by Mark Butland | 01/12/2023 | Antarctica
Then it was back across the Drake Passage on the Ocean Endeavour, two days at sea on the way to Ushuaia. The passage is the stretch of water between the South Shetland Islands and Cape Horn, and it links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Luckily the crossing was calm,...
by Mark Butland | 30/11/2023 | Antarctica
Our next stop was Deception Island, the flooded caldera of an active volcano that last erupted between 1967 and 1970. The ship sailed in through Neptune’s Bellows, a gap only about 500m wide, in blustery weather, which made the entrance even more exciting. Our hearts...
by Mark Butland | 29/11/2023 | Antarctica
Day eight began with a morning cruise around Charlotte Bay. We saw several humpback whales, and a calf even circled our zodiac, which had everyone on board grinning. In the afternoon we hiked up the snow-covered hills at Portal Point, another landing on the mainland,...
by Mark Butland | 28/11/2023 | Antarctica
Day seven started with a gorgeous morning at Cuverville Island, where we found plenty of gentoo penguins and Weddell seals. The island has a large gentoo colony, along with some old whaling relics. Later we went kayaking around Orne Harbour, paddling through brash ice...
by Mark Butland | 27/11/2023 | Antarctica
At last we reached the Antarctic Peninsula, and our first stop was Neko Harbour, a landing on the Antarctic mainland itself. The scenery all around us was hard to take in, with the ship anchored in calm water beneath a huge glacier and snow-covered mountains. We...
