Floating Ice
The drifting of the broken ice in the salty swell;
The varying degrees both geometrically and temporally;
Rhythmically gracing the peaks and troughs of the ocean;
Popping candy of the South, crackling to disintegration;
The inevitable fate of life; the destination has been decided. The journey has not.
Nathan Perks, 9th January 2020
Antarctica. The seventh and final continent left to explore. This however is not the purpose of the trip. It’s to immerse into the nothingness of the final frontier. To a place that is close to the same today as it was back when Shackleton sailed the Endurance through these passages over 100 years ago.
The Journey
Outlined and detailed is each landing over the Longitudinal Larrikin’s exploration south. The words in italics are those from his notebook written at the time and day of landing. What better place to start than the statistics of the ship:
- M/S Expedition
- 132 passengers, 70 crew
- 1,804 nautical miles
- 4-person cabin on the bottom deck (i.e. the first ones to drown during a Titanic event)
- Open-bridge (free to watch in the captain quarters)
- Sunrise: 2.50am | Sunset: 11:50pm
- One crew member was part of Blue Planet production and another, Jonathan Green, directed the ‘Galapogas Whale Shark’ Attenborough production. The Larrikin was in good hands.
The Drake Passage
One of the most brutal crossings in the world, voyagers are either greeted kindly with the ‘Drake Lake’ or ‘Drake Shake’. Seas of 2-3m and up to 10m, respectively. The Larrikin was fortunate to experience the Lake for the entirety of the sail south from his origin, Ushuaia, Argentina.
The gentle rocking side to side, back and forth, of the M/S Expedition was supposed to trance the passengers to sleep but instead caused a puddle of chunder in many of the bathrooms – thankfully not the Larrikins.
Due to the calm conditions of the Drake, the Expedition crossed in one-day, half the time it generally would take to cross the 660 nautical mile Passage. Time was filled with lectures on Antarctica from our Expedition crew, of whom the majority are ‘conservationalists’ and also great conversationalists. A few facts you might find interesting:
- 18,000 years ago, approx. one-third of the world is covered in ice but now only 16%
- Largest ice berg recently broken off the Larsen Ice Shelf was 168km long, 72km wide.
- If Antarctica completely melted, sea levels would rise by 58.3m
The greatest benefit for the Expedition’s speed through the Drake meant that the Larrikin was able to visit a part of the Antarctic Peninsula that not even Shackleton could land.
Deception Island
It was an unscheduled stop and only possible due to the kind weather across the Drake. With ~50,000 chinstrap penguins nesting and marching the beach, it was a scene that you’d only see in an Attenborough production.
Witnessing a skua bird knocking a penguin chick from a cliff and continually pecking at its face until it died. They aim for the eyes to blind the penguin chick so it can’t escape. Brutal but nature doing what it must.
The chinstraps were very curious, waddling over with no fear, staring. They didn’t mind the intrusion of foreigners. The had no fear of humans because they were very rarely exposed to them. The humans did not registered as a predator to them.
Neko Harbour
The 6th January 2020. This was a momentous day for the Larrikin. It was the official first step into the Antarctic continent. His feet had now stepped on all seven continents of planet earth. Momentarily this was forgotten about as the vistas both from land and the kayak were simply breathtaking.
Shooting down the Gerlache Strait, the sun came out to play and the clouds were shy. A perfect kayak day, not a breath of wind and brash ice suffocating the Harbour. Gentoo penguins balancing on ice blocks, the perfect foreground for the perfect landscape.
Large cracks in the glacier, all shades of blues, white. Bomb blasting as ice melts and plunged into the sea. A slushy of ocean. Ice bergs, big and small. The faint sound of squawking from Gentoo penguins nesting on the beach below. I’m perched on a cliff. I don’t want to leave. Not ever.
Nathan Perks, 6th January 2020
George’s Point
Continuing down the Gerlache Strait, a frenzy of humpbacks having a whale of a time! The Larrikin couldn’t look left or right without viewing the tail of a humpback grazing.
A short hike over the snow and ice to the top, turning around to look out to the ominous Antarctic sky. The conditions can change in an instant. The weather is beginning to close in.
Step after step, following another red jacket up the human highway, parallel to the penguin highway. Longer steps and less waddling gives us the advantage. The top has been reached and the only place to sit is in the frozen precipitation. Three steps off the highway, spin to turn the bottom of the hill. 1, 2, 3, gravity plays its role pulling into the snow. An imprint of a human. We can’t go anywhere in this world without leaving our mark.
Nathan Perks, 6th January 2020
Paradise Harbour in Leith Cove
Camping in the Cold
Disturbance to the liquid salt mirror. The breath of a humpback, filling it’s belly with krill. Perhaps one last snack before bed. The sun has already turned in. It is only a few minutes to midnight. That star doesn’t get much sleep this time of year. The mammal takes a breath as it’s tail waves to the Gentoos, spectating from the rocks on the waters edge. Perhaps they look for a closer view on a nearby piece of floating ice. They are dressed immaculately; white shirt and black jacket. Most lay motionless as they wind down for the day. Fluorescent orange tents and humans not bothering. Neither does the shotgun echo of glacier movement in the Cove. The thin cloud cover clears the surrounding sheer and ominous cliffs. And then it returns. Dancing around the peaks, tormenting their strength, power, anger. Overpowered by the drips and drops of melting ice into the reflection. Tiny ripples extending. It is summer but this place is melting. It may be protected within these boundaries but not outside them. Not everyone has the opportunity to experience the magic of this place. They will never understand. No photograph nor words can appropriately describe it, except one; Antarctica.
Nathan Perks, 6th January 2020
The Larrikin fell asleep that night to the sound of whales grazing and the spurts of their blowholes. Sleeping on the snow, limbs numb if they were anywhere but in the sleeping bag. This was barely enough to stay warm, shivering through the night. One sleep was enough.
Port Lockroy
The Penguin Post! What the hell is it? It’s the name given to the British station that has a red Royal Mail registered post box.
Like any post office, there was a line. Except instead of the moles and groans of those ahead, it was the squawk of over 100 gentoo penguins. The station looked like a postcard!
Five staff work full time at the post office over the summer months (October – March), with 200-300 applicants per year. The Larrikin’s time was cut short at the Penguin Post Office due to katabatic winds imposing and growing swell. The ‘real’ Antarctic weather was closing in.
Melchior Islands
Just when the Larrikin thought he saw it all – penguins, whales, dolphins, seals, ice, snow, vistas – there was another jaw dropping discovery. The ice bergs. Both big and small.
Paddling along the coast, rain drizzling on the waterproof skirts hugging the edges of the kayak. Staring up toward the igneous rock and ice, drifting between a tiny opening.
Heading down toward Dallman Bay, enormous ice bergs began to appear. The largest of the lot was 1.2km long, 70m high above sea level, 250m below sea level. For comparison, that is North Steyne to Shelly Beach long, almost one footy field high above sea level, 2.5 footy fields below sea level. Think about the volume of that thing!
Mikkelsen Harbour
Horrendous weather. Antarctica the way she was intended. Howling winds, drenching rain, sizeable swell. Exploring in the zodiacs was unpleasant.
Trinity Island was bearable, housing an old whaling boat and whale bones – likely humpback or minke. Loads of guarno (goo-are-no) aka Penguin poo.
The world isn’t filled with sunshine everyday.
Cierva Cove
Kayaking among the chunks of ice that had broken from other chunks of ice was mesmerising. The perspective changes at sea level. Bergs growing with transparency, scale like features.
Winds increased to greater than 15 knots. The captain declared it was unsafe to paddle back to the ship so the ship came and met the kayakers further down the Cove.
Never has the Larrikin been so far offshore in a bit of plastic.
Lemaire Channel
An opening that is commonly suffocated with ice bergs. Low laying cloud running horiztonal in front of the middle of the surrounding snow capped and covered cliffs, with large chunks of ice at their feet.
Zodiac exploration off Peterman Island. Dodging ‘bergie bits’ on the approach to crab-eater and leopard seals. An adult humpback whale and a juvenile breached ten metres away from the zodiac. They were hunting for the abundance of krill. Never has the Larrikin been so close.
Peterman Island
The zodiac to shore was more eventful than usual. A single Adelie penguin was standing on floating ice. Most of the Adelie penguins have moved further south due to the warmer weather up north.
It had been some time since the Longitudinal Larrikin has had a swim so what better opportunity than to go for a dip in the sub-temperate water. It was donned ‘The Polar Plunge’. Two penguins sat on the edge of the water dazed and confused, thinking ‘what on earth are these white tall weird looking penguins doing in the water’. They were staring with disgust at the Larrikin’s weakness and inability to withstand the cold. Definition of a brain freeze. Short of breath, it felt like his body was shutting down. Surviving.
Port Charcot
More Antarctic like weather. This landing was again significant on a personal level for the Larrikin. It would be the last time he set foot on Antarctica, certainly for this trip and perhaps forever. Eighteen months of anticipation for this trip and this chapter was coming to an end.
Antarctica did throw one last surprise. On approach to the landing spot in the zodiac, the Longitudinal Larrikin was welcomed by a crab-eater and leopard seal on the same chunk of floating ice. This is not too common. The surprise was the ‘singing’ of the leopard seal out of the water. The look on Jonathan Green’s face (Attenborough guy) painted the whole picture. He had been a conservationist his entire life and he had only heard a leopard seal sing now three times in his life, and the other two times were underwater. Apparently this was EXTREMELY rare! You’ve got to half wonder if these guys make this stuff up but he seemed pretty genuine.
I didn’t want to leave but I also knew I didn’t want to stay forever.
How could I ever forget this place? The one they call Antarctica. It truly is impossible to explain how it makes you feel and depict what it looks like. The photographs do absolutely NO justice to what the eye can see. A few people kept saying “I’ve died and gone to heaven” making me wonder if I was in heaven? It truly is something spectacular and I am extremely grateful that I was able to visit this magical place.
“In memories, we were rich” – Shackleton
