Clinton & Vicki travelled to Antarctica at the end of November/early December, with Quark Expeditions.

Clinton’s report below:-

We enjoyed two days in Buenos Aires in the middle of Football World Cup fever, and we included an afternoon walking tour around the very European La Boca and Palermo districts, with a lovely lunch with our guide. There is some magnificent architecture in Buenos Aires, and a real mixture of Spanish Baroque, French and Italian influences.

We then took the 3 ½ hour flight to Ushuaia at the very bottom of Argentina, where we boarded the beautiful World Explorer, a Quark Expeditions ship. We may have been at the end of the earth, but we certainly weren’t roughing it, and Carla the lovely bartender soon had our preferred drinks down pat!

After the two-day trip across the Drake Passage we reached the Antarctic Peninsula where we were fortunate to enjoy 3 days of beautiful weather and extraordinary exploration. We had signed up to the Sea Kayak programme and had five incredible expeditions off the ship kayaking amongst the beautiful Antarctic scenery, with the only sound being the swish of our paddles in the water, or at one point the spouting of a humpback whale only 50 metres or so away. We carefully followed it around for quite some time, and with the serenity, icebergs all around us, and the spectacular backdrop of the mountainous white Antarctic Peninsula it was truly one of life’s great experiences.  We were lucky enough to see many whales from the ship, but nothing came close to our experience on the kayak. Sadly we weren’t allowed to kayak through one iceberg which had formed a tunnel.

Of course we also did several landings and saw literally thousands of penguins busily preparing their nests for the breeding season ahead. They are very cute waddling up and down their ice highways to the beach to gather stones to build their nest, or down to the sea to find some lunch. The Quark Expeditions staff worked very hard to maximise our time on the ice or on the water, and of course there was always a hot drink waiting for us when we returned to the ship.

Onboard the expedition staff gave lectures on their experiences and areas of expertise. One of the staff talked about his 6 months spent at the Russian Antarctic base located at one of the coldest places on the Continent. It was a fascinating and at times humorous talk, especially with some of the hi-jinks that occurred at the base over the long winter months of darkness. The lectures are conducted in the auditorium and live-streamed to the ship cabins. Having landed on the Antarctic Peninsula itself, I can now say I have been to all seven continents.

For information about Quark Expeditions and cruising to Antarctica contact on of our Travel Advisors