almost 75% the sale price. Easy decision!

I still don't know how I managed to pack everything. But in the end, I maybe only used half of what I brought along!

Anyway... My suitcase, photo equipment and my ass went on board in Ushuaia. During the first few days, we would have sea days without any landings. And the crew would use that time to educate us about the trip, the history of Antarctica and the animals you would be able to see during the journey.

But first: "Get your sea sickness pills!"

And that is where I messed up. I never got a prescription and just took over-the-counter motion sickness pills with me. I never realised that Drake Passage, the body of water between South America and Antarctica, would be so rough. And so by the time I realised my pills weren't strong enough, there was nothing I could do apart from laying flat on the bed and sleep through the day.

I don't think I joined any of the educational sessions the first few days.....

At some point, the boat started to get restless. The captain told us over the intercom that he spotted the first iceberg. My dark humor turned it into "Women and children first!!", which wasn't appreciated. Why so serious!?

Anyway, I watched the iceberg through the porthole and noticed I wasn't very impressed. Which was very weird, since I that thing was pretty large and I had never seen icebergs before. Maybe it was my sea sickness, who knows!

After all that, the sea became more quiet and the announcement came that we would have our first landing. During the briefing in the bar we heard the procedure and I wondered if I would be able to remember all that. I was happy that my sea sickness was gone and the real experience would now start.

First stop: Deception Island

The name of the island is perfect. If you arrive, it just looks like a regular island. But it is horseshoe shaped with a very tiny entrance. This is due to the volcano underneath the water. When in the bay with our big boat, it was time to prepare for landing.

Ok... 3 layers of clothes: thermo underwear, normal trousers and shirt, waterproof pants and jacket, gloves, hat, sunglasses. Next: Warm socks and boots (that we got on loan from the boat). Then... life jacket. And finally, your backpack.

I was boiling hot after putting all that on. We walked to a platform that had small army-style rubber boats holding 10 people. But before we were allowed to get on board, we had to disinfect our boots to not bring any sickness (i.e. birdflu) on land.

The rubber boat would bring us to the rocky shore of Deception island. We needed to walk 2 meters through the water, and it was extremely slippery. I was so scared I would fall over in the water and freeze to death. But I made it. And was very surprised the waterproof pants were so good that no water got inside my boots!

On the island, the crew had mapped out a few walking routes that we could follow. And they warned us a bunch of times to not walk outside of those routes, or you could just and up upside down in a crevasse in the ice where nobody will find you.

Also, the walking route has some "Do not go beyond this point" signs to protect nests of young penguins or other young animals.

And one of the hardest rules for me:"You shall not sit down in the snow or even touch it". Since your gloves or hands aren't disinfected, it would be risky to touch anything. So all you do is walk, don't put your backpack on the snow. Don't make snow-angels (WHYYYYYY???!?). Don't sit down to take in the scenery. To be honest, this kinda sucked. But it made sense.

We would spend like 2 hours on land before returning to the boat. Same ritual: get on the rubber boat (a zodiac), put your backpack between your legs, get on the big boat, disinfect your boots, go to your room and drop all your stuff and slip into something more comfortable. And flop on the bed....

During my first landing I learned a few things:

• It wasn't very cold and I certainly was overdressed
• My backpack and all my clothes were both too heavy and that combined with walking in the snow made it uncomfortable to just have a fun stroll.
• People would just think the clear rules didn't apply to them....

After returning I suddenly got the chills and stayed longer in bed than I should have. I skipped lunch and also wasn't feeling well enough to join the second landing of that day.

Here I was... all the way in Antarctica. I spend a fortune on this trip. And I didn't feel like taking the zodiac to explore the island! What was wrong with me??

The next day, someone suggested to check in with the boat doctor. I wasn't super sick, but these chills stayed and I didn't have the energy to do anything. And the doc kinda knew right away. I did a little swab and before we knew it, it was positive for Covid. A slight panic... but she told me a lot of people on the boat had it. Did I have to quarantine? Did I get a private room? None of that was the case. The boat was full. And it was up to me if I wanted to tell people or not.

I have no secrets, so I told my roommate. And during dinner I told the people at my table. This caused a bit of an uproar with specifically the American people who thought it was preposterous of me sitting in the common area. "What do you recommend that I do instead then? A girl got to eat and the doctor said it was ok"

Mind you, it was January 2024...4 years after the pandemic. Covid was almost like a normal flu by now.

Anyway, I somehow became somewhat of a leper to some people. And one guy from the crew pulled me aside to tell me that it may be better not to tell people I had covid, because some people were still very on edge about it. He also said that basically half the ship had it, so he wasn't too worried, personally 😉

And so I missed the landings of the second day too, while staying in bed. But the weather wasn't too good. A lot of snow and bad visibility. I crossed my fingers the next day would be better.

Zodiac expedition

An Antarctica expedition, like I did, is roughly 2 days crossing Drake Passage, 5 days of landings/zodiacs (2 per day) and 2 days crossing back.

The landings were now clear, but the next day was going to be our first zodiac trip. We would get in a rubber boat with a group of 10 and just boat around a bit, looking for whales.

The thought of being in such a tiny boat with such big animals around, plus all the ice... It just made me nervous. But I forgot all about it when the first whales were spotted. And I started to get a little embarrassed when all the zodiacs started to go full speed towards the whales. Poor animals, being chased around just for the kicks of a few tourists!!

But getting closer, the zodiacs stopped and we just started floating around to enjoy the view of the whales hunting and eating. At some point, we saw so many groups of whales! It was like 25 of them all around us. At that point I wondered why people were talking about endangered animals. But they were all here!!

You just didn't know where to look and where to point your camera. It was whales everywhere! Of course, I ruined almost all my photos. But that didn't really ruin the experience.

After all that, everyone was super hyped when we returned to the boat. Even the crew-members were over the moon. Hardly ever had they seen so many whales during a zodiac cruise. Sceptic me didn't know if they said that to every group or that it was really as special as they said it was.

More animals

The following day, it was landing time again. And now the theme was "penguins". On the mainland of Antarctica, the penguin colonies are everywhere. There were a few nests and they were all busy walking around in their own highways. Or searching for the best stone for their loves one!

It turned into a bit of a sport to get the perfect photo of a penguin feeding his baby chicks. But I found it already challenging to even see the babies!

More ice

The next zodiac cruise was all about the icebergs. We would boat around in search of the most gorgeous iceberg in Antarctica. But not get too close, because you never know when they may flip over!

We saw one iceberg turn around and that was just an amazing and impressive view. The shades of blue that are under water and then suddenly are above water are gorgeous. As usual, I didn't have my camera ready to make a video of that spectacle. But YouTube is probably full of videos like that!

While exploring, we also saw plenty of seals and penguins.

^{See? This fellah wanted to say hello!}

And then it was time to turn around and go back to sea sickness on the Drake Passage. The sea was very rough, so I didn't even try to leave my room. I was knackered anyway! All I did was eat and sleep (and watch some videos that I downloaded).

Conclusion

• Antarctica isn't as cold as you expect. Dress for the wind, not for the temperature!
• I had a very weird realisation at some point that it was another continent when I saw the snowy peaks just rise from the water. Like, you always know that it is a continent. But it just hit me in a weird way. Still not sure what caused it.
• Don't get sick on board... that kinda sucks when you spend so much money and the boat won't wait for you to get better
• Although I missed half of the landings due to Covid, I still feel that I didn't miss much. But I do need to keep telling myself that there are also expeditions that have such bad weather that they maybe have 1 landing during their whole trip. I saw enough. After a while, more penguins are more of the same anyway.
• There are a lot of penguins, they are funny and are not afraid of humans
• Protection of Antarctica wildlife is important, so please follow the rules that the crew give you. I know it sucks to not be able to make a snow angel, if you misbehave they may stop allowing tourists on Antarctica
• After a trip like this, your first thought is that every vacation after that will be underwhelming. No worries... that is maybe the case the first half year, but after that your city trip will also be awesome!