Journey to the Southern Tip of the World

Penguins, nesting birds and curious tourists on icebergs swinging on the waves like nutshells- that is the South Pole in the summer. The editor of Tourist Guide joined an expedition organized by Diesenhaus to the most southern part of the world for a once in a lifetime experience. To the end of the world and beyond.

By Ilan Shchori, Antarctica

A 70 hour cruise, on a tiny, 2 ton expedition boat, riding the waves like a mere nut shell under difficult conditions, is not much of an experience for anyone who isn’t used to adventurous sailing of the seas. But paying a visit to Antarctica, and the islands close to the peninsula, the arm of the seventh continent, is so impressive and amazing, that one immediately forgets the difficulty in reaching the area, and the many hours it will take to return. The tourist agency Diesenhaus surprised us when it invited 8 top tourist agents, 2 reporters, and 2 escorts (among them was the editor of Tourist Guide) on a once in a lifetime tour of the frozen continent, and organized together with the airline carrier Lufthansa, the first of its kind tour for an Israeli delegation to the South Pole.

Antarctica isn’t one of the top Israeli tourism destinations today and its doubtful if it will become one in the near future. The first hurdle is the price of between 4500$ to 20000$ for a short tour and also, the fact that the tour organizers haven’t yet set up comfortable cruises on the 13 international carriers which operate 15 cruise ships and tours to the region. The Israeli group joined a 9 day trip on one of the cheaper carriers. Canadian ‘Marine Expeditions’ operates cruises to the South Pole on an icebreaker in the form of a former Danish expedition ship, called M.S. Disco, weighing 2000 tons and 57 meters long, measurements which allowed the waves of the Pacific Ocean to abuse the ship quite a bit.

The ship holds around 90 passengers, in cabins sized like a small walk in closet, with bunk beds for two passengers, and an adjoining washroom. The price per passenger for this type of cabin is 4000$ not including flights. Suites cost approximately 5,500$, and there are cheaper cabins without adjoining washrooms which are priced at 3000$. Approximately 10,000 people visit Antarctica per year, every summer on tours that last between a week and 3 months during the summer period beginning mid November and ending mid March. Over 40% of the visitors are Americans, 31% are German, 10% are British and Australian, and the rest are from all over the world.

The trip to the end of the world began for us on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, and then on to Buenos Aires. After spending a night in the Argentinian capital, we flew to the spectacular city in the southern most part of the world, Ushuaia, which is in Tierra Del Fuego (the Fire Country). This point serves as the central exit point for all trips to Antarctica, the country is 3 times the size of Europe and is isolated from the rest of the world. We spent 2 days on a cruise through the Drake Passage, which separates the southern Shetland Islands from the Fire Country Islands of South America, until we saw the first huge icebergs of Antarctica. The geographical and climatic conditions on the continent prevent any type of vegetative or animal growth. Only a few types of lichen and moss are able to grow. Various types of birds make nests there over the summer and huge rookeries of penguins nest there in the winter. In all of Antarctica there is no permanent human colony and there has never been human entry to most of the vast area of the huge continent. Groups of whale hunters, scientists and tourists visit there at certain times. 109 islands and areas are accessible in Antarctica today. The most popular are Port Lockroy, Whaler Bay and Half Moon Island. Not all ships and tours go to all the areas. A great deal depends on the turbulent weather conditions in the area. Some days you can find sunshine and a clam sea, and then several hours later, you may encounter a stormy sea, and pouring rain, which makes any attempt to disembark from the ship life threatening. In general, a visitor to Antarctica may enjoy 4-10 disembarkations to islands and the continent, mostly via Zodiac ships, which carry 10 passengers and a tour guide. According to the laws for preservation of Antarctica, no more than 100 people are allowed to disembark at one time, and on large trips, with a few hundred travelers, disembarkations are dispersed by area at different times. On our trip to ‘the end of the world’ we were lucky enough to disembark 4 times. The southern most point of disembarkation was at Petermann Island, a 2 km long island discovered by the German sailor August Petermann in 1837. Large rookeries of penguins greeted us on this charming island. At the end of the world we learned that there are 6 types of penguins and 17 different species of penguins. The largest is called the Emperor Penguin, weighs 30 kgs and is 90 cms long. The smaller penguins weigh between 2-5 kgs and are usually 30 cms tall. All penguins have white breasts and a brown or black back. Some types have yellow-gold feathers on the sides of their heads that serve as a communications method and for purposes of identification for the rookeries, even under water. The body is built for long underwater stays and is hydro-dynamically structured. The head is pointed and the neck is short and tucked under. On land they walk straight up, with their wings held close to their bodies, making them look like humans. Penguins are excellent swimmers, the wings act like oars and they feed only from the sea. They spend 8 months a year at sea and go ashore to reproduce and preen their feathers. Usually hatching occurs in large colonies of approximately half a million couples.

The following day, blessed with good weather, we disembarked at one of the most popular tourism sites. Nako Harbour, a branch of the continent, where we were presented with the amazing sight of penguins in flight. Among the thousands of penguins that greeted us, we also saw seals and hake. At Nako Harbour there is a small station, decades old, whose sole purpose is to assist travelers who have become stranded in the area. Opposite the station are magnificent icebergs that break up with horrific sounds, fall into the sea and create huge waves. The area has huge icebergs that are hundreds of kilometers deep, the land is covered by crisp and dry snow like sand, which is carried by the wind. The wind creates parallel cracks in the snow, and the stronger the wind is, so the cracks grow deeper. The thick layers of snow grow together and create flexible icebergs that float to sea as a wall or a berg, depending on the slopes.

Our next port of call was supposed to be the British port, called Port Lockroy, but a serious health problem of one of the Israeli passengers, caused us to change course at the last minute to receive assistance from an American base called Palmer Station, so we missed disembarking at the popular site, Port Lockroy.  To our sorrow, we also missed receiving a stamp in our passports, which documents a visit to Antarctica. Port Lockroy has a museum and souvenir shop staffed by two explorers, David and Nigel, who spend their summers at the port. Nigel is a British explorer, who has spent the last few summers examining the impact that human visitors have on the lives of the penguins in the area.

We had an interesting but difficult disembarkation to the shore at Deception Island, which is a volcanic island whose last eruption occurred in 1978 – there are vestiges of a station of 15 Norwegian scientists and whale hunters who worked there under license from Britain from 1920-1931 and hunted approximately 7 whales a day. You can still see on the shore skeletons of whales and large flocks of seals. On Deception there is also an area of geysers and hot water springs which erupt from the ground, and brave travelers don’t miss a chance to swim in the warm waters of frozen Antarctica.

From tour to disembarkation, the special animals who inhabit the shore, aside from the penguins, and seals one can view the albatrosses above and the dolphins and whales in the sea, who pass by the visitors to Antarctica, while passing above and among the icebergs of the frozen continent.