Anatarctica - Day 10 - One Last Hurray

Leaving the Antarctic peninsula behind, we had two more landings to experience. The first landing was on Deception Island followed by Elephant Point. After that, we would set sail back to Ushuaia crossing, once again, the infamous choppy Drake Passage.

Watching the sunset the day before brought a slight lingering sadness, as we had now left icebergs, snowy mountains and the icy Antarctica feeling behind. That said, we were still 'in' Antarctica (ie below the Antarctic convergence) until the evening and I intended to make the most out of it.

Anyway, Deception Island. It lies between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands and is home to a whaling station that was abandoned in 1969 following a gigantic volcanic explosion. After all, Deception Island is not technically an island, but a volcano - it is dormant, but not inactive.

Since the caldera was flooded with water, we could travel and drop anchor on the sandy chores inside of it. Once on land, we started to explore the abandoned buildings, visited the huge oil tanks that were brought there for whale oil and an abandoned hanger for aircrafts. The caldera provided a good shelter against the harsh winds at sea and made the conditions quite pleasant. I took my time taking it all in, exploring the historical site, wandering around on the black sand, learning about the station's history and just imagining being there during the height of its operation. It must not have been a very easy life here.

On some spots on the beach, I could see steam coming out of the water, emphasising the fact that the volcano is still active. Putting your hand or feet inside the water on those spots was actually quite pleasant given the warm temperature of the water.

Lastly, I walked along the beach to Neptune's Window, which, essentially, is a gap in the mountain that provides a viewpoint either outbound into the ocean or inbound into the volcano, its beaches and the fog that came and left in a regular interval. I lingered there for a while to enjoy the moment and appreciated the quite eerie atmosphere of this place. It kinda is a place I would want to see again in a few decades. Hopefully.

After lunch it was then time for our very last landing of this epic voyage to Antarctica. We dropped anchor just offshore of Elephant Point, which is an island (this time a real one) with loads of Elephant Seals having made this island their home. The Elephant Seals were also the key reason why we stopped here.

Those animals really are gigantic and remarkable at the same time. They could weigh more than a ton and - listen to this - can dive down up to 2km for food. Admittedly, they are not the most beautiful animals and make weird noises that I cannot describe in any other way but to say ‘wet farts'. They all huddled together to keep warm and we could see steam coming out of them, this much body heat they were radiating.

To get to these impressive animals, we took a short walk along the beach. This also gave us a last opportunity to be up and close to the Gentoo Penguins, which over the last week, I have really happened to fall in love with.

It was a cool last landing on this truly spectacular and marvellous voyage, seeing another type of animal up close that we had not really seen before.

And with that, our expedition to Antarctica came to an end. The only thing left was to cross the Drake Passage for one more time before disembarking the MV Plancius in 3 days - on the 25th February.

I will write a proper recap once I have stable ground underneath my feet, but what I can say already, is that this voyage was one of the best things I have ever done in my life. There is an entirely different world out there and I am so extremely happy to have experienced it with my own eyes, stood on it with my own feet and touched it with my own hands.

Antarctica - You truly are remarkable. I have no words for the beauty, the excitement and the adventure you offer. I will see you again!Read more