The End of the World - almost

12 hours after arriving in Ushuaia – I had a horrible hangover and a ticket aboard the M/V Ushuaia for a classic Antarctica 11 day expedition. The ticket had been semi-planned (in that I knew I wanted to go but didn't know when that would happen), the hangover was not.

The hangover arose as a result of arriving in Ushuaia extremely late & then becoming extremely ticked off to discover that my thermo rest mattress had "disappeared" from the luggage hold of the bus since I had last seen my bag at the Argentinean/Chilean border, some 12 hours earlier. At least my baggage is becoming less (see earlier post – Luggage Issues). When one of my fellow passengers who was staying in the same hostel as me (Free Style Hostel) suggested we go for a drink at the Irish pub around the corner (Dublin pub, Ushuaia) I had to agree. Got home in time for breakfast...sobered up in time to go to travel agency...hangover kicked in shortly afterwards but I was already set.

Anyone planning to head to Antartica – in my opinion – should definitely wait until you get to Ushuaia to book a trip – unless you are tied for time and really need to leave on a certain date. The week before I arrived in Ushuaia, I contacted a number of tour operators online and they were all still charging full price for the trip, and tried to convince me that if I didn't book with them in the next 24 hours I would not be able to depart. That was a complete lie, there were people on my trip that booked & paid 3 hours before departure – and I booked just the day before.

Day 1

We boarded around 4pm, had welcome drinks and dinner and were all generally in good form. Our briefing that evening, we were introduced to the crew, went through some safety stuff and were then warned about the journey through the Drake Passage which would begin about midnight. The worst storm of the last 4 years was passing through the passage that day, we would miss it – just, but the swell would still be quite large. I woke sometime in the middle of the night, disturbed by the tossing & turning...and it was not pleasant...

Day 2

....it took 3 attempts & until lunch time to get dressed, get out of the cabin & up 2 decks to the dining room – and that was WITH sea sickness tablets. The ship was silent today....everyone was suffering. I'm proud to say I didn't actually get sick, but the nausea & dizziness was quite debilitating.

Day 3

We got out of the Drake Passage earlier than expected and arrived at the South Shetland Islands around 4pm. Everyone was feeling much better today, people were laughing, joking & chatting – in place of yesterday's silence. We got to disembark on Aitcho Island where we saw Gentoo & Chinstrap penguins and Fur Seals. It was not too cold (+4C) but very windy.

Day 4

This morning we visited Robert Island. It was colder (0C) so I wrapped up with 3 hats J. We visited Chilean & Russian research stations, got to post our postcards from the Chilean post office and then visited the Russian Orthodox Church on the island.

Day 5

There was one landing this morning & then the ship had to travel for 7 hours to reach our next destination. The island is mostly protected as an area of special interest so most of it was off limits, and as a result I decided to take a break and not disembark. Everyone said it was the best landing so far...the penguins there were really friendly and came quite close. The 7 hours spent travelling to our next destination were quite rough and I was back on the sea sickness tablets again. When we got there the wind was too high (35/40 knots) which made the sea too rough for a landing. But the ship entered the bay of Deception Island so that we could take photos. The sunset here was really pretty.

Day 6

Today was a long one. We started early in the morning with an invitation to come up out onto the deck to see the first sight of the Antarctic peninsula (proper) and take photos of the beautiful strait we were navigating through. Then we made a landing on the Antarctic peninsula – very exciting! It was here I got pecked by a penguin – another exciting first :D. During this landing we also got to see some beautiful glaciers and to hear & see them calving – very impressive.

In the afternoon we took a zodiac cruise around Paradise Bay – which is surrounded by glaciers and has beautiful icebergs. Here we got to see Weddell & Crabeater seals, penguins & cormorants – and even a rather vicious looking leopard seal which didn't exactly chase us...but followed our boat for a bit – enough to make our zodiac driver nervous & tell us we couldn't go any closer – that the seal would try to eat our boat! We were quite proud of that one and made sure to brag to the other groups (eh, well I did anyway ;)).

Day 6 finished with the excellent news that we had been granted permission to visit the Ukrainian research station Verdansky the following morning – Verdansky has the world's most southern bar – with homemade vodka :D.

Day 7

Day 7 was legend! In the morning after breakfast, we were greeted by the sight of the barbeque onboard our ship being fired up and asado being prepared. We took off on our zodiac boats to visit Wordie House, which is an historic Antarctic site. It used to be one of the British research posts but has been preserved to show how research life in the Antarctic looked in the 1940's and 50's. After Wordie House we had a tour of the Ukrainian station and finally got taken to the world's most southern bar. Our group was not the last to arrive at the bar – but we were certainly the last to leave! The Ukrainian's have a tradition of giving the generators that power their station women's names & of giving free drinks to women who leave their bras behind the bar. Check out the photos to see what little piece of me is still at Verdansky! ;)

Back on board the Ushuaia, we had an asado lunch which was perfect soakage for the 6 vodka shots at the station...and then after trying to sober up a bit, we had another landing & zodiac cruise in the afternoon. If I wasn't sober when I left the ship, it didn't take long for the cold to sober me up! There were lots more penguins & leopard seals to see that afternoon and a rather bumpy zodiac cruise to see some really beautiful icebergs – awesome. I was totally soaked when I got back to the ship, so after a hot shower and some food I went to bed early to try to stave off the hangover J.

I awoke at 11.30pm and wandered upstairs to the bar/lounge to find a singing session in full swing. One of our lecturers had brought a guitar on board with him, and a couple of the guys on board could play and sing so we were singing until 2 in the morning. Good times.

Day 8

Our last landing & zodiac cruise of the week was today. Lots more penguins, seals & icebergs to see. It was really sad afterwards when we had to give back our lifejackets & rubber boots. The ship got underway to start heading back to Ushuaia and in the afternoon slowed down for whale watching. – of which there was plenty!

Days 9 & 10

Back in the Drake Passage: stormy outside and silence inside the boat. The highest rumoured waves were 12 metres! At one point I was clinging to the mattress of my bed with my foot braced against the neighbouring twin bed in order not to fall out. Even the crew were feeling ill on the way back to Ushuaia. Nearer to the Beagle Channel the sea calmed down and the ship was able to pick up speed again. Last night on board, the ship dropped anchor in the Beagle Channel outside Ushuaia and there was a captain's dinner & we partied with the crew.

Day 11

We got up early for breakfast & to be ready to leave the ship L. Plenty of sore heads this morning. I really enjoyed the 11 days and if there was room on the boat I would have gone back again immediately (yes, I did check, and no, there wasn't any room, it was sold out). I can only recommend Antarpply and the Ushuaia – if anyone is thinking of going to Antarctica – go on this boat!

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