The journey to Antarctica is a long one, most often for our guests originating in the Northern Hemisphere, an intercontinental jet trip landing us in South America. This is just the beginning of the journey; to reach the true Antarctic, one must cross many lines.
The first line is territorial. Although Antarctica is not owned by anyone, there are many countries who claim pieces of the continent, each one carving out a pie shaped piece themselves. For instance, while we travel on the Antarctic Peninsula, we will be in Argentine, British, and Chilean claimed territory.
The next line we cross is the convergence, what is called the biological boundary of Antarctica. It is here where warm water from the north mixes with the colder water that surrounds Antarctica, and the collision produces massive upwelling and a temperature drop in the sea. The convergence shifts during the summer season depending on the water temperature, but there are those who swear they can feel a “bump” when going over it!
The last and final line we must cross is 60º S. This is the political boundary of Antarctica, a line the Antarctic Treaty agreed upon in 1959. The area beyond this line is protected as a wilderness park devoted to peace and science.
Today we, the guests of National Geographic Endeavour, crossed this final line, and truly entered into the Antarctic. We were greeted by pack ice surrounding the South Orkney islands, and as the explorers before us, the ice forced us to retrace our steps and find a better route to our destination. We sailed by massive icebergs, grounded in 100 meters of water, and heard the gentle slide and crunch of ice against the hull. The sun shone down brightly upon us, yet we were met by one of Antarctica’s other famous attributes, the wind, which forced us to bundle up and hold on tightly as we boarded our Zodiacs, heading for our landing in Shingle Cove. This rocky landing offered us a selection of some familiar and new faces in the Antarctic bird world. We were greeted by the raucous calls of the Chinstrap Penguins, our first look at a true Antarctic penguin, the Adelie, and for the careful explorers, we slowy crawled on our knees, peeking under large boulders at the Snow Petrel nests.
Our first day in the true Antarctic and we are already in love, forgetting our original reasons for traveling this vast distance to get here, and suddenly forming ones why we want to stay.
