The Drake Passage can be a treacherous piece of water with gale force winds and high waves which has put fear in many seafarers over the years. After the mandatory life-boat drill we left the port of Ushuaia on the evening of January 1st and steamed through the Beagle Channel, towards the Drake Passage, which separates the South American continent from the Antarctic Peninsula. The next day we boarded the Dutch owned and operated expedition vessel Ortelius, a converted Russian survey vessel, which would be our home base for the next two weeks. Quite surprising was the Caprese salad Irish style…. Since everything was closed on New Year’s Eve, and hotels charged over US$ 200 for a meal, I finally ended up at the local Irish Pub for the last dinner of 2012. Ushuaia was the end destination of my previous trip to the South Georgia Islands and the Falklands, this time it was the start of a new adventure. Reading more about Antarctica, its history and eco-systems, makes you realize how important this continent actually is for the rest of the world as we know it, and how changes to this continent and its eco-systems will have a severe impact on our near future and the life’s of future generations.Īfter a long flight and transfer between airports in Buenos Aires I arrived on New Year’s Eve in Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. The heroic feats of Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, Byrd and Mawson are well documented and captured my attention and imagination with the white continent. The sheer richness of the eco-system is staggering.Īntarctica has been the stage for over three hundred expeditions to the mainland of Antarctica since 1675, but it was during the early part of the twentieth century that the great explorations took place to reach the South Pole. The Antarctic circumpolar current - the West Wind Drift - transports more water than any other system in the world’s oceans. Antarctica’s surrounding Southern Ocean ecosystem is the largest and most fertile in the world, and is equivalent to 10 percent of the world’s oceans, and extends from the Antarctic continent to the Antarctic Convergence, the boundary where northward-moving, cold Antarctic water meets southward-flowing, warm sub-antarctic water from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. ![]() About 90 percent of the world’s ice and snow are located in Antarctica. In the winter the land area of Antarctica increases about 2.5 times in size due to pack ice. Its total land area is about 1.5 times the size of the United States including Alaska. Here are some impressive facts: Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest and windiest continent on earth. When the opportunity presented it self to join an in-depth expedition to the white continent organized by Cheeseman’s, I could not resist and jumped on the opportunity to fill the last bunk on board the ship. ![]() Since my interest in photography gained traction over the last couple of years, a visit to Antarctica ended up higher on my “bucket list”. Nobody really lives in Antarctica and it is difficult to get to, which leaves it rather unspoiled. The fascination has to do with heroic expeditions of the past, the enormous amounts of ice and isolation. If there is one place in the world where I would love to go, it would be Antarctica.
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