Antarctica - Day 5 - Mountaineering Time

Today, we were woken up at 4.30am. Yes, it was very early, but it was one of the most beautiful wake-ups in my life. I just had to open my eyes to see snow-capped mountains and the first sunlight shining upon their summits. I could hear penguins coming to life and going about their daily business. All while I was still tucked into my sleeping bag and bivouac being reasonably cozy.

As we were packing up, the golden light of the sun became more intense by the minute and just before we left, the entire sky was bathed into a magical colour that was absolutely worth the early wake-up. Open-air camping really is something special - and doing that in Antarctica is the cherry on the top.

Anyway, once we packed everything together and closed our sleeping pits, we took the zodiac back to our ship. However, on the way, we saw a minke whale in the distance before it came super close to our zodiac (like not more than 3-4m away). It was honestly breath-taking and by this point it wasn't even 5.30am in the morning. I guess, this is Antarctica.

Later in the morning, our ship was heading to a new destination and on the way, we saw at least more 5-6 whales together with countless cute penguins feeding in the water and showing us their fins - even though they were a bit further in the distance.

At around 8.45am, our ship had the first challenge to master - crossing through the narrow Lemaire Channel, which has a huge iceberg on the left and a mountain on the right that we have to navigate through. It was a cool experience, as everyone on board came out to watch. Obviously, we made it through successfully.

Following a delicious breakfast, it was time for our next landing. This time on Pleneau Island.
The island is famous for Adele Penguins and the iceberg graveyard. So, once we set foot on land, we walked up to the viewpoint, passing a colony of Adele Penguins, its adjacent penguin highway and watched the daily life of the penguins. The cool thing, however, was the backdrop, which was dotted with hundreds of small and big icebergs with its white and super shining and blue colours. What a view it was! Again, "This is Antarctica", I thought to myself. It was just majestic. And all of this, before midday!

In the afternoon, I had booked myself for a little mountaineering hike to get a birds-eye view of Antarctica. Thus, we took a zodiac to our landing site, put on a harness/rope and snowshoes (yes, snowshoes, how cool!) and went off to climb a small little mountain. The weather had turned by this point, unfortunately, and instead of sun, the sky was just white and grey. The hike up was interesting insofar that it was my very first time to use snowshoes, but otherwise nothing to write home about. Once we were up on the ridge and had a view of both sides of the little mountain and the iceberg graveyard, the views were incredible.

While not necessarily beautiful, the views were very much representative for a typical view in Antarctica. Icey, mystic, grey, eerie, full of icebergs and mountains with our ship looking quite small in the distance. I could feel a sense of silence over this sound/area that was simply peaceful. And this was the view during the entire way down and back to our landing site.

That's where we were supposed to be picked up. However, once we reached the landing site, the zodiac could not easily reach it because too much ice had concentrated right in its vicinity. The zodiac had to really slowly make its way through the ice, freeing the propeller from underwater sea ice. It finally made it and we all embarked and had a rough, but fun ride back to the ship.

After dinner, we were all very tired. After all, it was a very long day with a 4.30am wake-up, a landing with amazing views and mountaineering to a great viewpoint. I still had to pinch myself that this all happened in Antarctica, literally at the end of the world. I really cannot wait what the next few days will bring, as two days down here in the white continent have already been absolutely spectacular and blown my mind. Worth every single penny.Read more