Antarctica

Media and Comment
February, 2007

In January of 2007, I visited Antarctica (specifically, the tip of the Antarctica Peninsula and environs) with my wife and stepfather.

This page is intended to offer a few stills, some movies and a thought or two on the experience.  Nothing heavy, I assure you.

It is not my habit to promote my latest vacation.  Antarctica is so extraordinary, and the tools for recording memories are (nowadays) so capable that I decided to "give it a go".

The YouTube movie (see below) is my first such attempt since high-school a/v class in the mid nineteen-eighties, so go easy!  The scenes I found before my lens were so good, I'm hoping the camera, editing, title and aspect errors don't drag it down too much. Whether it's worth the trouble or not, you get to decide. 

Our "expedition" set out on January 18th with the unusual (for me) sensation of spending 14 hours in flight without appreciably changing time-zones. After stops in Miami and Santiago, Chile, we arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina (the southern-most city in the world) to board Lindblad's "National Geographic Endeavour". The much-feared "Drake's Passage" turned out (luckily for me) to be more like "Drake's Lake" - smooth seas both ways.

I'm not a "cruise-er" - in fact, I'd never done it, so I've no basis for comparison. I will say that this ship, a converted deep-draft factory trawler, was more than comfortable, the crew more than professional.  The marketing lash-up with National Geographic is a stroke of genius, and the reality includes real-life onboard experts in wildlife and photography who care passionately about their subjects.

I can't say that I've got a lot of deep thoughts about the experience.  If you want to know what the last ice-age really looked like, you have to go. As visual sensation, it was, I can only say, peerless.  Dreaming at night simply wasn't necessary - my poor brain was too busy processing the new inputs from the day before.

One idea that followed me back to my desk was simply to notice how relatively under-appreciated is Antarctica. Not for nothing; it is a long way off, and it is not cheap to visit.  There are no Burger Kings whatsoever. Even critical medical evacuation is essentially impossible.

And yet, Antarctica is simply LOADED with sights such that if they were more accessible, they would be regarded as competitive with the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Himalayas and the other natural mega-wonders of the world.

Along the way we saw seals (Leopard, Weddell, Crabeater and Elephant), penguins (Gentoo, Chinstrap, Macaroni, Adelie and 1 Emperor) and birds including Skuas, Blue Eyed Shags and Albatrosses.  Humpback whales visited us twice, and a pod of Orcas too.

To stay this way, Antarctica can't get a lot more accessible than it is today.  Already, a dozen or more ships take 20-30,000 tourists to Antarctica every year.  The gift-shop on Port Lockroy takes in over $10,000 a day in the season! (of course it is the only place to spend money in 600 miles). We saw not one, but three sailing yachts below the Antarctic Circle, some even amongst the ice. Now THAT was weird! 

Run under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty System, no-one "owns" Antarctica, and perhaps, no-one ever should.  When you are there, the very idea seems palpably ridiculous, even though we are talking of a patch of real-estate that exceeds the size of the continental United States.  There is oil in Antarctica, gas and other minerals besides.  Many countries pursue nebulous claims to "effective control" of this inhospitable place (some, by shipping pregnant women down to a hut so they can give birth to "Antarctic Citizens"), but for now this massive continent remains reserved for science and (some) tourists.  Hopefully, it will stay that way.

The YouTube Movie(s)

As mentioned above, this vacation also prompted me to return to the video-editing suite for the first time since high-school.  Man, have things changed.  Making movies is like falling off a log, only easier.  Of course, that's also the big problem with it - a lot of movies look like they were executed whilst falling from a log. 

Here's the YouTube page for Antarctica in 5 Minutes.

The full 17 minute movie may be found in four segments in this YouTube playlist.

Selections from 700+ stills

This shot was taken with an underwater housing for my Nikon.  Why is this man (his name is Rudi) in the water, you may ask?  Right at the beach, in the caldera at Deception Island, the hot sand warms the water to a comfortable 80F or so.  Just a little further out, the water is 32 degrees F (0 C), and it's a whole other story, as I discovered to my (literal) shock (see above).

Everybody likes penguins, and this little fellow was really showing off, so I obliged him.

I knew that icebergs come in all shapes and sizes (from something you'd stick in your cocktail to something much, much bigger than the Pentagon), but this one had me wondering if there was anything special in my coffee that morning.

It's hard to describe an iceberg, I've found.  Big?  Yes.  Icy?  Yes.  Beyond that, it gets a little hard to form transmissible ideas.  I guess I have to call this one the Hatch-shell.

Just because you are traveling with a shipload of retirees, don't think they all sit in the bar!  This 75 year old professor-emeritus is sneaking off to his secret ice-palace.  Hey, isn't that a two-man kayak?

Leopard seals, glaciers, penguins, mountains, whales, 2,000 ft cliffs, icebergs... the Lemarie Channel makes the Grand Canyon seem fairly tame.

This Crabeater seal eats krill, not crabs.  So why are they called Crabeater seals?  Who knows.  In fact, very little is known about them at all - they live entirely in the deep ice, and are very very hard to study.

 We weren't bothering him (unless having 30 cameras in your face would bother you), but this seal kept a careful eye on us nonetheless.

 Sometimes you start wondering about the coffee again... the wonders of the freeze-thaw cycle, or so they told me.

 Where are the penguins?  Ok, ok... After you've seen 60,000 Gentoo penguins, you've kinda seen them all.

 I simply cannot convey the peace and serenity that comes with a calm, sunny day on the Weddell Sea with million-ton ice-cubes drifting by in the breeze.

Comments:

From Dick Herring [72.79.96.89] - 2/5/07 9:39 AM