After 10 days of cruising the Chilean fjords, we headed to Antarctica on board the luxurious MS Fridtjof Nansen, a Hurtigruten Expeditions ship. To get there, we had to cross the Drake Passage, known to be the roughest sea crossing because it’s the only place in the world that the ocean can flow continuously around the globe, with no land to slow it down. Fortunately for us, it was extraordinarily calm for the entire 36 hour crossing, allowing us to fully enjoy the Fridtjof Nansen. It’s an incredible boat. It’s not a standard cruise ship, it’s an expedition ship, so there are no nightly shows or extravagant entertainment services. Instead, there are lectures on the wildlife, geology and history of the southern regions, workshops on clouds, knots and feathers, and briefings on how to use zodiacs (small dingy boats that allow us to explore glaciers and icy regions that the large cruise boats can’t access). It’s also focused on sustainability, so the engines are hybrid, the water used to cool the engines becomes the hot water in the showers, and any time you decline room cleaning services the cruise line donates to charity on your behalf. Despite all of this minimalism, it was still the most luxurious ship I’ve ever been on. Previously we’d been in inside cabins with no porthole, but this time every room was on the outside of the boat, with not just a porthole but a large window offering incredible views. The bed was huge, the shower was huge, the TV was huge. We even had our own thermostat for the room and the bathroom floor was heated, what luxury! The rest of the boat is fantastic too – hot tubs on the top deck, a large all lounge with panoramic windows and a pianist playing for 8 hours every day, and a science lab with high tech microscopes and skeletons of the coolest polar animals. The star of the show is the sauna, which has the classic Scandinavian wood cabin feel, with floor to ceiling windows allowing you to enjoy the steam while watching the icebergs float by outside.

On Wednesday we arrived at our first stop in Antarctica: Deception Island. The moon shaped island is actually a mostly submerged active volcano, with a gap to sail through the rim and into the caldera. We had signed up to participate in a ‘science boat’ during our time in Antarctica, and were allocated into the very first one. This meant instead of being ferried straight over to the island to explore, we got to go out with some of the scientists on board to do some experiments in the water. Our boat took out an underwater drone, which dove down to film the sea floor, where there was a surprising amount of life: starfish, urchins, tube worms and a creepy looking sea spider. After this, we were supposed to take a plankton sample to study later, but we suddenly spotted a huge elephant seal which was much more exciting. He was enormous, around 3.5 tons according to the seal expert we luckily had with us. He was lounging in the water, completely indifferent to us ogling at him, though we did give him a fair amount of room as they can get quite aggressive. Apparently he was a juvenile male, still needing to gain another half ton of blubber before he would be big and strong enough to challenge another male for territory, at which point he could become the ‘beach master’ and own all the females on the beach.

We were still able to take a trip over to the island after returning from the science boat, and we did a small hike up a slippery hill for some incredible views. Before heading back to the ship, we did a polar plunge. This is the spot I did my polar plunge on my first visit to Antarctica 5 years ago, so I can confirm that it is still freezing cold, and I don’t know why I felt the need to do it again. It’s not so much of a plunge here, because you’re not jumping straight into the water and immediately being immersed, you have to run in from the beach, which means you feel how cold it is and have to force yourself to keep going. It’s also kind of cheating, because the volcanic activity means the water here is warmer than anywhere else in Antarctica, at a balmy -1.5°C.

The sail back out of the caldera gave us some of the best wildlife viewing of the whole trip. Right at the exit the cliff tops were covered in a huge colony of chinstrap penguins. Immediately after exiting, humpback whales were spotted on the starboard side. They were far off and didn’t come any closer, but we found a spot by the huge windows in the bar to keep an eye out just in case. Creed then spotted something and immediately knew it was an orca. Before long we were seeing pods of killer whales in every direction, very very close to the ship, showing off in the water. They stuck with us for a while, and there were so many, at least 30, and it was fantastic. We were glued to the windows for a long time even after other guests had got over the novelty and retreated.

Our second day in Antarctica was at Damoy Point. The aim was to visit Port Lockroy, a British station with the southernmost post office in the world. We’re very early in the season though, on one of the first cruises, and so the station is not set up for visitors yet. Instead we went to Damoy Hut, a base that is no longer in use and is instead a small museum depicting life on a scientific exploration in Antarctica. Outside the hut were hundreds and hundreds of penguins, but gentoos this time. We were able to walk very close to them, taking care not to block their ‘highways’ which they use to waddle between groups. The bay here was incredibly scenic, with lots of icebergs creating a beautiful backdrop for my 7000 penguin photos, and enormous white mountains looming over us on either side, only occasionally visible through the low clouds. It would have been an incredible spot to kayak, which we had signed up to do, but unfortunately so had 160 other guests, and there were only 8 kayaks. We were at least able to cruise through the ice in one of the small zodiac boats, as well as spending time on land with the gentoos, and with the rest of our time in this stunning spot we headed, of course, to the top deck hot tubs. In the evening we cruised through some more epic landscapes, and ended the night in a sheltered bay being circled by a friendly Minke whale.

Our next stop was not too far away, at a place called Paradise Harbour. This time our landing was on the continent of Antarctica itself, not one of the islands. We explored the area around Brown Station, an Argentinian base which is still in use so we weren’t allowed inside. There were again a lot of gentoo penguins around, and we learnt that gentoos are rapidly increasing in population in Antarctica, because the reduction in sea ice has revealed new habitats for them to build colonies on. A small positive of global warming. We also took a quick cruise around the bay, witnessing cormorant nests among the cliffs, and snowy sheathbills blending in with the ice. Some of the groups were lucky enough to see a leopard seal at this stop, floating through the bay on top of an iceberg, but we missed it.

Our final day in Antarctica was supposed to be at a place called Half Moon Island. Cruises to Antarctica are very subject to change due to weather and ice levels, and usually there is no published itinerary for where you will go because it is not decided on until last minute. Our final day unfortunately had to be cancelled due to sea ice, combined with needing to get started with the Drake crossing because rough weather was forecast. While these changes are out of everyone’s control, we had actually arrived a day later than our original itinerary stated, despite the captain continuously saying we were ahead of schedule because we’d had such fantastic weather and sailing conditions up to that point. It seemed like the crew’s itinerary and the website’s itinerary were different and nobody else seemed to have noticed, which was very strange. It was also very frustrating, because had we arrived the day we were supposed to, we would have been able to have our 4 full days as the itinerary stated, and still have enough time to cross the Drake even if rough weather rolled in – which presumably is why the itinerary was planned this way. Our 4^th day being cancelled due to weather is understandable, but knowing that it wouldn’t have had to be cancelled if it wasn’t already pushed back a day is harder to forgive. Even with my substantial agent discount, this trip was an expensive one for us, and Antarctica is such an incredible destination (I would say once in a lifetime but I have to acknowledge being privileged enough to go twice by the age of 30), that it’s hard not to be disappointed to spend a shorter time here than promised.

The crew did manage to squeeze in another early evening stop on day 3, to slightly make up for missing our planned stop on day 4. We weren’t able to land anywhere here, but took a zodiac cruise through amazing ice formations, including a huge archway with a cool view of the ship in the background. We also cruised by another huge gentoo colony, with one lone chinstrap sleeping on the side, and a lone adelie (the only individual of this penguin species we saw on this trip) mixed in for good measure. There was also a fur seal at this location, but I’m not sure if I saw this or was just looking at a rock. Our overall Antarctic animal bingo sheet included: gentoo, chinstrap and adelie penguins, weddell, elephant and maybe a fur seal, humpback, minke and killer whales, and an awful lot of birds, the coolest being the albatross.

Our return crossing on the Drake was not rough at all, despite the weather warnings. But it turned out we did need the extra time to get back, because 6 hours in one of the ship’s engines stopped working. Something about the cooling liquid leaking and causing an electrical problem which shut the engine down, and it was not fixable. We still had another engine, so weren’t in any danger, but were going at half speed for the rest of the journey. The surprisingly good weather meant that half speed still wasn’t terribly slow, but slow enough for everyone to miss their flights back to Buenos Aires on Monday morning. There was lots of logistics going on behind the scenes and we weren’t entirely sure how the cruise would end, but we were on no schedule so were happy to enjoy our luxury room, all inclusive bar and unlimited hot tub usage for as long as we could have it for.

The delay in our cruise meant that we arrived around 1pm back into Ushuaia on Monday, rather than the anticipated 6am. Hurtigruten were able to charter planes to get people back to Buenos Aires after their missed original flights. They managed to get around half of the passengers rebooked for Monday evening, while the rest travelled on Tuesday morning. We were due to stay in Ushuaia for 2 more nights after disembarking, so didn’t need to alter any travel arrangements, but it meant we were able to stay on the ship on Monday night and enjoy the luxury for a little longer, instead of moving to a cheap hotel. We even stayed on until after lunch on Tuesday, making the most of the free meals for as long as possible, and Creed made sure to have one last hot tub dip. One of the crew members came up with a scavenger hunt for guests to do around the ship on Monday, to make the additional sailing time more enjoyable. We had to find various scientific specimens, portraits, and a hidden boot, as well as take photos and videos of ourselves doing ridiculous things, and photos of the expedition team doing ridiculous things. We were very committed to the ridiculous, and ended up winning a box of Ferrero Roche for our efforts (there were only 3 teams still interested by the end, so it wasn’t a great achievement, but it made up for the day before when we came first in the quiz and only won a round of applause). In the evening everyone still on the boat got together on the top deck to learn some Norwegian folk dancing.

Despite the mishaps and the disappointments we had an incredible experience in Antarctica, and on the Fridtjof Nansen.

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!