Adventures in Antarctica

it's the coldest windiest and driest place on Earth this land mass is covered by ice over a mile thick which if melted would raise the world's sea level by more than 200 feet its icebergs are so big they're given names and some are hundreds of kilometers long it's the remotest place on Earth from the tip of South America it takes two days to get here by boat across the notorious Drake Passage considered to be the most treacherous sea in the world almost nothing was known about Antarctica until the first explorers reached the continent just over a hundred years ago [Music] there are only research stations here now there are active volcanoes almost no plant life and no native mammals reptiles or amphibians why visit this inhospitable place keep watching [Music] thank you foreign [Music] the Southernmost city in the world after two and a half hour flight from Buenos Aires [Music] reported a bus to our hotel where we got our first glimpse of this colorful City in its small Harbor there's the capital of the Argentine state of Tierra del Fuego and has a population of about 80 000 inhabitants s105 Gateway cities to Antarctica we climbed a winding road on the outskirts of town to our hotel set on a magnificent outcrop overlooking the city and harbor the akura is a modern four-star hotel where we had our fellow passengers would be staying for the next three days [Music] after we had settled in we went back to town to check out the harbor and the half dozen or so cruise ships preparing to depart for Antarctica everyone told us the El Marino Viejo restaurant had the best seafood in town so I decided to give it a try it wasn't hard to find with a large crowd waiting outside we weren't to be disappointed [Music] and we were glad we didn't each order the king crab which was big enough for the two of us I had a local beer named after the Beagle Channel through which we would soon be sailing and we talked to other Travelers who had recently returned from their Antarctic Adventure back at the hotel we got our PCR tests and tried on our Expedition jackets which would be ours to keep we had to supply our own waterproof pants but polar latitudes provided boots for our Landings we passed our kova test and we're ready to go but as we looked outside the window see that the winds were beginning to pick up [Music] on departure day we boarded our bus that would take us to our boat there were a number of other ships at dock most of them larger than the sea Venture and we wondered how our smaller vessel would handle the infamous strike passage especially now that the winds had picked up we checked in got our IDs and cabin assignments and spent the afternoon in our room watching the wind gusts which seemed to be growing stronger by the hour [Music] we were supposed to leave the dock at 4 pm but were delayed due to the wind finally round eight the captain pushed off and we were on our way down the Beagle Channel the Beagle is 150 mile long straight which leads to the Drake Passage and separates Argentina from Brazil at its southern end it's a calm stretch of water so we took the opportunity to watch ishwaya recede from the distance the days are long here and we're able to take into views until well after sunset above the town we spotted our hotel the akura perched on its Hilltop thank you [Music] we gathered below for our first briefing by our Expedition leader who explained that the weather would dictate everything we did in Antarctica our plan a will probably never happen he explained and our plans B and C won't happen either he showed us forecasts for the Drake Passage which included wave and wind charts I don't know if the charts served to educate or frighten us but afterwards everybody loaded up on seasick medication before heading to their cabins for the night we retired on our first night aboard the sea Venture anxiously awaiting the infamous Drake [Music] we entered the Drake after midnight and the general rolling of the ship made for a very restful sleep by breakfast the swells according to the ship's log were 18 to 25 feet and the winds were up to 50 knots the sea Venture however handled the weather in stride [Music] it took us a while to get our sea legs and we quickly learned to anticipate the swells and using the handrails which line the hallways of the vessel before moving about it was comical watching the guests walk like drunken Sailors down the hallway some people remained in their cabins incapacitated by seasickness but most were up and about gathering on the fifth floor Lounge past the time getting to know our fellow passengers and watching the waves Through the Windows [Music] eventually the waves calmed allowing us to watch seabirds such as the albatross and petrols following the wake of the boat beautiful watching these giant sea birds with their wings of up to 12 feet long skimming the tops of the waves [Music] after midnight on our third day of sailing we rounded the South Shetland Islands our plan was to make Deception Island but the weather conditions precluded a safe landing we continued South to the Freud passage where we were told we would Cruise in the zodiacs we were anxious to finally get off the boat and the crew wasted no time in launching the inflatables we donned our cold weather gear and boarded the 10-person boats even though we would not be landing on Shore we still had to go through the decontamination procedure [Music] the freight passage is named after the 19th century Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud who as far as I could tell had never visited here nor contributed to its research such are The Oddities of Antarctica [Music] and her guide picked up an amazingly clear chunk of ice from the water this ice was thousands of years old we are told and formed under immense pressure which drove out all of the air bubbles making it crystal clear it would serve to ice our cocktails later that evening [Music] continued our crews that afternoon observing fur seals and colonies of Antarctic shag but no penguins [Music] after dinner we crossed the narrow garage Strait to Port a point which would be our first landing on the Antarctic peninsula [Music] as we approached the shore we could see the other passengers climbing the snowy Ridge line [Music] we were met by a sleepy Weddle seal who was unperturbed by our presence still no penguins we reached the hilltop where a banner proclaimed that we had finally made it to Antarctica the seventh continent for many of us we posed for the obligatory photos and remained on top as long as we could taking in the amazing landscape [Music] we eventually worked our way down boarded The Zodiacs to the Sea venture and look forward to our next adventure on the continent [Music] we sailed that night down the garage Strait and woke up the next morning off the shores of a small island named Port Lacroix this was an old research station that was now the penguin post office the southernmost operational post office in the world it's inhabited by four young women who stay here for four and a half months each season they do research man the post office and sell souvenirs to the ships making it this far south importantly for us it's inhabited by a large colony of Gen 2 penguins the form the weather prevented us from landing at the post office so we headed to a small island right next to it named jugular point foreign [Music] as we stepped on Shore we were greeted by several Penguins who had waddled down to the water's edge to meet us completely unafraid of humans they West us curiously as we made our way to the main colony [Music] we watched one penguin trying to steal a pebble from several nests only to be scolded Away by his potential victims [Music] he eventually gave up and soaked away but not before he told them exactly what he thought of them foreign [Music] walking Among The Colony taking pictures of these comical penguins [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] northward through the newmeyer passage lion sound and onto palaver point on two hammock Island lunch the captain treated us to a leisurely sightseeing cruise through the narrow and picturesque newmeyer Passage with the weather clearing we were able to take in the breathtaking Beauty Antarctica has to offer foreign we were amazed to see two small sailboats tacking down the channel we shook our heads in disbelief to think that these small boats had also crossed the Drake Passage [Music] further on we stopped at lion sound for our afternoon zodiac Cruise here we explored amazing icebergs some having a deep aquatic blue color the red wavelengths in these older icebergs with fewer air bubbles are absorbed leaving only blue light being scattered and escaping the ice resulting in the blue colors as we explored these amazing icebergs we had to keep a safe distance as one never knew when one of these Giants would decide to roll over as one of our passengers recorded [Music] thank you foreign [Music] Point our afternoon was interrupted by a pot of orcas a rare site we were told as our Expedition leader hadn't seen any of these in the last five years [Music] foreign ER point we found a colony of noisy chin strap Penguins named for their distinctive band around their neck the chin strap chicks were much older than the Gen 2 chicks we had seen these were about a month old and were ready to start replacing their own down with waterproof feathers in about six weeks they would be ready to fend for themselves [Music] thank you [Music] in the afternoon we sailed to Mickelson Harbor which was used by whaling vessels in the 19th century [Music] here we found a colony of twenty thousand Gentoo Penguins busy making their Stone nests and just otherwise hanging about curiously watching those strangers [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] ER turned about and we are once again headed south to Android Bay where we were to do our first kayaking the weather was turning colder and it began to snow as we got into our dry suits and life jackets [Music] definitely was not ideal weather as we took the zodiacs out to our kayaks and I wondered out loud if this was such a good idea foreign [Music] we slid into our kayaks and soon forgot about the cold as we paddled effortlessly through the icy waters [Music] [Music] foreign we came across a group of gen twos and a small Iceberg and paddled over to check them out [Music] thank you [Music] it was uncomfortably cold but we all agreed kayaking was one of the highlights of our trip so far [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] two [Music] three [Music] it was peacefully calm and overcast as we slowly moved through the ice pack at Paradise Harbor [Music] foreign this is home to the Argentinian research station the Amarante Brown in 1984 the station's doctor was so upset when ordered to stay here for another year he burned the place down the crew launched our Zodiacs and we are soon cruising through the icy waters the serenity of Paradise Bay was overwhelming as we pushed our way through the ice [Music] thank you we came across a pair of humpback whales feeding nearby we sat in silence as we watched these magnificent animals surfacing and diving with the sound from their blowholes echoing across the bay [Music] and [Music] Kevin they disappeared for a while and we patiently waited hoping they would show themselves again but as they say be careful what you wish for foreign a few moments later a humpback surface not 15 feet from our boat not to be outdone a group of feeding Gentoo Penguins appeared nearby thank you [Music] as we turned and slowly steamed out of paradise Harbor I thought to myself this has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever been this is what Antarctica is all about [Music] thank you [Music] our time in Antarctica was coming to a close and we had to start heading back our last stop would be what was planned for our first landing Deception Island [Music] Deception Island is actually a Caldera of an active volcano we pass through its narrow entrance called Neptune's bellows protected on each side by towering basaltic cliffs [Music] we donned our cold weather gear for the last time and prepared to go to shore at Whalers Cove where we would find relics of an earlier and thankfully long gone era landing on the black sand beach we discovered what looked like fog was actually steam created by the hot volcanic ground underneath [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we came across two first seals preening themselves on the beach [Music] hard to think that these beautiful animals were hunted almost to Extinction a century ago all right [Music] All Good Things eventually come to an end so we boarded the seed venture headed out of Whalers Bay now we settled in for a pleasurable two-day trip through the Drake Passage even though we would now be sailing Against the Wind and Waves a return turned out to be much calmer than our trip over [Music] long we are once again in the Beagle Channel this time during daylight [Music] again were met by petrols and the giant winged albatross [Music] [Music] we got a nice view of the Chilean town of Puerto Williams and the cliffs surrounding the channel [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] we tied up to the dock in ushuya and the captain set a few departing words as we thanked our amazing crew [Music] we had a farewell dinner with friends we had met on our trip and we spent our last night at talk aboard the sea venture [Music] we departed early the next morning saying our last goodbyes to our crew [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Keith Tholin

Views: 53,636

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Id: o35ABeHF758

Length: 37min 9sec (2229 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2023