Martin Hammerschmidt

Today was my first time for a proper zodiac cruise. In short, this means that you hop on a zodiac with fellow travellers and a guide and cruise around a specific location looking at wildlife, glaciers, icebergs or all sorts of ice formations.

So, we geared up and jumped in the kayak in the hope of whales or another cool natural landscape. Before we even left the vessel, we had already seen two crabeater seals chilling out on an iceberg and thus it was our very first destination with the zodiac. As we reached the little iceberg that was floating around Paradise Harbour, a third seal was trying to get on that iceberg. It took a few failed attempts until it managed to get up there and it was honestly quite fun to watch it make its short way up.

The rest of the time in our zodiac, we cruised around in what looked like a sound, watched massive glaciers rising in front of us, making our way through a seabed of sea ice, watched a few more seals and passed by Brown Station (Argentinean), one of the oldest continuous research stations in the entire Antarctic continent. Its red houses provided a lovely backdrop to the white and blue colours that are the most dominant colours here on the most remote continent of our planet. And of course, we also saw lots of penguins again, on land breeding and resting and in the sea trying to catch some food.

One thing to mention is that so far, I have not grown tired of the white landscape, icebergs or the endless supply of penguins. As we are constantly changing our location, the landscape is also changing. As strange as it sounds, but white, grey, and blue can take an incredible variety of different shapes and forms. Last time there were countless icebergs, today lots of shelf ice, impressive glaciers and a research station and I am sure tomorrow will be different again. Plus, being on the lookout for all types of whales is actually quite fun. I still need to catch a close-up shot on my phone, though, which has so far proven to be rather difficult as whenever I don't pull out my phone, the whales put on a show, and when I do, they are rather calm and quiet. That is wildlife I guess.

Anyway, in the aftemoon we had a split landing/zodiac cruise, which means we were cruising with the zodiacs around Stony Point for one hour before making landfall. That particular zodiac cruise was nothing to write home about as we were trying to chase a whale that we saw earlier but it seemed to have disappeared. We still made a stop to see an impressive elephant seal and a colony of Gentoo Penguins, but the spectacular was missing (to be fair, maybe I was just too spoiled at this point!).

When we made landfall, I quickly headed up a small snowy hill to check out a Weddell Seal that seemed to be taking a nap. That one was a giant fatty as well. Afterwards, I headed up the hill to the top for some amazing views over the glacial Antarctic landscape that was unfolding in front of me. At some point, I was just standing there and taking it all in, wondering where on earth I was in that exact moment. In Antarctica, one of the most remote and inhospitable places on earth.

As I am writing this watching out the window at icebergs and snowcapped mountains, I still cannot really believe it. But, I digress. At the top we also did a little photo shoot with the Antarctic flag before sliding down the hill to capture some super cute waddle of penguins walking on the penguin highway just in front of me. It was yet another beautiful sight.

Then it was time for something I looked forward to and dreaded at the same time: The polar plunge, Basically, you dress down all the way to your swim shorts, and then jump into the water, which has about zero to maybe one degrees. Since our vessel wasn't equipped for jumping into the water, we basically walked into the sea from the beach at Stony Point. That was definitely much harder than just jumping in. In all honesty, I was close to chicken out, but then a few travellers motivated everyone and we decided to do it.

All I can say: holy fuck was that cold. We walked in, submerged in the ice cold water and went straight the fuck out of the water. The going-in was alright, the coming out felt like torture. My feet were numb as hell, I was shivering and all I could dream of was a warm shower. It is completely ridiculous if you think about it. The backdrop of snowy mountains, the cheering of the crew and other passengers, the photographers on the zodiac and the penguins watching us did provide a beautiful backdrop, though.

However, there was a little sense of accomplishment and pride to have done it as it felt like a little rite of passage when in Antarctica (similar to crossing the Drake Passage), but I can say that once back on the boat the shower felt like heaven. That was it for day 7 - again, a day full of action and activities. I am definitely tired, but very happy and grateful to be tired and experiencing this incredibly amazing place.Читать далее