Antarctic Peninsular Chill out on a polar cruise
A pristine world of sculpted ice populated with penguins doesn’t do Antarctica justice. Its ethereal beauty is the next best thing to visiting another planet and the Lemaire Channel, also known as “Iceberg Alley”, is like arriving at a gallery on the other side of the galaxy, where ice sculptures the size of battleships are on display.
On a good day, when the prevailing winds – ominously named the “screaming sixties” – are still, the world is white with a thousand shades of blue. As the mercury hits 4°C, the air is snowdrift quiet. Until, that is, we arrive at a Gentoo penguin colony on Cuverville Island on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, where there’s an overwhelming chorus of honking. A pod of humpback whales breaks the ocean’s glacial stillness and a giant leopard seal with what looks like a satisfied smile on his face dozes on a blood-soaked ice floe next to the remains of his penguin dinner.
Six days have passed since the ship left the Argentine port of Ushuaia and we’ve visited several islands, two research stations, a post o ce and a pub, but it’s the landscape and wildlife that keeps everyone enthralled.
An Antarctic cruise is more than a ship sailing over an ocean – it’s a wildlife safari through a pristine continent twice the size of Australia, as yet unspoilt by development.