Antarctica – Visiting the 7th Continent with Quark Expeditions

Visiting Antarctica has been a dream of mine since my teen years when I first marveled at the amazing photographs and adventures experienced by the expedition members from National Geographic magazine. But of course, for a young boy living in the working-class suburb of Bothasig in Cape Town , South Africa, the chances of ever actually going to the white continent was an unachievable fantasy. Many years later when I had been travelling the world for over 25 years and had visited 40 countries I looked at the costs involved to join an expedition ship from Ushuaia in Patagonia and it just too expensive for someone earning their living in South Africa. I think the cost equaled six months salary at that stage.

Fast forward to February 2023. Needless to say the previous three years had been very challenging during the whole Covid lockdown and the subsequent disruption and destruction of the travel industry. My wife Akhona and I had returned from South America in September of 2019 and had planned to travel for 6 months the following year, visiting Seychelles, Sri Lanka and India. Needless to say, we had to shelve those plans indefinitely in January of 2020 when Covid began to affect travel. Akhona got a job with a big travel agency in January…by June they had retrenched 90% of their workforce. Two years later she was back in the travel industry, working for Quark Expeditions, part of the Travelopia group.

So in the first week of February Akhona came home and told me that her manager had asked her if she would like to do a trip to Antarctica with her husband in March. Of course she had said yes 🙂 The deal was that her company would cover all of her costs, while I would have to pay for my airfare and travel insurance. We had literally 3 weeks before we would have to fly to South America.

The first priority was booking our flights of course. This proved to be more stress-filled than one may imagine, as no airline offers direct flights from Cape Town to Buenos Aires anymore. The only flight from Southern Africa was with Angolan airlines, but the company would not approve a flight on that airline because of safety concerns. So the only ‘affordable’ options were via the Middle East on Quatar or Turkish Airlines. In the end we managed to book two of the remaining seven seats for our departure date at the horrifically inflated price of R 37000 ($ 1800) per ticket. Then the flights from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia were another R6000 each ($300). So this became our most expensive flight ever of all the flights we have ever taken. And to add insult to injury it involved 34 hrs of traveling from Cape Town to Istanbul and onward to Buenos Aires. The only thing that made this at all palatable was that our hotels and transfers en route where covered by Akhona’s company. And of course there was no charge for the cabin on the ship to Antarctica, which could cost anything from R350 000 – R800 000 ($ 9 000 – $ 45 000).

We departed from Cape Town on 2 March and arrived in Buenos Aires on 3 March. After 2 nights in this great city we flew to our departure point for the expedition, Ushuaia, southern-most city in Pategonia. We spent two nights in this quaint town and splashed out on spider crab dinners and seafood meals while waiting to embark on our great adventure. The first view of our ship Ocean Adventurer really made our hearts skip a beat 🙂

Embarkation on an expedition ship to Antarctica has got to be an exciting moment for any adventurous travellers and it was definitely the case for Akhona and me. Our excitement grew when we were upgraded to the Owners Suite and led to a double cabin with two TV’s, a lounge and a massive bath…

For those who are impatient here is a quick video showing the highlights of our trip in a nutshell…

Our trip was the Exploring the 7th Continent trip with Quark Expeditions which involved a 2 days crossing of the Drake Passage, 5 days in Antarctica including landing on the Antarctica Peninsula and several islands and then another 2 days back through the Drake Passage. Of course as with all Arctic Expeditions it was entirely weather dependant.

We were very fortunate the our Drake Passage crossings were not really that rough, even though I had to carry food to Akhona on the first day of our return voyage because she was seasick. Talking of food, we ate like kings on the trip with buffet breakfast and lunch, and 3 course menus each night. Below is our route map and a list of all the locations we visited during our voyage. We went our on the zodiacs for either landings or cruises twice a day on average, unless the weather was so bad that it was not possible.

Before we departed on our trip we had to source suitable clothing for the extreme weather conditions in Antarctica. We bought several items including ski-pants from Cape Union Mart. Our first layer was merino wool, second layer was a puff jacket and outside layer was the cool yellow parka supplied by Quark to all passengers. We also bought ski goggles and anti-UV sunglasses for the glare. Thick warm woollen socks and warm gloves were also essential. It turned out that both my gloves and Akhona’s were not waterproof when we got caught in a snowstorm. Neither were those pricey ski pants. Other passengers wearing cheap waterproof pants used by scooter delivery guys had no such complaints. Of course a warm beanie was essential so we took two each 🙂

It has to be said that gearing up for the zodiac excursion twice day was in itself quite exhausting. You have to put on all three layers of clothing as well as the supplied pair of boots and life jacket. By the time you are kitted out you feel like an astronaut and you can overheat very quickly unless you go outdoors. As we had 100 passengers aboard we were split into four groups and we boarded the zodiacs on a rotational basis throughout the trip. It took around 30 – 60mins for a group to board their zodiacs and set off. Eventually all 100 passengers were in zodiacs and either landing or cruising around the bays for around 2 – 3 hours at a time. Quark guarantee that no passengers are left on the ship waiting for a zodiac as they have enough zodiacs for all passengers.

We first stepped ashore in the South Shetland islands at Aitcho island and visited a colony of penguins…There were various species of penguins nesting on the island and several penguins were very inquisitive and approached us and even followed us. Needless to say I was photographing everything in sight 🙂

On the first day we saw mostly penguins which was as was expected. Because we were on the last trip of the season before winter set in many of the penguin colonies were already shrinking in size and the chicks were already quite grown and almost ready to go to sea and migrate. So we saw the remnants of the massive colonies, not the thousands of penguins present over December and January…

After our first landing we returned to the ship on a high, and enjoyed a good nights rest in preparation for our landing on the Antarctica Peninsula the next morning. For me this was particularly exciting as it would be my 7th Continent. The boy from a working class family in a small suburb of Cape Town had finally reached the White Continent. For Akhona it was of course just as exciting as we are pretty sure that nobody from Zwede township in Port Elizabeth had ever been to Antarctica so she was making history 🙂

We woke up in a great mood and rushed down to breakfast, very eager to be ready for the zodiac trip with no delays. The weather was on our side, and at around 10h00 we boarded our zodiac and sped towards land. At last we would set foot on Antarctica at Portal Point…

It really was an indescribable feeling to stand there with our little South African flag and know that we had finally realised a dream. We spent about an hour or so on land before it was time to head back to the ship. The feeling was almost surrealistic and other-worldly. It was just so hard to believe that we were there. I had spent quite a bit of money buying a second Nikon Z body and a 24-200 and 100-400 lenses for the trip and they were proving to be perfect for the shots I was getting 🙂

The next two days we didn’t have great weather so spent most of the time cruising through very dramatic landscapes and spotting some humpback whales as well as killer whales. We only did one zodiac trip out among the icebergs briefly before the weather forced us back to the ship…We cruised through Wilhelmina Bay and through the Lemaire Channel for two days searching for better weather…

Finally on 12 March we were able to go out on the zodiacs and land at Damoy Point in the morning for about 3 hours. This was a great landing with amazing views and lots to see and photograph…When going out on the zodiac you essentially have to decide which camera and lens you are going to use and stick with it while on the zodiac. No chance to change gear or swap lenses on a bouncy zodiac with a bit of snow or spray in the mix. My Nikon Z cameras worked through cold and snow, but Akhona’s Can G7X refused to work in the cold outdoors. Luckily she also had the Fujifilm XT30 kit which worked flawlessly.

That afternoon we got a small taste of what it must have been like for the first explorers who spent years in Antarctica in snow storm and unpredictable weather. We went out on a zodiac cruise to Neko Harbour, which was a place where whalers would congregate to process the whale meat and blubber of the whales they had hunted. It was a pretty sobering trip as it reminded us of how close to extinction the whale population in Antarctica was due the the greed and reckless killing of thousands of whales and even penguins by whalers in the early 1900’s. They left behind a sunken ship and other reminders of this dark period of history in the region…About 30mins into our trip it started slowing lightly and we felt like real explorers 🙂

As the time passed the weather really took an unexpected turn for the worse and the wind picked up, resulting in swells of up to 3 metres. It was not much fun returning to the ship with biting snow in our faces and a cold Antarctic wind biting our now wet backsides and sodden hands…Those expensive gloves and ski pants did not hold up well at all…

Fortunately we were the first zodiac to leave the ship, and the first zodiac to return…Initially we were unable to board as the swells were too high, so the captain had to reposition the ship to allow us to approach from different direction…This took at least 40 mins to do and the snow was thick on my jacket by the time I jumped aboard and sped up to our suite with Akhona. That hot shower was the best we had enjoyed in years 🙂

The next day the weather had not improved enough for us to all go out on the zodiacs to land on Danco Island. As we had been first the day before we were only scheduled to go last that morning, and only the first two groups managed to go ashore before the weather worsened and they returned after less than an hour. We were out on deck and took some cool photos of the little huts built by various countries…

That afternoon on our last day in Antarctica before we started the two day crossing of the Drake Passage back to Ushuaia we had probably our best weather of the trip, allowing us to spend about 2hrs cruising around Kayak Bay in the zodiacs. We made the best of the great weather just bask in the natural beauty of Antarctica and shoot some of the best photos of the trip. We were blessed with a whale sighting right in front of an iceberg and my best photo from that encounter will be enlarged and hang in our house for years to come. We also went right up to a massive glacier and glide through the remnant of ice from a recent calving that were probably many thousands of years old. It was just a spectacular grand finale to a truly great life adventure…

For most people who travel to Antarctica it is definitely a long-time goal, and many people we met on the trip said they had planned the trip for years, and saved for up to ten years in order to do the trip. So you can only imagine the expectations and excitement they must have felt to finally board the ship and then set foot on the 7th Continent. Some people admitted to crying or becoming very emotional when this dream was finally realised. For us it was a bit different as this happened so quickly for us. We had accepted years ago that Antarctica was just too expensive a destination for us and that it was unlikely that we would ever reach it. So everything was a bit surrealistic and unreal at one point in the trip.

I for one had to force myself to put aside my camera and just soak up my surroundings and the actual experience every now and then. It really is quite a whirlwind of activity otherwise. Get up, have breakfast for an hour, rush back to your cabin and spend 30 mins getting dressed…Then make sure you get to the boarding point in time for your zodiac departure on that day. Embarking and disembarking the zodiac was quite stress filled in itself as the clothing you wear is ungainly, its slippery and your camera bag better not fall overboard. Once ashore you know that you have around 90 mins to do and see and photograph. You will probably never visit that place ever again. So its hard to just relax and enjoy just being there if you are a photographer 🙂

We spent 4 days getting to Ushuaia, 2 days in the town before embarkation, 2 days crossing the Drake, 5 days exploring Antarctica, 2 days back across the Drake, and then 2 days getting back to Cape Town. So all of this happened in 17 days. It’s actually quite a shock to the system and we both experienced what I can only call ‘deflation’ once we got back home to our little suburb in Cape Town. Such a massive contrast is hard to process I think…But eventually it all became more real as we shared our experiences with friends and family – and the community we live in :). Our local newspaper even carried this story on our adventure:

https://www.news24.com/news24/community-newspaper/tygerburger/bothasig-photographer-captures-beauty-of-south-pole-20230329

Quark Expeditions has their resident photographer compile a cool video slideshow of each trip which is included in the Photo Journal they put together for all passengers to access. I took Finn Steiner’s excellent video and re-edited it to include some photos of Akhona and me, as well as some of our best photos. His video really captures the full experience and beauty of Antarctica…He has done the trip several times and it shows…Enjoy 🙂