Having visited Spitsbergen last year, we have definitely caught the Polar bug and when the opportunity came to join the Hurtigrutens MS Fram for the Christmas and New Year Shackletons Antarctic Cruise to The Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica, we jumped at it. It was everything we had hoped for!!
We set off on December 19th and flew via Madrid to Buenos Aires, where it was summer! We spent a great daytouring this vibrant city, with everything very well arranged by Hurtigruten from the moment we arrived at B.A. airport. The next day weflew down to Ushuaia, where we spent another great day, before boarding the Fram and setting off for the Falklands.
On arrival, we spent a day on Carcass Island and New Island, where we saw our first colony of rockhopper penguins, cormorants and albatrosses - an amazing sight, especially as many of the penguins had recently hatched their chicks.
The following day we arrived in Port Stanley and spent a poignant Christmas Eve there.SeeingRoss Road, the Governors House, the war memorial andthe museum brought back memories of 1982 and several of our fellow travellers ventured out into the countryside around Stanley where evidence of the conflict still abounds.
The following day we set sail for South Georgia, which has to be one of my favourite places on Earth! The wildlife is amazing, with endless birdlife and seals and penguins. We visited Fortuna Bay and Stromness, where the famous walk across the islandby Shackleton, Worsley and Crean ended in 1916 and started the rescue of the crew of the Endurance. It is this story which drew me to Antarctica and to see the placeswhere it happenedis an experience I feel lucky to have had. The following day, we awoke to glorious sunshinein Grytviken, where Shackleton is buried and we spent a memorable morning visiting his grave and seeing round this former whaling station with its little museum and church.
We then sailed via the South Orkneys to Elephant Island, where 22 of Shackletons men survived on a tiny beach for over 4 months until he rescuedthem. We were amazed at how small the beach is...
From there it was down into the Weddell Sea, Deception Island and the South Shetland Islands - in all of which we made several landings and saw several more species of seals, penguins and birds, many of which were lazing on passing icebergs.
On our travels between the various islands we were kept entertained by a splendid series of lectures on the wildlife, geology and people of Antarctica. The whole expedition team were very entertaining on their specialist subjects, so there was never a dull moment on board!
Our final days were spent crossing the famous Drake Passage and then Rounding the Horn before we returned to Ushuaia and flew back to Buenos Aires for a final day of summer before returning to the English winter. Without doubt this was the trip of a lifetime and one that we would love to repeat one day.