BootsnAll Travel Community

I need to dream again and after seeing the movie "Endurance" my desire to hit this continent has become ever so strong...Anybody been there??

I saw Endurance too a few days ago - a pretty amazing story. Those guys went through something I can't even imagine. I think there's even a plan to make a feature film about the Shackleton expedition in the works.

A lot of people will be tired of hearing this, but yes I've been there. Meagicano too (I had to drag someone else in) It was incredible.

A movie would be great...me thinks it will be Tom Hanks in the lead...

yeah i got to hit 2 continents this year ...start to save up thought right...

did u go from South America?? u have any details u can pass on....

cheers

Meagicano got to go for free when she was like 17 or some thing. she won a contest. im so jelus.
how did you end up going borderland? i know you have been but i dont know "the storie"

I've never been, however, two close friends of mine were part of a program that actually pays you to stay there for several months. You basically work as an assistant in the research facilities that are there. You don't need prior experience, all it takes is an extensive application process. They had a fantastic time, made some good friends, and ended up saving some money because there isn't anywhere to spend it. These are very popular programs and they pick you based on your interview, etc. I'm sure you can locate one of the programs through a search engine if it sounds like something of interest.

I went with the same now-defunct company Meagicano went with, but I just happened to see them online and they were advertising a few empty spaces on a ship which had scientists who talked with the travellers about the various wildlife, geological and climatic aspects of the Antarctic. Also along was the former commander of the US base at the Antarctic, who had been present for some of the treaty signings.
We left from Ushuaia on a Finnish or Greenland-ic ship called the Disko (I'll try to post pics soon) and crossed Drake Passage which Meagicano can tell you is rough.
Threading among icebergs; following humpback whales in a zodiac; stumbling ashore on the Antarctic mainland with freezing water filling my boots; visiting the island where hot water bubbles up in the submerged rim of a volcano and watching people swim in the Antarctic in their bathers; walking among penguins; almost stepping on a huge seal - it all happened and was one of those things that stays with you forever, because it lived up to and exceeded my expectations.

thats killer BL.
did u have to pay? or did us some how get to go for free as well?
how long did u go for?how old where you then/ how long ago was this.
peace

Borderland RULES! All of my best travel stories combined don't come anywhere near your Antarctic adventure!! When do your memoirs come out??

Doppel: It cost me $5000 space bucks and I went about four years ago. It was a 17-18 days trip total because I went via Buenos Aires and Ushuaia and there was travel time on the boat, so about 4-5 days in the Antarctic itself.
There was some British TV crew along too, filming for a show, so it was a pretty fun trip.
And some of the best memories were being on the ship itself - seeing the landscape slip past or seeing the front of this big-ass ship disappear under huge waves. Also seeing monster slabs of ice calve off the glacial cliffs and hearing the huge crack of Antarctic thunder as it happened. Or seeing the little wooden supply hut with the door swinging and stuff just sitting there abandoned.

I don't think my memoirs are worth listening to Hoppa. But Hudson's buddies who were there for a few months - I'd like to read their stories. Unless some alien crash-landed in the snow and turned all their huskies into flesh-absorbing monsters like 'The Thing'. Then I wouldn't want to hear about it

I saw the Antarctica IMAX DVD...they have some amazing fly overs..

...on the subject of ice....

who has been to Ilulisaat (Ilulissat - I always forget), Greenland? Home of the most productive calving glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. The world?

Watch Smilla's Sense of Snow to get an idea. Would be interested BL or Meagicano if you could watch that movie and compare the scenery to where you went in Antarctica.

My impression of ANtartica is there are alot of gigantic table icebergs. But less irregular shaped ones than what you might find on the coast of Greenland in the Davis Strait.

The only reason I know this is because in the fiction book I am writing the 2nd half is set in Greenland. The upper half of it all the way up to Thule.

Anytime people bring this up, I always drag borderland in too! I'm glad to see he's repaying the favour. If eeyartee ever gets back, he's been too.

On my expedition, Jonathan Shackleton did talks. His were my favourite - I loved hearing about the history of Antarctic exploration from a relative of the "The Boss" himself. Jonathan is also the Shackleton family historian. Here's his webpage.

Hudson - is there any chance I can get details on that research program? Please PM me if you have anything you can spare...

We also left from Ushuaia on the Orlova, a 100 metre long former Russian research vessel. Hm. According to that page, we missed the modifications in 2002. I sure hope that they added stabilizers to the ship. Borderland was right - the Drake Passage was rough. I think he had something closer to Drake Lake, while we definitely had Drake Shake. 15 metre swells and all. The first night onboard, I woke up at 2am as the middle shelf in the nightstand flew across the room. The ship was pitching and reeling... I stood up, and looked outside... it was exactly like the cover of the perfect storm. That's what it reminded me of - a deep, dark, black ocean pounding against a tiny ship.



When I got up the next morning, I had an interesting shower... went upstairs, saw people throwing up, and made my way back downstairs to bed. I didn't throw up (thank you Newfie genes), but watching other people lose their breakfasts was enough for me to bid a hasty exit.

I was shocked at how rocky Antarctica was. I too had imagined white white white. Instead, there were some beautiful mountains, and quite rocky terrain. The contrasts between the black and white in some places were spectacular.

My first sighting of the continent was like a dream. We were on the Zodiacs, and coming back to the ship. Someone said "that's the continent" and pointed. I had previously thought they were clouds - picture perfect peaks, full of fresh, untouched snow, delicately reaching into the sky. I took a photo - it's one that people always skip by when they're looking through my pictures, but I love that image. I think I'll make an enlargement of it. To me, it has always represented a dream coming true.

Anyway dudes - ask away. I love to talk Antarctic.

those are great stories guys.
one day i will defenatly make it down there.
have you guys watched eeyartee's vidio from there. its hilarious, he puts on a tux and walks around with the paingunes.

quote:

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Originally posted by circusoflife:

Watch Smilla's Sense of Snow to get an idea. Would be interested BL or Meagicano if you could watch that movie and compare the scenery to where you went in Antarctica.

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The Smilla's Sense Of Snow DVD is the only film where I have actually watched the credits two or three times in a row since the Greenlandic footage (& the accompanying music for that matter) is so freakin' rad!

I won't be able to see that movie until September at the earliest - nowhere around here has it. I'll have to wait to get back to Halifax and Video Difference. I'll resurrect this thread in... oh... seven and a half months.

Here's some pictures from my Antarctic trip - to whet the appetite of anyone thinking about going.

This is a time-lapse picture, and that's me both on the left and the right shoreline. The sequence went like this:
1. Team Leader: Don't go near the glacier, it could calve off at any moment.
2. I go over to the glacier cliff
3. Cliff makes groaning noise near big crack in top right
4. Team Leader: Get the HELL AWAY from that glacier!!!
5 Guy who took the photos shakes his head at me later.

Coastline seen from the ship


The good ship 'Disko'. On the Drake Passage, the whole front of the ship and over the deck went into the water.


Evening from the ship


Patagonia - stunning, unspoilt country

Those are some gorgeous photos, especially that one of Patagonia.

Nice pictures borderland.

I'll have to get around to posting some of mine...

Interestingly enough, the one of Patagonia (although beautiful) is the one that speaks the least to me. I found the others more intriguing.

I went to Antarctica with Peregrine in Januray 2003 and it was the most incredible trip of my life. I've thought about it every day ever since. Peregrine is an Aussie company (I think) and the crew was really good. We had amazing luck with the weather as it was sunny the entire time we were down there - and I mean the entire time because the sun didn't really set, even at 1 in the morning. It just ducked behind the mountains a little bit.

I booked my trip last minute, which saved me some money. If you're in Ushuaia, it's really chaotic. Most of the local travel agencies can't sell you the tickets like this, but have to contact a Dutch or English agency to do it. then they wanted us to wire money direct from our accounts over to these Dutch or English agents and then, after all of that, they would confirm your tickets. We waited while this whole process happened and it took 2-3 days. By the time they got back to us with the confirmation, one of the other agents in town, or Buenoa Aires or wherever, had already sold them off. We lost a few slots that way.

I met a woman named Alicia Petiet that was able to arrange all of this and have us pay by credit card and, most importantly, guarantee a place once we had paid. She has a list of some discounted trips to Antarctica as well. She's launched a website recently: http://antarcticatravels.com/

She has some last minute specials posted on the site, but they always seem to be out of date. But she always seems to have something discounted and you can sometimes buy discounted tickets well in advance. One word of caution about the shoulder season is that many animals are less likely to be down there when it's not quite the summer. They come to breed and then take off. Going into 5 o6 penguin colonies, many of them with thousands of newborn penguin chicks, was one of the most amazing things that I'd ever experienced.

I never, ever travel with these, but if I can go back, I want to bring a video camera and something to record sound.

I spent so much time on the deck - the purity of the landscape was so captivating, I ducked below deck only to eat, get coffee and maybe sleep. We cruised through narrow straits filled with icebergs - the sound of an iceberg clonging against the hull of an ice-rated ship was one of the sounds I'd like to recond. That, and the complete stillness, if you really record silence so well.

Like I said, we were very lucky and we got to make some interesting landings at penguin colonies, including Deception Island, a collpased volcano that also housed a whaling station. We encountered seemingly endless wildlife as we cruised the waterways, including minke whales, killer whales (off in the distance a few times - they are SO FAST!), endless penguins, and a pod of 17 humpback whales. It was overwhelming.

It took me a while to get over that trip and I don't think I've ever been so blown away before. There's just no sense of human scale down there. Everything is huge and clean and incredible.