Antartica, The Expedition - Landing on Almirante Brown 20th Feb, 2014

The earlier night, we were already briefed on the ‘Landings’ for the 20^th February. There were two landings on a single day and that was the first time ever, since we entered the continental waters.  

The landings in the morning were scheduled from 0900 hrs and those in the afternoon were from 1600 hours. Everyone was now a master of the drill of breakfast – Lectures/ landings – lunch – more lectures/landings – dinner. I could feel that we didn’t even need the announcements to call us to Deck 2, to get in our shoes and life jacket. The Fram’s policy was to give each group out of the seven assigned an equal chance of landing first on the site. It was the chance of group number 6 that morning.

The expedition team went first on land and made a path for the passengers. The Almirante Brown was a small Argentinian base station we were told and had a resident population of 10 – 12 engineers and scientists. From the Fram’s observation deck we could see our expedition leaders wearing red overall’s trekking up a tiny little summit of about 1000 ft. Some of the passengers who saw the two human figures walking at an angle of nearly 60 deg up, exclaimed ‘this is crazy who will walk up there, in all that snow’. There was place only for a few to stand at the highest point of the summit, which was a rock face. In the next few minutes I could already see that the summit is going to be crowded with blue jackets, as the people from group 6 and already begin the ascent in the distance.

To the summit of Almirante Brown

You should slide all the way down, said a woman in her late sixties, as she got back into the ship. I could sense the child like excitement in her voice. She was from Canada and probably did slide down such a height when she was in her teens. I on landing, didn’t wait to talk to the base station residents like I did, when I was at the Chilean base station, and headed straight for the summit. It was not as tough as it looked from the ship. The people sliding down included some of my tourists and I was happy to see them enjoy the snow. The view however kept on getting beautiful as I gained altitude and I decided to just lie down in the snow for a while and take in the surroundings. I could see a lone figure on the top of the summit. It was really narrow up there and after some rethinking I decided to go all the way up.

I don’t know how long I stayed up there. For the first time I didn’t feel like leaving. There were only two of us on the top and we didn’t have a camera. We just stared into the vastness, I saw a smile on her face, and I knew she did on me too. I knew she felt the same way as I did. I knew she said to herself, ‘this is Antartica!’

Before the American’s tried to come up with a digicam in their hands, we decided to leave the top. It was a smooth slide down, which at times felt exciting enough to make us shout. By the time I reached the base, there was snow in my pants. I let that be and just took some time more on the clean snow.  Scotch with glacier ice was a thing some people had done before. I didn’t have the scotch with me, but the snow from the sky made up for it. It felt high enough.

View from the summit, my Antarctica moment!

When I got back to the ship, I felt peace. I felt like I could go back today to Argentina as I had already reached the moment.

The second landing was at Neko Harbour. I don’t know why it was called that. There were more Penguins there than any other landing site. I saw what the instructor meant on day one, as I saw a male penguin picking one stone at a time to build his nest. By this time I was not too excited in taking the ‘penguin pictures’ and so I just saw them doing their thing.

It was sometime during the dinner that we heard the captains voice for the first time on the speaker since the welcome note.

 “We have bad news for you, there has been a medical emergency on the ship. We have tried getting help from helicopter but the bad weather wont let it land till the next two days, so we have decided to sail back to Ushuaia”.  A post briefing about the next day was cancelled and was replaced by a meeting of all passengers with the captain on the observation deck. People were really disappointed that they had to cut their trip a day short. I wasn’t worried about that. I was just happy that I felt Antarctica that day. 

Antarctica, The Expedition - Sailing The Willheimina Bay, 19th Feb 2014.

I woke up with the sun shining on my face. ‘A very good morning’, my room mate exclaimed. The landings for today were scheduled after lunch and in the morning the MV Fram was going to make its way crossing the 64.5 deg south latitude to  an Island

No lectures in the morning and no landings, I thought to myself it would be a rather dull morning with just the sailing. But then as I got to the breakfast deck with wider views I realized that this is probably the Antarctica of pictures. With huge floating ice bergs and glaciers running down to the sea, the sight was to be only enjoyed from outdoor. Going outdoor meant wearing the layers but then the sun was shining and the guys standing out didn’t have their ears covered. That’s a good sign I thought. The fact that we were no longer sailing but just cruising around the bay area was a good thing to see the surroundings at slower speeds.

It was indeed a perfect morning !

With just two upper layers I stepped out and into a dream. Glaciers, Icebergs and the blue sky reflecting on the clear ocean waters full of small sheets of broken ice, made for the Antarctica picture everyone wanted. Enter the whales, and the glaciers were put on the side. I could only hear continuous shots being clicked till the tail would come out of the giant ‘humpback whale’. Most of the ones taking pictures from the sun deck had Digital SLR’s with a fancy lens. Some of them I learnt had bought a new camera just before this trip. A lady, who knew what I did for a living, said ‘sometimes its good even for you to be a tourist’.  It was true, the Antartctic nature was in its full glory in the morning sunlight and the voice on the loudspeaker kept on talking about how beautiful the weather is today. As my partner had said in the morning it was indeed a beautiful morning. A morning where I think I took some 200 odd pictures.. I am saying, coz I know when I edit, I will be only left with 40 or 50 of them.

The captain gave us ample amount of time to soak in the surroundings. Frankly I feel that the eager souls in us wanted to know, what next? So, when the cruise finally started to sail again, we all retired to the coffee lounge. I did what I like the most, to dig myself into the map of today’s sailing. We were at 64.2 deg South, and that’s the southernmost we had been. The landing for the day was at 1430 hrs and at 64.5 deg south at Cuverville island.

The lunch was taking its toll and as our group was the last for landing, all my tourists went to their cabins for a nap. I usually only went to my room when I wanted something and sleep was something that I wanted to avoid. So I stayed out and read a little more about the Chilean Base station that we had visited the day earlier.  Though I did catch myself dozing off, until the speaker used to come alive with a landing announcement.

The Glaciers, Icebergs and the clear Antarctic waters!

It was soon our turn to land and this was the first time we saw the ice bergs pass us at eye level. The mass of ice, feels much bigger and majestic from the sea level. There were more Penguins promised for today’s landing and the strong odour of Penguin poo was already in the air 100 meters from the landing site. As we touched base, the snow had the green/yellow coloration everywhere. Ok enough of the poo – pee talk. We were the last to arrive on Cuverville island. I knew, I would not be staying for long and would take the few pictures with the Fram and icebergs together. On the previous two landings,I had not taken the zoom lens which I did on the Cuverville island. The Chinstrap penguins had their colony on the first landing at half moon island, while our third landing was ruled by the Gentu Penguins. The only difference was the orange beak that the later had to the black one of chinstrap. The Gentu seemed a little more excited, not about us being there but in general. The Chinstrap were walking at a steady pace, while the penguins on Cuvervilled island kept running around, most of it, I thought was just play.

I got back to the ship in 30 minutes. It was more like, I went I clicked and I returned! It was already 1800 hours and on that evening, I think I was more hungry than the previous ones. I was happy to see a Norwegian buffet lined up for that night. The Captains table was a little more alive I should say. Although the Norwegians I know try to keep everything simple, including their facial expression when they are happy, that night the food spoke from the Captains table. The captain was from my most loved place in Norway, the Lofoten Islands.

Antarctica The Expedition – The landings – King George Island 18th Feb 2014.

Getting used to something as beautiful as the glaciers, meant they drew less and less attention with only a few cameras coming up to catch the magical blue. I later learnt that blue is got to do with the amount of air trapped in the ice. The lesser the air the more the color, the more the color, the older the mass of ice, be it Glacier or an odd Ice Berg floating by.

We had a landing planned at 0930 hrs on our second day in the continental waters. The map of the South Shetland Islands was provided the earlier night to each cabin to which I had not really given a second look. But as the morning unfolded I could see what each one of the little orange dots on the islands meant. The King George Island has Frie landing base of Chile. Next to it is a Russian research station. With lots of penguins the day earlier, it was now to spot humans. I got into the drill of stepping in and out of the zodiac boat with the layers and the life jacket, which had taken less time than earlier to get into.

The Chilean Base station Frei

I could see the Chilean flag 100 meters from the landing site and the Russian Orthodox Church with its onion dome in the distance on a tiny hill. Humans wearing different colors than the blue that we were wearing meant that they were the ones staying at the base.

In August 2013, I had been to the north at a latitude of 78.5 deg where a Russian mining town had the same look as the Russian base station that was in front of me at 64 deg south. Grey and light colors were prominent as in all communist towns of Russia.  The Chilean’s however had a brighter tone to there make shift cabins and buildings.

I wasn’t really eager to get into the structures, but it was like all roads lead to the church, and so the Chilean church was first to be visited. It was summer in Antarctica and they were mending the structure. It was obvious that the next one would be the Russian Orthodox Church on the adjacent hill. I had Carlos to give me company up to the next corner. He spoke to me about his last one year on the base, of which I could only pick a few basic Spanish words. When we differed our tracks, It was more like he dropped me to the border between Chile and Russia and said ‘enjoy your time on the other side’.  There are no borders at least here in Antarctica, thankfully.

The Russian Orthodox Church 

The highlight of the visit to the base station was a Chilean navy station. I saw some residents clearing snow, the others working in a garage and for a moment it felt like any other town on a regular continent. It was still snowing with temperatures of below freezing point. Unlike the penguins who I thought didn’t like our company so much, the Chileans loved chatting with the tourists on the cruise and they even offered some of us who could converse a little in Spanish a tour or their main building. The chef called us for some coffee later. I had to buy the wine from the store, with the Antarctica sticker as a souvenir.

The wet suits that Naval officers wear!

It was good to see fellow humans living in such inhospitable conditions. The nationalities just disappear when you are in Antarctica. We were all, just humans!

I got back to the Fram and was surprised to see the Chilean navy officers being shown around the ship. They had the same look on their face, as we had when we were on their base. I smiled and got back to reading the program for the next day.

Antarctica, The Expedition - Landing on South Shetland Islands 17th Feb, 2014

Each zodiac raft has 8 people and the first words that I heard from land were, ‘finally we are here’. To touch ground in Antartica was a dream some of the people had for the last many years. Including one of my tourists, who said, its been forty years and today I have finally come!

First steps on Land!

It was BIG, I thought to myself. It humbled me to realize that I will be coming here again.  The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators or the IAATO had a pre landing mandatory briefing for each one of us. We were informed about the things that had to be taken care of when walking on land. Of the regular precautions like not littering or smoking, the unique one was about the Penguin Highway. The Penguins move from the sea shore to their colony’s inland and in doing so follow only one track over and over again. If we were to encounter such a track or highway, then the animals had the first right to passage. We were just visitors in the land which they called home. The other instruction was about not picking up any stones or pebbles from the landing sites. The penguins build their nests with these stones and if the humans continued to use them as sovenirs from Antarctica then they wouldn’t be any left for the nests. It made me step back a little and realize about how every small thing we do against nature can  turn out to be big in the long run.

The Glaciers under the drifting clouds

With all of the IAATO instructions firmly embedded in our minds we set on our first ice walk in Antarctica. The penguins were still on the other side and it did seem like the end of world. The tourists, all wearing the blue wind proof jacket must’ve looked the same to the penguins.

The strong scent of the penguin poo makes sure that one doesn’t linger around for a long time and leaves after the first few pictures. Its like one of those natural in built defense mechanisms that animals have against their predetors.

I took some time off and watched the penguins walk on the penguin highway. We were given a time to return so I did what I was told, like I expect my people to do on any of my tours. Yes I felt like an absolute tourist and I guess I was liking it, here in Antarctica.

The Chinstrap Penguins on Half Moon Island

The half moon island was the first landing sight. It was also the sight where the Kayakers were going to do some rowing. However the winds would’ve toppled them over is what the instructors felt and therefore there was no other activity on the 17^th February. Well the campers and the Kayakers weren’t complaining as like the others they too had set foot on the continent for the first time.

As the two nights before and many later, that night too my dinner was all about fish. The food, the informative lectures and the general ambience on the MV FRAM, had started to make me more open to the whole idea of cruising. It was comfortable, very comfortable to look at the huge glaciers from the comfort of the observation deck. Every now and then I looked at the old documentaries playing in the mini theatre about the first expedition to the north and the south poles. Well, that wasn’t certainly comfortable. We however owed our little Antarctica expedition to those explorers in the early 1900’s. 

It was Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole in 1911,  on a ship call the Fram. That night in my sleep the pictures from that expedition kept on passing by me. 102 years ago, I thought, these waters were tamed by humans. I was happy they belonged to Norway!