Finally a chance to post some worthy personal work in a long form photo series. February this year I spent on the most amazing trip I’ll do in this lifetime. I plan to take my camera on many more trips before I’m done living, but I can’t imagine that any will top this one, and I’m absolutely satisfied with that.
After a little chaos and many days travel to get to Ushuaia, Argentina, we embarked on Seabourn’s virtually brand new, purpose-built expedition boat the Venture, across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula for a 10 day trip. Travel time across the Drake was about a day and a half and reasonably calm. Marginally disappointed not to see it in all its infamous glory, but yay for no puking and being able to fully enjoy the luxuries onboard the Venture. And there were certainly many, many luxuries: champagne and caviar on standby any time you needed it, all suite cabins, fine dining, enough space to spread out and never feel crowded, a photography studio with large monitors to plug into and generally nerd out, and a critical mass of gays for fine company.
Once we arrived, our days were split between incredible landings and zodiac tours at different sites and drinking, dining, and generally being pampered by the incredible crew on board. Several excursions were amended on the fly due to conditions, but the expedition staff always managed to provide alternatives to the day’s Plan A. Since we had no real idea what the Plan A would have entailed, anyways, it didn’t really matter whatsoever. The sites were split between opportunities to view wildlife, glaciers, icebergs and completely unworldly geography. With IAATO’s stict management of tourism on The Continent, we didn’t see any other boats the whole time, and very few other signs of human life at all. The guidelines for visiting and landings are extremely rigid and biosecurity measures are strictly enforced; it was such an inspiring example of how more ecotourism should be managed.
The stops we made were at Port Chalcot, Pleneau Island, Paradise Bay, Neko Harbour (arguably the most magical place on this whole planet), Brown Bluff, Half Moon Island and Deception Island, to wander up a jet black volcano, in stark contrast to all the white and blue we’d seen the rest of the time.
Top 3 questions I’ve been asked:
1. Was it cold? Not unbearably. It was the end of summer there and probably around 0 most of the time. Seabourn provides parkas that are perfect for the conditions. Even spending the vast majority of my life at 30 degrees and hating anything less than 27, I was totally fine most of the time.
2. How much did it cost? A bit tricky to answer, not because I don’t want to be transparent. I paid about USD12k for the cruise, which covered everything from the night before departure from Beunos Aires until we arrived back at the airport after the cruise. By booking through Rocky’s group trip, this was definitely less than the sticker price on the Seabourn website. Things I had to pay for beyond that: flights SIN-EZE (paid in miles), insurance (ended up making money from a payout from it), a couple nights in Beunos Aires on either side of the trip, and some winter appropriate stuff, because it’s not something I own otherwise.
3. Did you see whales???? Plenty. Humpbacks, Minke, Sei, Orcas and some gratuitous dolphins in the Beagle Channel on the way back. Lots of penguins and seals as well. I don’t have loads of pictures of them because I’m not a wildlife photographer and… it’s hard. Thank you to Nikon Singapore for sending a long lens with me so I could try though!
Even if I’d known beforehand about the nonsense I went through getting there and back, and had paid twice as much as I did, it would have been absolutely worth it, and I would go again in a heartbeat.
If you’re thinking of going, don’t think too hard about it. Just go. There’s lots of different options of boats with different price points and comfort levels, although none are really “cheap,” The enabler of the this trip, Rocky, has done an insane amount of research into every company going down there and as a travel agent and next level travel nerd, has access to better pricing/perks if you book through him. There’s really no reason not to book through an agent, especially one who’s been himself and organized this trip for over 50 of us. Drop him an email at rocky@scottandthomas.com
And now for lots of pictures of penguins, ice and wine on the Big Gay Boat to Antarctica:
