Above: a little teaser. The view from our campsite in Antarctica.
For a long time I had dreamed about visiting this place. At first I assumed it wasn't possible to visit as a tourist, so I kinda gave up on it. But then I found out about expedition cruises and knew I had to go! Before I knew it, I was on the long journey south. From Vancouver, Canada to Ushuaia, Argentina it took me 48 hours in transit, and I was unable to sleep the entire time. Let's just say I'm envious of people who can sleep on planes!
In Ushuaia I met up with my friends and we explored the city for a couple days. I will not cover that in this blog, so let's fast forward to boarding the ship! These are not your typical cruise ships - they are small, about the size of a ferry, and the one I was boarding only takes about 100 passengers. We got settled in and began the next step of our journey: crossing the notorious Drake Passage. By ship it takes 48 hours to cross and is famous for having awful weather, but we got lucky on our initial crossing.
Time flew, and before we knew it, we were in Antarctica.
It was like another world down there.
One of the highlights was getting into the zodiacs, zipping around and checking out icebergs. The icebergs in a place called Neko Harbor were particularly striking.
That last one was like the mouth of a shark, complete with icicles for teeth! I reached as far as I could without falling out of the zodiac and fired off a few shots as fast as I could. The water in Antarctica is nearly -2c, so falling in could have very serious consequences. Getting this close to icebergs is also a bit risky, as pieces could fall off, or worse, the iceberg could suddenly flip. You do not want to be near as iceberg when this happens! There is a reason the saying "the tip of the iceberg" exists. It's because most of the iceberg is underwater, with the top only representing a small part of it.
And speaking of icebergs, those were the small ones. One of the highlights of the trip was a huge, one mile long iceberg.
It is hard to describe the scale of this thing. It truly was enormous. It was like seeing The Wall in Game of Thrones.
There were giant cracks in the iceberg, with an otherworldly blue glow.
We were also treated to some dramatic mountain landscapes.
In Antarctica, the mountains are quite literally buried in ice. It makes you wonder how life manages to even exist down there. But it doesn't just exist, it thrives! I'm not much of a wildlife photographer, but I knew I had to take some shots of the animals or face huge regret.
That scene was certainly one of the best moments in my life.
The penguins were hilarious to watch. Sometimes they would waddle, but other times they would get on there bellies and slide around on the snow, propelling themselves with their little feet.
I'm going to end this with an image I took of our ship. The zodiac on the right really helps to show how small it is! On our way back across the Drake Passage, sailing was smooth for the first day. But on day two, we were literally woken up by getting rolled out of our beds. The ocean was angry, with 32 foot tall waves. Not many people came out of their rooms that morning, and my friends and I were few of the souls brave enough to go to breakfast!
I hope you enjoyed a look at the least visited continent. Let me know in the comments if you would ever take a trip here, or share your own Antarctic experience!
OMG! nothing would beat it!
it would be a dream come true if I can reach Antarctica, the icebergs are breathtaking and the animals are so precious 😍.
Would appreciate it if you share more info about this expedition.
It is amazing!! I went through Poseidon Expeditions:
https://poseidonexpeditions.com/antarctica/antarctic-peninsula-best-of-antarctica/199/
There's some info!
Thanks a lot
Wow, incredible. So glad you went it is definitely on my list of places I want to visit. Some people look at me like I am crazy and I remind them I am a photographer! That penguin one is awesome.
How did I not know that Antarctic cruises were a thing? I must go now.
That shot of the two penguins is magnifique!
Dude, that's exactly how I felt when I found out. Plus you get to do a night of camping if you want (and kayaking). It's an incredible trip.
I only noticed the bird in flight in the shot with the mountains and epic light, when I clicked on the image - what a beautiful accent, on what is an already incredible image. Fantastic set of photos Tristan.
This looks absolutely stunning! Such a frozen and beautiful world! ❤️
So amazing 😮, the photos are so artistic, it's a masterpiece of art given by nature. I wish I could go here once @tristan.todd
Nature is the best artist. I hope you can visit someday!
It seems like a completely different world out there with the ice and the clouds rolling in. Thanks for taking us with you on this journey 😀
Aqesome photos, i really want to go now
Thank you :)
I love that second picture with that bright white against the dark, ominous looking water. It sort of encapsulates how I imagine a trip to Antarctica, at least as a person with a personality far more anxious than yours. Thoughts like If this ship starts to sink, is there any help anywhere nearby...
Oh my goodness that seal. It must be the cutest thing on earth.
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #1424.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
An amazing experience with great photos! My mum has been and I was very envious of her photos too!
I really like that second shot with the ominous looking mountains behind the iceberg
Amazing shots, you get a little feel of how big it a iceberg is. (I see the bird flying.) But in real life… it must be like nothing seen before. Yes, such a trip is once in a lifetime.
Thanks for sharing 😎
Thank you!! I spent a while on the outside deck of the ship looking for those birds. They were perfect for giving a sense of scale.
You are welcome 😊 I can imagine…
Penguins are too cute! 😀
I just popped in to say, wow!
This is something I would love to do one day. This will have been an experience like no other, without a doubt!
It's an experience of a lifetime. The only part that sucks is how long it takes to get to the southernmost tip of Argentina (or Chile, depending on the company).
Everything is amazing. The food is ridiculously good, the ships are beautiful and you get to see the most insane place on the planet. I will likely do a follow-up post about it sometime, as the entire trip was about two weeks. While in Ushuaia we also took a couple helicopters into the mountains for some sightseeing and aerial photography. Just an amazing part of the world overall.
Really 'cool' shots (badum tss), Tristan! May I ask around how much such an expedition costs? 😅
Haha, nice pun ;)
It's expensive. The cruise itself cost me about $7500 USD, but the total spent for the entire trip was around $10,000 USD.
That's unfortunately the other reason it's once in a lifetime... lol
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
I Adore such beautiful and unavailable places without tourista
Those are the best places :)
Congratulations @tristan.todd! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next payout target is 250 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because your rewards can be split into HP and HBD
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
wow congratulations that you landed with the post on place 1 of pinmapple travels editions. i can soo well understand that. the pictures are incredibly beautiful. I've always wanted to go to antarctica, it's like a dream i hope to fulfill someday. and it's true, the ice block with its icicles really looks like the mouth of a shark. Really one of the greatest posts i've read here so far on hive!:)
Dear @tristan.todd,
The current HiveBuzz proposal will expire in a few days.
Do you mind supporting our proposal for 2022 so our team can continue its work next year?
You can do it on Peakd, ecency,
https://peakd.com/me/proposals/199
Thank you. We wish you a Happy New Year!