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Antarctica remains the last vast wilderness on earth. A continent encircled by pack ice, huge tabular icebergs and covered with an ice sheet miles deep. A beautiful mysterious place, enticing explorers, adventurers and dreamers over the decades. Remote, inhospitable and without permanent inhabitants. It is the windiest and highest continent, which is capped by an ice sheet over 4 km thick in places. Antarctica is 58 times larger than the United Kingdom, and surrounded in winter by a vast girdle of sea ice larger in area than the continent itself.
Antarctica's key role in global processes is now recognised. The ice sheet holds 90% of the world's fresh water, which, if melted, would raise sea level by 65 m. The ice sheet drives the Southern Hemisphere weather patterns and modulates world climate.
For many, perhaps, the most appealing aspect of Antarctica is its wildlife. Although there are only a few native species, those that have adapted to the harsh environment thrive in large numbers. Seals, whales and Penguin populations are counted in the tens of thousands in some rookeries. One of the characteristics of the south polar region is that its birds and mammals (such as seals and whales) depend on the sea. In the end, the penguins evolved to a swimming way of living and because they had no land-predators to fear, they lost their ability to fly.
Antarctica is so vast that only a small portion of it can be explored during a two week period. The Antarctic Peninsula, that part of the continent that points toward the tip of South America, is so long that it spans 12 degrees of latitude, approximately 1200 km or 800 miles.
Humans never inhabited Antarctica and exploration of the continent is relatively recent. New discoveries continue to be made. In 2007, for example, our vessels, while exploring the Antarctic Peninsula, sailed uncharted waters.
Antarctica is devoid of power lines, billboards, and highways. There are no designer coffee shops or cellular networks. When the engines are turned off, the only sounds you hear are natural - wildlife, water and the occasional boom of icebergs calving. If you listen closely, you can hear your heart beating with excitement!
Best Travel Period for travel to Antarctica:
Antarctic wildlife is at its most active during the southern summer, November - March. The beauty and solitude of Antarctic seas and mountains conceals the frantic activity of the shoreline colonies of birds and mammals.
Summer arrives first in the South Shetland Islands and spreads south along the Antarctic Peninsula. As the Antarctic year progresses, from spring to autumn, the Antarctic Peninsula and Islands change in appearance and character, each season offering a different range of spectacular sights and possibilities to the visitor.
November – December
- After the winter darkness, spring fever hits Antarctic and the sun causes an explosive growth of phytoplankton in areas of mineral upwelling. The phytoplankton provides food to the astronomic swarms of zooplankton, including krill. Krill forms the base of the food chain for squid, fish and ultimately for seabirds, seals and whales, which flock in to fatten themselves and to produce their young.
- Crabeater Seals are born in November
- Elephant Seals guard their harems aggressively until December
- The first big whales come down to Antarctica to feed, among them Humpback, Minke and Southern Right Whale.
- Amazing displays of the penguins’ courtship ritual, including nest building, sky pointing and stone stealing.
- Penguin, petrel and cormorant eggs are laid in December.
- Penguin chicks start to hatch at the end of December in the South Shetland Islands.
- Wintering scientists at the research stations welcome the first visitors of the season.
- Longest days in December create longer daylight hours – photographs can be taken at midnight !
- Last winters sea-ice offers sometimes spectacular sailing among the floes with Crabeater Seals everywhere on the ice.
January - February
In Antarctica’s warmest months wildlife activities are in full swing. Most penguin chicks hatch in January, earliest in the South Shetland Islands and later more to the south at the Peninsula. The frantic activity continues in the colonies in February as the young get older and bolder and are gathering in crèches.
- Fur Seal and Leopard Seal are visible.
- Penguin colonies at their busiest, fetching krill and feeding chicks.
- In February receding ice allows exploration further south along the Antarctic Peninsula.
- Concentration of Fur Seals increases.
- Whale watching is very good in February.
March :
Nightly Darkness returns as the sun sinks farther below the southern horizon, but temperatures are still above zero, though we may experience a touch of Antarctic winter with night frosts, creating beautiful patterns of thin sea ice on the surface. The snow cover is at its minimum allowing for easy and extensive walks in the South Shetland Islands.
- Penguin chicks are in their adolescent state now and quite curious about visitors.
- The adult penguins moult and the young go to sea.
- Concentration of Leopard Seals increases hunting for chicks.
- Receding ice allows exploration farthest south along the Antarctic Peninsula.
- Spectacular green and pink algae blooms on snow-slopes and ice cliffs.
- Whale watching is very good.
- Chances to see Aurora Australis.
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