Rutland columnist Allan Grey makes it to Antartica - but still hasn’t visited Newcastle
Until the beginning of 2025, I had visited six continents, leaving only Antarctica to complete all seven, writes Rutland columnist Allan Grey. Although I still have to visit Newcastle, I chose Antarctica to start the new year, maybe I’ll leave Newcastle for a future foray in my next life.
Reaching Ushuaia on January 3, more than 8,000 miles from London and at the very sounthern end of Argentina, takes me the best part of two days, a flight from London to Buenos Aires and a second flight the following day down to the port city, the stepping off point for the Antarctic peninsula, a total flight time of 19 hours, it’s a long way, especially if like me you find it difficult to sleep on an aeroplane.
Once aboard our beautiful Viking cruise ship, it’s another day and a half before we reach the northern tip of the peninsula, having braved crossing the infamous Drakes Passage, reputedly the roughest seas on the planet. We are treated to some rocking and rolling for the next 36 hours, but nothing the Bay of Biscay can’t match.
I had prepared for the crossing, purchasing anti-nausea wrist bands. Please don’t ask me how they work, but they seemed to do the job, and I suffered no ill effects from the moderate 20 foot swell. I liken these wrist bands to the elephant powder we used to regularly sprinkle in our back garden, that worked extremely well and we’ve never once suffered from marauding elephants during the 45 years we’ve lived in Oakham, these remedies seem to work but you have no idea why?
Once across Drake’s Passage we start to see the extremities of the peninsula, large islands of rock covered in millenia layers of ice, plus many icebergs, exposing just 10% of themselves as they float silently by, showing off their sexy turquoise bottoms. The immediate impression you get is of the indescribable scale of the continent, and it’s only when you look at the map of Antarctica you realise in the eleven days we are here, that we barely scratch the surface, so maybe some facts.
Of the seven continents, only Asia is larger, Antarctica covering over five million square miles, one and a half times the size of the US and sixty times larger than the UK. Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest and highest continent on Earth and so along with its vast distance from Rutland, a great place if you want that all inclusive fortnight away from the in-laws.
During our cruise we are regularly off the ship, either cruising in one of the small, powerful Zodiacs, or zooming along the coast line in the ‘operations boat’, or even diving down to the sea bed, over 600 feet below, in the small submarine, hoping to see a hunpback whale or two glide past, but no, just a few star fish. Just once do we set foot on mainland Antarctica, at a place named Portal Point. I ask one of the expedition team if I could walk to the South Pole from here, and he says: “You could, but it’s a fair way.” “How far?”, I ask. “Just more than 2,000 miles,” he replies, and so I decide a nice buffet lunch back on the ship might be the more sensible option.
Each day onboard is a mixture of great food and drink, accompanied by talks and presentations from members of the excellent expedition team plus excursions off the ship. We have talks about the ecology of the continent, the geology and the marine biology. We also get a couple of BBC David Attenborough and Brian Cox narrated programmes about the planet for good measure; this trip is definitely more education than entertainment, although they steer clear of anything about climate change. When asked why that is, one member of the team explains they wish to avoid anything politically contentious, but given the scientific knowledge aboard, I find this a little disappointing.
The highlight of each day is the excursion, which does take some preparation. They say there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing, well the clothing Viking provide us is undoubtedly appropriate, starting with head to foot base layers, intermediate insulation layers and on the outside a thick, bright red waterproof Parka with a yellow hood, waterproof over pants, sorry trousers and big black chunky wellington-like boots and gloves, plus a life jacket. Once fully attired we waddle down to the base of the ship like some alien breed of penguins being introduced as part of an Antarctic re-wilding scheme, wondering how we are going to use our cameras and phones to capture the sights we are about to see.
We see many penguin colonies, Gentoos and Chinstraps, very friendly lads and lasses, completely oblivious to the daily invasions from the alien species as they waddle down to the water to go fishing for the family dinner. We occasionally see some seals, always fast asleep on the ice, and we do witness several humpback whales surfacing, blowing off as they do, before diving down to the depths again with that graceful swish of their enormous tails.
Off the ship, our final morning is spent strolling around Ushuaia, also know as ‘Fin del Mundo’, or the ‘End of the World’. As we do, we meet two English brothers, Tom and Alex, who have spent the last 18 months cycling the full 18,000 mile length of the Pan-American Highway, from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska down to Ushuaia. Respect guys, but no, maybe I’ll visit Newcastle instead.