If you are on the hunt for a wide, open space that is empty enough even to make you miss your colleagues, then perhaps you should answer the call of the Antarctic. The coldest continent on earth, Antarctica saw the end of explorer Robert Falcon Scott and its own dramatic, huge ice caps are gradually going the same way.

Made up of a series of islands, locked together by ice in winter, the Antarctic Peninsula is best explored by boat and on foot. Livingston Island has some stunning ice formations, Half Moon Island is home to hundreds of chinstrap penguins and seals and Deception Island is a recently active volcano covered in glaciers, with a beach of black sand. You can also explore the Lemaire Channel, bounded by high cliffs and full of drifting icebergs and eerily still, black water, disturbed by the occasional whale.

Many of these sights can be appreciated from the relative luxury of a cruise ship deck, but camping out in the silent snow in the dead of night is an incomparable thrill, not to mention an education in cold weather survival techniques! Of course, the unique, specialised Antarctic wildlife is at the top of the list of reasons to visit on foot, as the many species of penguins, seals, whales and albatrosses can all be observed at close quarters with a little luck.

Written by  larapiegeler.

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Trekking the Antarctic Peninsula

If you are on the hunt for a wide, open space that is empty enough even to make you miss your colleagues, then perhaps you should answer the call of the Antarctic. The coldest continent on earth, Antarctica saw the end of explorer Robert Falcon Scott and its own dramatic, huge ice caps are gradually going the same way.

Made up of a series of islands, locked together by ice in winter, the Antarctic Peninsula is best explored by boat and on foot. Livingston Island has some stunning ice formations, Half Moon Island is home to hundreds of chinstrap penguins and seals and Deception Island is a recently active volcano covered in glaciers, with a beach of black sand. You can also explore the Lemaire Channel, bounded by high cliffs and full of drifting icebergs and eerily still, black water, disturbed by the occasional whale.

Many of these sights can be appreciated from the relative luxury of a cruise ship deck, but camping out in the silent snow in the dead of night is an incomparable thrill, not to mention an education in cold weather survival techniques! Of course, the unique, specialised Antarctic wildlife is at the top of the list of reasons to visit on foot, as the many species of penguins, seals, whales and albatrosses can all be observed at close quarters with a little luck.

 

Review posted 23rd August 2007 by larapiegeler.

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