Antarctica in Shoulder Seasons

Product Manager David Nichols travelled to Antarctica in November 2006 - feeling like an intrepid explorer as one of the first to visit the continent that season, he shares with us why he believes November is a good time to travel to Antarctica.

The white continent is the whitest you’ll ever see it in springtime.

The coastline is newly fortified with formidable white cliffs, the channels choked with icebergs and the islands resemble giant meringues – an unforgettable sight when mirrored against the ocean on a sunny day.

And as you stumble through knee-deep drifts you feel you are among the first to arrive after another long, dark winter – except for the penguins, which are already going about building their nests and breeding. 

Head of Product at Journey Latin America, Diana Henderson, visited Antarctica at the beginning of March 2003.  She found the continent to have many plus points at this time of the year, contrary to misconceptions of being 'the end of the season'.

Antarctica is a place of stunning beauty at any time of the year. However, at the beginning of March there was so much to see including the penguin chicks taking their first steps to independence and the young fur seals on South Georgia at their most playful.

The receding ice towards the end of the season allows the possibility of going further south on the peninsula, or going further in to the Weddell Sea: wow, those tabular icebergs are enormous. Icebergs are in profusion and drift around in the currents slowly melting, capsizing, and sometimes even splitting with loud cracks and thunderous roars.

The sunshine and calm of Paradise bay is just magic: leopard seals bask in the sun on the ice flows and the zodiacs allow you to get so close you can’t fail to get a good picture.