Antarctica Travel Journal
2005 12 15
(Thu) Puerto Natales
Arrived
Puerto Natales in the morning.
About 120 km from
here is Chile’s
most popular backpackers’ destination, Torres Del Paine. Usually people come here to hike the
W-route. It would take about 5
days, either camping or stay at the simple lodges.
After I had
arranged everything on the trip to Torres Del Paine, I found out there was a
trip to Antarctica. It would depart from Ushuaia on December
18. I made a quick decision canceling
everything I had just book and decided to go to this Antarctica
trip. I could do the Torres Del
Paine after coming back from the Antarctica
trip. I rushed to the bus terminal
and took the bus to Punta Arenas. It took me 3 hours to arrive Punta Arenas. Tomorrow, I would have to take another
12-hour bus to Ushuaia.
2005 12 16
(Fri) Punta Arenas
to Ushuaia
Took the 9:00
bus to Ushuaia, Argentina. Estimated travel time was 12 hours. We’d have to cross the Strait
of Magellan by ferry.
Things were not happened as planned. When we arrived Strait
of Magellan around 11:00, the wind and wave were too strong and
the ferry had stopped. They said we
had to wait until 17:00 when the sea was calmer.
Even thought
we were sitting on the bus, we could feel the strong wind. The bus was moving back and forth like
we were sitting on a boat. Around
18:00, the ferry started working again and we crossed the strait. At around 20:15, we crossed the border
of Chile and at 20:45, we
crossed the border of Argentina. Fortunately, I had brought some biscuits
and water. Otherwise I’d be starved
to death because the bus did not stop for lunch or dinner on the way.
At 23:00, we
reached a small town, Rio Grande. We switched to another bus
continued to Ushuaia. Arrived Ushuaia
at 2:30 and it was dark, cold and was raining quite heavily. Fortunately there was a hotel right next
to where we stopped. There was a
German girl, Julia asked to share a room together. That’s good as the room in Ushuaia was
very expensive. She was doing
research in Economics and she was going to get her PhD degree. She was a very smart and pretty girl.
2005 12 17
(Sat) Ushuaia
Ushuaia was
the southernmost city of Argentina. It was also the southernmost city of the
world. The city was the closest to
the Antarctica, about 1,000 km
away from the Antarctic Peninsula. It was also close to Falkland Islands
(or Malvines Islands
as in Argentina’s
name), about 1.5 hour by flight.
The city looked like Valdez of Alaska to me with ice cap mountains and
small streets. However, it was
packed with tourists.
The first
thing to do was to rent the winter gear.
The clothes I got were absolutely not enough. Fortunately I could rent some warm and
water-proof parker and pants here.
However it was quite expensive.
After that, I went to visit some museums.
The museums
here were quite interesting. The Maritime Museum
located in an old prison, exhibits not only the marine animals, but also some
previous expeditions to the Antarctica. Besides, there were ship models,
including “The Beagle” which Charles Darwin was taking during his
expedition. Besides, I also went to
Museum of Yamana. Yamana was native Indians, and were
quite similar to Kaweshkar as in Wellington
Island in Chile. However, they had already extinct due to
the intrusion of the Europeans.
Yamana people
did not wear clothes. They used
seal and whale oil to rub their body.
And if they get wet, they just dry with the fire. They canoed all the time so they had
strong upper body and weak lower limb.
As their legs became retrogress, they walked very strangely.
When the
European came, they gave them cloths but at the same time, they also passed the
diseases to them like tuberculosis, measles, typhoid etc. In addition, the European over-hunted the
seals for the fur and caused them shortage of food source. When Charles Darwin came here in January
1833, he thought they were the missing link between the ape and the man (Homo
Sapiens). Later, it was proofed
that he was wrong on this theory.
2005 12 18
(Sun) Heading to Antarctica
Went to Antarctica information Center
in the morning. There were some
video tapes and DVDs on Antarctica expeditions and other Antarctica
information. I spent the whole
morning here.
At 16:00 we
boarded the ship. The name of the
ship was called Ushuaia, same as the
city name. We departed at
18:00. We sailed along the Beaver
Channel and passed Chilean’s Southernmost military port, Puerto Williams. At 19:00, we had a briefing, introducing
the important staffs, such as the captain, chief mate, ice captain, hotel
manager, tour guides, ornithologists and a doctor. The ice captain looked like a walrus and
the hotel manager looked like the crazy painter Dali. Later, we had a drill on ship abandoned
and each one of us had to dress the life jacket and gathered at designated life
boat. The water temperature in this
area was about 5oC. If
the ship sank and we were on the water, we would be dead in 5 minutes.
The boat Ushuaia was not big and it was old with
35 years of age. The boat was
ice-reinforced but not an ice breaker.
The length of the boat was 84.74 m,
15.54 wide, and the displacement was 2,963 tons. The capacity was 66 passengers. But this time there were only 52
passengers. There was an open
bridge policy so you could visit the bridge at anytime. Although the boat was old, it had a lot
of advanced instruments. The boat
was also equipped with satellite guidance system. However, this system would not work
after 70oS, as there were no satellites.
There were 3
kinds of compass, the first one was electronic, the second one worked with the
satellite and the third one was a magnetic compass. Even thought the first two failed, it
still got a magnetic compass. I
talked to the captain even the third one failed, he could use my T-touch watch
compass.
Maybe I
bought the cheapest ticket and that was why I stayed at the lowest deck with no
window. However, the lowest deck
was also the most stable one. If
high waves were encountered, the lowest deck swang the least. There were only two Asians, a Japanese
and me. We met a New Zealand couple (Sam & Christine), they had been traveling for 12
years (since 1993). The husband
said since they left home, they forgot where their home was and so never went
back. A few Dutch people were quite
unlucky. They flew from Amsterdam, transferred at Madrid
and Buenos Aires
to Ushuaia. However, their luggage
didn’t arrive with them. They had
to buy everything in town and it was expensive.
2005 12 19
(Mon) Crossing the Drake Passage I
About 4:30,
the boat started to swing, and it began more and more seriously. We knew we had entered the infamous Drake Passage.
This passage was named after a British navigator Sir Frances Drake. As there was no barrier around here, It
had high wind and wave all the time.
I was wondering how many seaman had died in this passage. This place was also the intersection of Antarctica cold current and the warm current from the
north. The upwelling occurred here
had rich nutrients and could supply the food source for the sea lives
here. There was a navigator once
said that it was the Drake Passage protected the Antarctica.
Morning
briefing: Outside temperature 6oC, wind speed 13 knots, wave about 1
meter high, good visibility.
According to the captain’s experience, the worst wave was 16 meters
high. I couldn’t imagine how they
passed that.
9:30 and
11:30 were the lecture time, introducing Antarctica
and the wild life here. Antarctica
had many world records: Driest: The
annual rainfall was only 100 mm
and it was even drier than Sahara
Desert. Coldest: The lowest recorded temperature
was -89oC. Highest wind
speed: Average wind speed was around 200 to 300 km.
Highest continent: Average 1,000 m
high. Least inhabitants: Altogether
with all the people in the science stations during the summer time was about
1,000. Largest area variation: It
had 14 million sq km in the summer and 28 million sq km in the winter.
During the
lunch time, less people showed up.
Many were too sick to eat.
It would be even less people during the dinner time. We had a bird watching class in the
afternoon. In 18:00, we went to the
deck and watched birds. We had to
put on everything we had because it was very cold and very windy. We saw a few Albatross and Petrel. We supposed to see some Arctic Tern but
we didn’t. Maybe it was still early
and they hadn’t arrived yet.
After dinner,
me and a Tom Cruise look-alike French guy went to the bow to experience the
“wind”. We had to grasp the
handrail and moved in small steps. When
arrived the bow, I couldn’t hold for more than one minute. The wind was so strong and the boat was
being thrown up and down.
There was a
couple from White Horse, Canada. I talked to them that I knew a guy from
White Horse who went to school with me in University of Alaska
Fairbanks.
His name was Forrest.
Surprisingly they knew this guy.
White Horse was a very small town with a population of only 22,000
people. The couple told me that
their brothers and sisters all had special name, all related to the
nature. One of his sisters named
Sky.
Quote of the day:
“Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages,
bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return
doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.”
---Sir Ernest Shackleton
2005 12 20
(Tue) Crossing the Drake Passage II
Woke up at
7:30. The boat was swinging more
fiercely. I immediately went to the
bridge. The outside temperature was
only 2oC, wind was obviously increasing, had 23 knots. Wave was about 3 meter high. When our boat hit the wave, it splashed
the water to 25 m
high. It was spectacular.
We had
morning lecture on the history of Antarctica
expedition. It was very
interesting. Imagine 100 years
ago. People did not have a good
map, poorly equipped. However, they
had a strong desire and adventurous spirit that conquered all the
difficulties. It was not easy.
At 14:50, We
saw several humpback whales and a group of penguins swimming besides our boat
at 100 to 200 m
distance. At 16:10, we saw the
first iceberg. Gradually there were
more and more icebergs. We knew we
were close to Antarctica. At 18:30, we sailed close to a huge
iceberg. This was the first time I
saw a real iceberg at this close distance.
It was awesome. It also
reminded me of Titanic. After we
passed the Drake Passage and the ocean became
calm. We could see the northern
part of the Shetland Islands.
Quote of the day:
“An Antarctica
Expedition is the worst way to have the best time of your life.”
---Apsley Cherry Garrard (The Worst Journey In The
World)
2005 12 21
(Wed) I landed the Antarctica
Today was the
longest day in Southern Hemisphere.
The temperature had only -2oC and wind speed was 13
knots. Woke up at 5:00 in the morning. I went to the bridge and saw more and
more icebergs. The ice captain
started to work. His job was to
find a best waterway to avoid hitting the icebergs.
At 7:40, we
arrived Paulet Island. At first I thought it was just an
ordinary island but when I used binoculars to look. Gee. The whole island was full of
penguins. On the beach, on the
slope and on the mountains, they were everywhere. They were called Adelie Penguins. According to study, there were at least
100,000 pairs. I couldn’t believe
what I saw. Paulet
Island was one of the islands that had
the most number of penguins in Antarctica.
About 100
years ago, a joint expedition team of Norway,
Sweden and Argentina came
here. Due to some accidents, a
group of people came to this island.
They built a small stone house and lived on the penguins. Ten months later, a rescue team came to
save them. Among 19 people, only
one died.
At 8:30, we
changed our warm and water-proofed clothes and shoes, took the zodiac and
landed on the island. We all had to
follow the Antarctica Treaty, such as: No garbage on the island. Keep a distance of 5 m with the penguins. The penguins have the right of way. Cannot take anything, not even a small
stone, only photos and memories.
This island
had nothing but penguins. Because
it was the hatching season, we could see many penguins incubate their
eggs. There were also some chicks
which came out of the shell not long ago.
The penguins were very interesting and curious animals and some came
close to us to check us out. They
were not afraid of people as the last people who ate them was 100 years
ago. Or maybe they knew they were
protected. We were all very excited
as it was the first time with tens of thousands of penguins together. We stayed about 1.5 hours on the island.
After lunch,
we went to Hope Bay. It located on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
We really stepped on the Antarctica. Here was about 1,300 km from Ushuaia. To South Pole, still 3,000 km more. There was an Argentina Science Station
named Esperanza, a school, a museum and a small chapel in here. It was a pity that lab was quite busy
today and wouldn’t allow us to visit.
Besides, the museum was closed for restoration. There was an Argentina post office and I sent a
post card home. I wondered how long
my family would receive it.
Quote of the day:
“Who would believe in penguins unless he had seen
them.”
---Conor O’Brien
2005 12 22
(Thu) Livingston Island and Deception
Island
We passed the
Bransfield Strait this morning. This was the archipelago west of Antarctic Peninsula.
At 8:30, we landed on Hannah Point of Livingston Island. This was a very sensitive wild life
protection area. We could not walk
by ourselves and had to follow a tour guide. At the beach, we could see three kinds
of penguins: Chinstrap, Gentoo and Macaroni. In addition, we could also see many
Elephant Seals. These were huge and
lazy animals, just lying on the beach enjoying the sun tan. The weather was very good. The tour guide said it was still snowing
and raining when the last two groups came here.
We went to Deception Island and Whaler’s Bay in the
afternoon. In 1911 to 1931, this
was a whaling station of Norwegian.
However, due to the price drop of whale oil, this place became dilapidated. Later, the British came here and set up
a monitoring station. The
interesting thing was the bay was in fact a volcanic crater. In 1967, there was a volcanic eruption,
causing mud slides and destroyed all the buildings. Currently, the station was still monitoring
the volcanic activities.
If there was
active volcano, there must be geothermal activity, like hot springs. We found hot springs seepage to the sea from the
shore. Our last activity was to
swim in the Antarctica sea. The temperature of the sea water was
about 3oC. First, we
swam towards the ocean until we couldn’t stand anymore, then we swam back to
the mouth of the hot spring. The
sea water was so cold that it made you numbness. It was a very good experience to swim in
Antarctica because this was not something you
could do everyday.
Quote of the day:
“For speed and efficiency of travel, give me
Amundsen. For Scientific discovery,
give me Scott. But when all hope is
lost, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
---Sir Edmund Hillary
2005 12 23
(Fri) Goudier Island
and Pleneau Island
We passed the
Gerlache Strait this morning. It was a very narrow channel with ice
cap mountains on both sides. It was
spectacular. At about 9:30, we landed
at Port Lockroy of Goudier Island.
This was a British base, Base A.
There were about 700 pairs of Gentoo Penguins. The interesting thing was before human
arrived, there was no penguin. When
people arrived, the penguins started to colonize here. The penguins were very used to the
people. About 100 years ago, there
was a whaling station. During World
War II, the British stationed here trying to monitoring the German’s activity
in the Antarctica. However, the German did not come
here. They were too busy in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking the boats of Allies with their
U-boats.
In 1944 to
1966, the base became a science station, especially during the International
Geophysical Year of 1957/58. This
was one of the important observation stations. The ozone depletion was discovered by
the British scientists. Currently,
it was not a science station anymore, but rather a historical relic or a small
museum. We could see the science
lab, the expedition tools and the can food they left.
Nowadays, the
station was maintained by British Antarctic Survey, BAS. Every year, they sent 2 to 3 staffs
stationed here during the Summer time.
There was also a Royal Post Office here. I sent a post card back home to see
which postal service was faster.
All the mails here would shipped to Falkland Islands first, then a
once-per-two-week plane sent it to England
and then to Hong Kong. It would take at least one month to get
to Hong Kong. They said the longest delivery time was
one year. Last summer, there were
about 40,000 post cards sending out from here.
We went to Pleneau Island in the afternoon. The island was very small, just less
than one sq km. This was the
southernmost point of our trip.
Along the navigation channel was full of icebergs but none of them were
big. Our boat could still
pass. If there were too many large
icebergs, we might not able to come here.
The Antarctica trip was highly depended
on the weather and the ice condition.
The island had some penguins, some sea birds and thick snow. Sometimes, the snow was so deep that it
could reach our thigh. It was very
hard work walking on the snow but it was good exercise as we hadn’t had much
exercise these days.
Quote of the day:
“To Dine with glacier on a sunny day is glorious
thing and makes feasts meat and wine ridiculous. The glacier eats and drinks sun beams.”
---John Muir
2005 12 24
(Sat) Danco Island
and Foyn Port
It was
Christmas Eve. The weather in Antarctica changed dramatically. Yesterday was warm and sunny and today
it was cloudy and the windy. It
seemed like it could be a blizzard storm at any second. We passed the Errera
Strait and arrived Danco Island. We were here to hike. The hill was not high, only a little
more than 150 m. On the top, there was a trigonometrical
station which was used as reference to measure the movement of the glaciers
around the island.
Right after
the landing, it started to snow.
When hiking, we found the snow was quite thick. Sometimes, the whole leg would submerge
into the snow. There were several
groups of Penguins in this area.
They had walked a few paths on the snow. These were called the Penguin Highway. We had to walk very careful and not
destroyed them. Otherwise, they
couldn’t find their way home. Some
girls of our group even made a snow man on top of the hill to celebrate the
white Christmas. I never thought of
a white Christmas in South Hemisphere.
After lunch,
we went to Foyn Port. There was a Norwegian whaling boat that
was sunk in 1915. All the
equipments were removed and exhibited in museums in Norway. There were not many marine life here,
only a few Antarctica Tern, a Leopard Seal and a Humpback Whale.
Today was the
birthday of one of the group members.
We all sang birthday song to her.
After that, people from different country used their language to sing
her birthday song. We had Swedish,
Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, French. I
used Cantonese and Mandarine to sing for her. She was so happy.
After dinner,
we had a Christmas party. The
Argentines were all natural born dancer.
Each one of them could dance very well. Most of us could only watch but we were
all had a good time.
2005 12 25
(Sun) Half Moon Island and King
George Island
It was
Christmas and it was snowing quite heavily in the morning. Even the deck had accumulated some
snow. It was not common to see snow
in South Hemisphere. Not to mention
a white Christmas. The wind speed
had increased too, almost 30 knots.
The visibility was low, less than 500 meters. The captain showed us the radar which
could locate all the icebergs around but we couldn’t see with our naked eyes.
We supposed
to go to Half Moon Island to visit another Argentina Science Station. But because of the blizzard and the low
visibility, we couldn’t land the zodiacs.
Finally, we had to cancel the landing. Some of us were quite disappointed but
safety came first.
During lunch
time, the ice captain, dressed in Santa Claus, wishing us Merry Christmas. He was such a funny guy.
In the
afternoon, we supposed to go to Aitcho
Island, but due to the high wave, we
went to Hennequin Point of King
George Island. This was our last landing. Here used to be a whaling station. Now there was an observation station of Ecuador
(only a container). There were
still a lot of whale bones left on the beach. We also saw some sea birds, such as
Shuas and Antarctic Terns, penguins and seals. When we walked by the birds’ nest, some
of them got irritated and almost tried to attack us.
King George Island
was the unofficial capital of Antarctica because there were 8 winter science
stations from different countries, including one from China, the
Great Wall Station. The station
could accommodate 50 people.
However, there were normally about 20 people staying there. The rest of the 7 countries were: Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, South Korea, Poland,
Russia and Uruguay. In addition, there were also 4 summer
stations from Ecuador, Germany, Peru
and United States of America. Each station was about 20 km apart.
Back to the
boat, the one who would get sea sick had to take the pills or injection. Tonight, we were going to pass the Drake Passage again.
At 22:30, the captain told us in front of us was the last iceberg. All of us went to the bridge to take a
final look.
Quote of the day:
“Look deep into nature and then you will understand
everything better.”
---Albert Einstein
2005 12 26
(Mon) Crossing the Drake Passage Again I
The weather
was very good and temperature had raise to 6oC. Wind speed was about 15 knots. The boat still had some swinging but not
too bad.
After
breakfast, we had some additional lecture on Antarctica Treaty and in the
afternoon we had another lecture about the geography of Antarctica. Both were quite interesting.
2005 12 27
(Tue) Crossing the Drake Passage Again II
The
temperature had raise to 10oC.
We had a very interesting lecture on ozone. Afternoon, we had a summary of our whole
journey and also certificate presentation.
At night, we
had dinner with the captain. I was
lucky enough to sit on the captain’s table.
2005 12 28
(Wed) Back to Ushuaia
At around
7:00, our boat arrived Ushuaia port.
After breakfast, we started to land and the whole Antarctica
journey ended. The trip was a
little expensive but it was definitely worth while. Antarctica
was a very unique place and there was no place on earth that could compare with
it.
In the
beginning I was worry the boat was too small and it was not a ice breaker. But turned out, this size (around 50, 60
passengers) was the best. If the
boat was too large, landing could be a problem. Maybe you could only land one place in a
day. In addition, some of the
islands had limitations on the number of people.
In Ushuaia
city, we encountered many people: crew members, tour guides, and also our tour
group members. It was like a
reunion again.