Antarctica

Antarctica had been a dream of mine for many years and finally in mid-2004 I decided to book with Quark Expeditions, a travel company specializing in polar travel. The trip was an 11-day epic, starting in Ushuaia on the Argentine island of Tierra del Fuego, heading across the infamous Drake Passage to the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula itself.
The 'best of antarctica' shows 46 of my favourite images, with... more

Ushuaia, on the Argentine island of Tierra del Fuego, is the southern-most city in the world. Located on the Beagle Channel (named after the HMS Beagle which carried Darwin on his historic four-year journey) and just across from Chile, it has grown rapidly in the last decade, especialy with the rise of tourism, both within Tierra del Fuego and as the main jumping-off point for... more

The Drake Passage can be amongst the roughest waters in the world,and the two-day voyage is often known as the 'Drake Tax' for travellers to Antarctica.

Like many of the ships crossing to Antarctica, the 'Professor Molchanov' was initially a Russian scientific vessel, which with the fall of the USSR found itself out of funds. The last 10 years it has been leased to Quark Expeditions, the Russian... more.

With its easy access beaches, Aitcho Island (so named because it was first explored by members of the UK Hydrographic Office - HO) has become a favourite rookery site for gentoo and chinstrap penguins, along with nesting giant petrels and skuas.

Aitcho is itself part of the South Shetland Islands, a string of islands divided from the Antarctic Peninsula by the cold waters of the Bransfield Strait. Originally... more

Half Moon Island is another of the small South Shetland Island with easy beach access for penguin rookeries, in this case for the largest colony of chinstraps in the area. Half Moon is so called due to its crescent like shape and was a favourite mooring site for old whaling boats of the 19th... more

Deception Island, another in the chain of South Shetland Islands, is so named because from nearly all sides it appears to be inhospitable. But this is deceptive, as through the aptly named Neptune's Bellows, entrance can be gained to a large circular sheltered bay, a flooded volcanic caldera formed millenia ago by a huge eruption.

The island was often used by 19th century whalers as it allowed for one of... more

Cruising around the various straits and channels of Antarctica is one of true relaxing pleasures. From the spectacular narrow confines of the Neumayer and Lemaire Channels to the majesty of the Gerlache Strait, the landscape is simply... more

The morning that we were to take our first steps onto Antarctica itself was by far the most beautiful to date. Each previous morning, I had been up at four in order to try to capture the landscape in the morning light but had been confronted with a solid phalanx of clouds. This morning was oh so different. As we glided into Andvord Bay on our way to our anchorage at Neko Harbour, the water became glassy and beautifully reflected the morning sky... more

Paradise Harbour was so named by 19th century whalers who found it a perfect haven from the sometimes vicious waters of the Gerlache Strait, giving them the safe anchorage they needed whilst resting up for their next victims.

Today, with beautiful irony, it often home to numerous minke and humpback whales, set against a staggering backdrop of icebergs, glaciers and icefields... more

On a very grey morning we had planned to sail through the spectacular Lemaire Channelon our way to Petermann Island, but unfortunately the constant northerly winds had completely chocked up the channel with ice and our way was blocked.

A spur of the moment decision saw us take a Zodiac cruise around Cape Renard (actually a false cape as it is an island), an area which has probably been... more

Cuverville Island proved to be one of the highlights of the trip. First of all we had the incredible good fortune to watch a humpback whale roll and play in the icefor nearly 45 minutes. Then, just as the whale dived for the last time, we noticed that the departing clouds had unveiled a landscape brilliant in its sunlighted beauty. Three incredible hours of watching gentoo penguis on land and the majesty and mystery of icebergs followed... more

Hidden amongst all the islands and little bays are a number of research stations, from a variety of nations. The British station, Port Lockroy, was established during WWII as a military outpost to keep German subs from threatening southern shipping. Closed for many years, it is now primarily a tourist stop, where visitors can see how staff members used to live, purchase souvenirs and even send postcards home from the classic red UK postbox... more

On our last day in the Antarctic we were again treated to beautiful weather as we cruised around Dallmann Bay for our last Zodiac trip around the Melchior Islands. The spectacular scenery slipped by as we kept an eye out for whales whilst sitting in t-shirts on the sun-drenched deck... more