2017: my year in review – Febru­ary and March: the Ant­ar­c­tic Odys­sey

Fri
29 Dec
2017

After finis­hing the big pro­ject with my new Nor­we­gi­an gui­de­book Sval­bard – Nor­ge nær­mest Nord­po­len, it was time to get some fresh air. And I got lots of it during a trip around the world in Febru­ary in March. The heart of this huge voya­ge was a semi-cir­cum­na­vi­ga­ti­on of Ant­ar­c­ti­ca, which I refer to as the “Ant­ar­c­tic Odys­sey”. Start­ing in New Zea­land, we went to Camp­bell Island, into the Ross Sea and then via Peter I Island to the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la befo­re we finis­hed in Ushua­ia. Tru­ly an Odys­sey!

The high­light of this gre­at jour­ney? Hard to say. The­re was not only one high­light. Just the dimen­si­ons of this trip are epic, many thousand nau­ti­cal miles in more than 30 days. Being Expe­di­ti­on Lea­der on such a trip on the Ort­eli­us was cer­tain­ly a con­tri­bu­ti­on towards making it inte­res­t­ing for me. Nor­mal­ly, “my” ships are much smal­ler the­se days, and they do not car­ry 3 heli­c­op­ters!

Thin­king about which impres­si­on still means a lot to me and will stay for a long time, then Camp­bell Island is quick­ly coming to my mind. This island, which belongs to the New Zea­land sub­ant­ar­c­tic islands, was very high on my per­so­nal wish­list – sim­ply as I had not been the­re befo­re. Well, I had been very clo­se 2 years ear­lier, but then, the­re was no chan­ce of making a landing becau­se of very strong winds. This time, we had just the por­ti­on of luck that you need in a place like that.

Alba­tros­ses on Camp­bell Island.

Of cour­se, fly­ing into Tay­lor Val­ley, one of the famous McMur­do Dry Val­leys, and to McMur­do Base, whe­re we almost stay­ed quite a bit lon­ger than we actual­ly wan­ted to, are expe­ri­en­ces never to be for­got­ten. And that is gene­ral­ly true for all impres­si­ons of Ant­ar­c­ti­ca from a bird’s per­spec­ti­ve.

Water­boat Point (Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la) from the air.

But in the end, it is the direct encoun­ters with the wild­life and the sce­n­ery that is always get­ting very clo­se to my heart and soul. That is what stays! The Alba­tros­ses on Camp­bell Island, the Emper­or pen­gu­ins in the Ross Sea, the Hump­back wha­les and pen­gu­ins in the Ant­ar­c­tic pen­in­su­la, to men­ti­on a few of the­se encoun­ters. Memo­ries that will stay fore­ver!

Emper­or and Ade­lie pen­gu­in at Cape Hal­let in the Ross Sea.

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