Date of Entry: February 22nd 2016
Date of Writing: April 12th 2016, Palermo Art Hostel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
We wake up fairly late in the morning, everyone tired out from a long day sailing and then a long night spent partying with Ukrainians. I’m up earlier and make some pancakes for breakfast again before we get the chance to head out for my second and final kayak through Antarctica. We’re the same group as last time, with me, Tash, Enora and Josh winding our way out of the maze of islands on which Vernadsky is built. Tash takes a waterproof camera with her so the photos in this first part of the blog are courtesy of her.
First off isn’t tash cool with her crazy gang signs? Now moving on, as we head out towards more open waters we pass through a narrow passage with a towering wall of ice hanging just to our left. At one point Josh is asked if it’s safe to pass, but we go for it and nothing bad happens. Yet…. (Check the next entry for more)
We head out into the slightly rougher though still calm-ish open waters and trace the coastline initially planning to head towards an island where a few Adele penguins have recently been seen. As we go we pass a few Gentoo penguins on the rock and as always, lots more impressive scenery, including some very cool icebergs.
Sadly we round a curve in the coastline and find the remnants of an exploded massive iceberg clog up the waters making reaching our island target near impossible. Of course this is Antartica and you don’t stop just because the sea is entirely clogged up with ice. You kayak through it, at least for a while. Trust me, it’s surprisingly hard work.
We eventually have to turn around taking a different route through the maze of islands and heading back slowly towards the boat. As we paddle through the incredible cloudy mysterious serenity of this place, I’m stunned as a crab eater pops it’s head up near my kayak, crossing in front of me and giving me quite a thrill. The go pro used for the video below is such a wide angle that it makes the animal look further away than it actually is.
Once the Crab eater has gone on it’s merry way we head directly back to the spirit of Sydney but not before finding another crab eater sleeping on a small iceberg. I also remember to finally take some pictures with the Freestyle Adventure Travel Flag for them to use as they wish. If you’re booking a last minute trip to Antarctica I really can’t recommend these wonderful people enough.
Back on board we find that another visit to the Vernadsky base has been arranged, and it will be my first one. We’re going not just to say hello, but to enjoy there ocean side sauna, which sounds interesting, though Sauna’s are not my thing.
Late in the afternoon get to Vernadsky and are warmly welcomed by Bogdan who shows us to the sauna before returning to his work. A huge percentage of the important scientific work that comes out of Antarctica originates here with these hard working scientists, so he shows us to the sauna and then gets back to work.
The sauna is a small shack looking construction up above the rocks along side the ocean, a rickety looking wooden ladder allowing access down to the water should anyone be crazy enough to swim. (Enora already jumped off the boat the day before beating me to it.)
As we enter the sauna I almost run straight out into the water, it’s a blistering heat approaching 110 degrees celcius and I can’t stay in there long. We’ve all opted to wear bathing suits or boxers much to the disappointment of some of the Ukrainians when it comes to the girls. We sit on boards and our thoughts can’t help but drift to just how many naked Ukrainians have sat on these various boards. Maybe it’s that, or maybe it’s just the unbearable heat, but soon enough I’m carefully navigating my way down the latter, over some jagged and slippery rocks and plunging into the frigid seas.
It’s a beautiful feeling honestly, especially when you’ve got a sauna to go warm up in and I end up repeating the process three times, even staying in long enough to swim around a bit the third time. I mean sure the waters are cold, but I think I’ve already proven that I like cold water quite a lot. If you go to Antartica I highly recommend swimming, and not just when you have a sauna near by, it’s a one of a kind feeling and something not all that many people have done.
Once the sauna and swimming time is done we all take advantage of a real shower thanks to the gracious Ukrainians before hanging out for a while at the base surrounded by the Gentoo penguins which really are everywhere in Antarctica.
After getting a quick tour of the bar and self proclaimed southernmost souvenir shop in the world Josh comes to get me and matt and we head back to the spirit of sydney together to get some camping gear ready and find a place to camp. Ulises, Mariana and Tash will be joining us, but the Mexicans are busy enjoying a private sauna.
That’s right, tonight I’m lucky enough to get a chance to go camping in Antarctica. Josh and I find a suitable spot on an island we thought was part of the three little pigs (yeah the names are amazing) and lug up all the gear out of the zodiac while Matt heads back to the base to gather the rest of the camping crew. In the meantime Josh and I get to work setting up camp, which takes quite some time when you’re doing it in a few feet of snow, just pounding down platforms to sleep on is hard work, but we get through it alright. I’m too busy to think much of taking photos but here’s some from the next morning.
As we finish up what work we can do without the others Darrel gets on the radio and we try to describe where we are. The map of the islands is hard to read and the fog is rolling in thickly. To make matters worse we’re not actually on the three little pigs but some other island, having gotten turned around in the mist, and it takes a lot of guesswork, communication, and gps checking to get everyone in the same place.
Eventually the mexicans join us in there kayaks with Matt while Tash comes in the zodiac and we finish with the tent set ups and set to work cooking up some food, using the handy camp stoves to warm water for some instant soups, dehydrated main courses and of course some chocolate for desert.
We head to bed fairly early, enjoying the incredible silence and isolation of the place and trying to get warm. My sleeping bag which I borrowed from freestyle travel is not meant for quite such cold weather but it does the job well enough, at least until halfway through the night when I wake to find Tash trying her best to steal the bag off of me in her sleep. I won’t lie and say it was the best sleep I ever had, but it was damn cool to camp in Antarctica, and not half as uncomfortable as some might think.
