The Final Frontier

Silvia Findlay is blown away by the unreal perfection of Antarctica

It was a calm, colour-filled Sunday evening when the Professor Multanovsky, maximum 49 passengers, steamed out of Ushuaia, Antarctic-bound.

We had been very excited to learn that the legendary Tony Soper was to be our leader, but the whole team was excellent, knowledgeable and always around. Chris, with his dry Scottish wit, had spent two years with the British research team in Antarctica, and his lectures and slides were varied, wide-ranging and first-class. Matt, bubbling over with infectious enthusiasm, only in his early twenties, was already an expert on whales. Our days on the ship were filled with Antarctic lectures, videos, Pingu (the favourite?), films, archive material - or simply just being outside, looking. Monday continued the blue skies and calmness of the previous night. Black petrels and black-browed albatross, whose 13 foot wing-span was difficult to appreciate against the infinity of the ocean, followed in our wake. It was unreal in its perfection.

The following day, however, things changed. We had crossed the convergence during the night and were now in the Very Roaring Forties. Briefings for "Antarctic guidelines" and "zodiacs" were cancelled, along with the visit to Penguin Island, as the gales rose to force 10. The seas pounded throughout the night, but Multanovsky rolled very little, until at breakfast we watched in astonishment as the entire contents of our breakfast tables sailed serenely and purposefully past us to the floor! It was a very great disappointment though, as all of Wednesday’s now cancelled visits had promised to be so interesting, offering us a volcano, swimming in hot springs and a great variety of wildlife, including elephant seals.

Thursday, then, dawned bright and clear, as we had now entered the Gerlache Straits. Zodiacs were launched to different venues throughout the day, and we penguined, minke-whaled and research station visited in the stunning Antarctic scenery. Friday morning was "shopping time" at the disused British Station of Port Lockroy, now a tiny museum, shop and post office. In the late afternoon we entered the breathtakingly beautiful ice-patched Lemaire Channel, with its towering peaks mirrored in the clearest of blue water. A mere prelude, however. We then spent an hour in the zodiacs threading our way through icebergs of fantastic shapes, clear blue veins and fissures in them alight from the sun. And the end to this perfect day? A barbecue on deck watching the ice-peaks just across the water change colour in the evening sun.

Saturday was yet more penguins, Wordie Hut, a fascinating British museum, and a high-tech Ukrainian station. Then, out to sea, round the Horn and home to beaver dams and Buenos Aires.

Silvia Findlay travelled on Journey Latin America’s Nandu escorted group tour to Chile and Argentina in February/March 2001, booking her Antarctic cruise as an extension to the tour.