| Tips and photos for Antarctica vacations and tourism, posted by real travelers and Antarctica locals. |
 | Antarctica General Tips | Tips 1 - 10 of 113 |  |
The mountain in the background to this photo is Mount Henderson, one of the more prominent mountains behind Mawson station. It rises to 970 metres, is about 15 km inland, and can be seen from well offshore.
The vehicle is called a SnowTrac. I had never heard of them outside Australia and its Antarctic stations, but I am indebted to VTer "melensdad" for the advice they came from Sweden. Ours were powered by a Porsche industrial engine, but had some recurring problems with tracks. It is parked on what is called "blue ice" - hard glassy ice which fractures and tinkles like glass if broken: this is found only in the "ablation zone" near the coasts and we were out testing some experimental ice depth sounding equipment. The 'trendy skier'... ahem, a little embarrassing to say it's me.
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Australia's Antarctic stations traditionally had a "changeover party" the night before the ship departed. On the night of the changeover party at Mawson on 13 February 1966, everyone was ashore except the ship's Captain and Chief Engineer. I'm unsure whether they stayed onboard because the barometer was dropping like a brick - but it certainly was doing that!
Overnight we had a short sharp blizzard, with the wind gusting over 80 knots/ 100mph/ 160kph. All the ship's heavy mooring cables broke under the strain of the wind, leaving the ship blowing backward across the harbour. Fortunately the Captain and Chief Engineer were able to start the engines and drive the ship onto the rocks near the station - and that's how you see her in this photo. Being ice-strengthened, there was no problem for the ship being hard aground on the rocks (with engines at half speed to keep her there).
The haziness in the photo is because there still was a considerable wind blowing, sending drifting snow past the camera - and drift is visibly plastered on the sides of the ship. Later in the morning the wind eased and the ship was able to sail after lunch: the people onshore for the party had spent an uncomfortable night camped on the floor of the recreation hut.
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ANARE, the Australian antarctic expeditions, unloaded the ships in the 1960s using pontoons and WWII-vintage amphibious Army DUKWS, as seen in this photo. Most cargo was in boxes, diesel fuel in drums, and these were lowered to the waiting DUKW or pontoon by sling from the ship, then manhandled at the other end. It was heavy work. The occasional large item, such as this new Ruston generator for Mawson, needed two pontoons - so they were lashed together and bridging timbers placed across them. The generator came equipped with skids, so once at the shore it was simply pulled into place by either a DUKW or a bulldozer.
Much of our equipment was of ex-military origin, that is why many people in this photo were wearing windproof WWII paratroop jackets.
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One of the main highlights of any Antarctic cruise is the chance to set foot on shore, of course, and on a large ship like the Marco Polo these events are carefully co-ordinated. Incidentally, if booking a cruise on a larger ship do make sure that landings are part of the deal. Some of the bigger companies take you there just to gaze on the sights from the deck - but would you really want to go all that way and not be able to say you walked on the Antarctic?
Our cruise included three landings on shore (two on islands, one on the Antarctic mainland itself) and a zodiac cruise without landing in a fourth location. All these are subject to weather conditions of course – we were lucky and had no disruptions to the schedule, but this is the Antarctic so don’t count on everything going according to plan!
On landing days we were allocated a time slot, and these were rotated fairly so that everyone got a chance to be in one of the first groups at some point in the trip. The Antarctic treaty stipulates that no ship may land more than 100 people at a time, and that everyone must stay in very carefully controlled areas to limit damage to the environment. This lead to the rather incongruous sight of a row of traffic cones on the shore marking where we were allowed to tread! Crew members are scattered around the area too, to make sure no one strays outside the permitted area – a shrill whistle alerts anyone who does step off the path. This may all seem a bit restrictive but it’s designed to preserve the purity of the ecosystem and who can argue with that?
There is also an important rule relating to the animal life you will encounter, namely that you shouldn’t go closer than 5 metres of any animal or bird, and 15 metres in the case of leopard seals. But luckily for the photographers among us no one has succeeded in teaching the penguins that rule and they’ll happily approach you!
Don’t expect peace and quiet – penguins are noisy creatures! And the ground underfoot is thick with smelly penguin droppings, so don’t expect pristine white snow either. In fact it’s so smelly and messy that the ship’s crew are on hand with buckets of water to sponge off your boots before you get back into the zodiac – and even then you’ll be asked to take off your boots on arrival back at the ship and carry them to your room. But it’s all part of the experience, even if the smell will linger with you for weeks to come!
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Penguins are the cutest birds on the planet and very much deserve the fondness that the general public seems to have for them. However, until you encounter them in person, it generally doesn't occur to you to wonder what they smell like. In fact, penguins are smelly. You don't notice it so much with only one or two around, but when you get many in one spot, especially in a rookery, you will notice the quite pervasive bird poop aroma. Leave a Comment
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Slightly to the southwest of Mawson, the David Range runs generally north/south. A little south of it is the double-topped Mt Hordern. The route we followed inland from Mawson on the Spring Trip (see 'off the beaten track' tips) passes through the gap between the two, then heads further south past Mt Twintops, nearly 20 km further and not visible in this photograph.
Before the spring trip could commence, it was necessary to take accurate astronomical fixes from the base point of the survey, on an island offshore from Mawson. Getting there was simple, just a matter of driving across the sea ice. But doing the survey work was slow and cold, so down-filled suits were needed.
In the main photo you see the survey measurements being taken, with the North Masson Range (which has Mt Rumdoodle) to the left on the horizon. Mt Hordern is just visible above the nearest person, with The David Range further to the right. The second photo is taken from Mt Twintops, about 50km inland, looking back north to Mt Hordern.
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One of the most popular books at Mawson in 1966 (and the other Australian stations) was called "Rumdoodle". Written by WE Bowman, it was about a mythical expedition to a mythical mountain called "Rumdoodle". While it may not resonate in quite the same way to anyone who has not been in an expedition environment, we (and previous expeditions) found the book absolutely hilarious, as a satire on expeditions in general. Between the pages were a recognisable crew of misfits, drunks, incompetents and fakers, forever asking their idiot leader to send more 'medicinal champagne'. Not only was it popular, in 1959 it provided the official name for this mountain in the North Masson Ranges, about 15 km to the south of Mawson.
In 1966, a field caravan was permanently stationed there for short breaks from the station. Here we see a SnowTrac and a dogteam out for a day's run.
The book has been republished several times and there even is a webpage on it, at http://www.rumdoodle.org.uk/ . A highly recommended read.
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There’s so much to do on board ship that it could all get a bit bewildering! But everyday you wake up to find a four page brochure slipped under your door – the “Daily Program”.
This tells you everything you need to know about the next 24 hours. The first page gives you the main headlines about the day’s highlights; the second a full timetable for the day, including any shore landings, describing the main features of the islands etc; the third covers the programme of entertainment planned for the evening; and the fourth describes some special offers (“drink of the day”, “spa specials” and so on), the opening times of the various restaurants and bars, useful phone numbers on board etc.
On one typical day on our cruise the programme featured such diverse activities as:
- a dance class
- circuit training
- golf putting
- two lectures (ecology and seabirds)
- an art auction
- choice of evening shows and dancing
- a special on Manhattan cocktails and hot Brandy Alexanders (mmm)
- a Martini tasting and mixing lesson
Not to mention a programme of zodiac cruises!
Of course we didn’t participate in even a fraction of these activities – many weren’t to our taste and in any case we wanted to spend most of our time appreciating our amazing surroundings. Apart from the landings themselves, which were of course the real highlights, our favourite occupation was to sit in the comfortable seats in the bar (OK, with one of those drinks specials at times!) and watch the ice-bergs drifting past.
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Before I went to Antarctica I assumed that all icebergs were much the same, though varying in size of course, and that they were more or less white. So I was stunned by the variety of shape and even more of colour. The white is variously streaked with wonderful shades of blue, from turquoise through to deeper shades, and many of the bergs are shaped like beautiful sculptures.
There are many types of iceberg, categorised by both size and shape. For instance growlers are small, less than 1 metre by 5, and bergy bits just a little bigger, about 1-4 metres in height and up to 14 metres long. Tabular icebergs have steep sides and a flat top (see my second photo). Other shapes include Dome (with a rounded top), Pinnacle (with one or more spires) and Wedge (with a steep edge on one side and a slope on the opposite – possibly the shape we saw most frequently). Then there is pack ice (just what the name suggests), brash ice (lots of broken-up pieces which made it difficult at times for the zodiacs to find a clear route to shore) and more.
As everyone knows, most of the iceberg is beneath sea-level, but what I hadn’t realised is that they can flip over. What happens is that the submerged portion is gradually eroded by the sea until it becomes smaller and lighter, and the whole berg tips over to restore the balance. Mt main photo shows one of the zodiacs from the ship passing a berg that must have flipped onto its side quite recently, as you can see the edge of what was the wider above-sea-level portion – enlarge the photo to see the scale of the small boat next to the iceberg.
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When we first decided on a trip to the Antarctic the one thing that concerned me a little was how I would cope with the cold, as it’s something I really don’t like. But I needn’t have worried. OK it was cold but there was probably only one occasion when I felt too cold – standing in the bow of the ship as we approached Deception Island - though that was well worth it for the experience. The rest of the time, while it was of course cold, it really wasn’t too bad – nothing a few layers of warm clothing couldn’t keep out.
In fact, after the first trip off the ship, the zodiac cruise at Culverville Island, I found the silk thermals I’d brought were more than I needed, and left them off for future shore landings. Most days the temperature was just a degree or two below freezing – and we were amazed to find out that back home in London there was a cold snap with temperatures well below that! So please don’t let the thought of cold weather put you off – wrap up warm and go for it!
The best days at sea were the cold bright sunny ones, when you could stand on deck to watch the ice-bergs in all their glory, the playful penguins "porpoising" and albatross gliding overhead. But on shore my most memorable experience was perhaps the one snowy day we had, watching the penguins huddle together and shelter their chicks.
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on October 1, 2006
on January 26, 2007
on January 28, 2005
