Antarctica – last pristine wilderness

Most travellers to the Antarctic are of a certain interesting age – ready for an adventure in the world’s last great wilderness. David McGonigal reports

W hile the explorers of the tropics were mainly young, that was not always so for the polar heroes. The brilliant French Antarctic explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville was only a few months short of 50 years old when he was in Antarctica, and ex-Tasmanian governor John Franklin was 61 when he perished seeking the North-West Passage across the Arctic.

That seniority pattern continued when Lars Eric Lindblad took tourists on an Antarctic cruise in 1966. The cost was high and the group largely retired and rich. However, the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 left many polar research vessels without work. They began voyages to Antarctica and the cost and average age of the travellers dropped.

On my first voyage to Antarctica in 1994 one couple had sold their car to pay the fare – and another woman had borrowed from the bank, saying it was for a kitchen renovation. “What are the chances I’ll ever invite the bank manager for dinner so he finds out?” she declared while photographing icebergs.

It’s estimated in this past season about 37,000 people will have visited Antarctica, a continent larger than Australia.

There are three main ways to see Antarctica. You can take a flight over Antarctica from Australia; you can sail from Australia or New Zealand; or you can sail from South America. A new development has been to fly from South America to the South Shetland Islands and join a ship there.

For an intensive one-day overview take Croydon Travel’s Qantas flight on an A380. The trade-off for missing the animals is that you have an excellent overview of the mountains, glaciers and sea ice. The party atmosphere onboard has the same feeling of wonder that one finds on every Antarctic cruise.

If your main interest is history take a voyage to the Ross Sea below New Zealand. There’s grand scenery and lots of wildlife but these pale against the privilege of standing in Scott’s or Shackleton’s huts. The downside is about five days of sailing each way across the lumpy Southern Ocean. Fortunately, once in Antarctica ice and islands dampen any waves.

There’s much to commend the longer South Georgia route south. Although longer and more expensive, you experience the rugged grandeur and rich wildlife of South Georgia as well as the Antarctic Peninsula – and visit the quaint British outpost of the Falklands.

Effectively, all Antarctic travel is ship based: you return to the ship to sleep and eat. In general the temperature in the long summer Antarctic Peninsula days is like the Snowy Mountains in winter: about 5deg. to -3deg.

All polar operators take their educational programs seriously. Lecturers have great expertise and there’s a wonderful open bridge policy so you can check charts, view the radar and have a chat to the officers on watch.

In Antarctic ‘expedition cruising’, cabins are comfortable, meals are good and you are off the ship whenever possible, either ashore at penguin colonies or scientific bases or cruising in Zodiac craft through fields of icebergs or in the company of whales.

It could be said that Antarctica is the last frontier of mature adventure. Beyond the basic skills of climbing up and down a rocking gangway into a bobbing Zodiac, many cruises now give you the chance to sleep overnight on the ice, kayak through ice or walk up glaciers. Few find it beyond them. Some 50-year-olds take their parents – in November I watched an 84-year-old man admonish a pursuing fur seal. I took Toni Hurley (daughter of legendary photographer, Frank) to Antarctica a few times in her 80s and while she was one of the most active she was rarely the oldest.

It’s said that a voyage to Antarctica will change your life and that’s invariably true. For many it’s also a chance to rediscover the pure joy of travel in the world’s last great wilderness.

Ships to the South: IAATO, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators self-regulates so members follow environmental guidelines in Antarctica. Visit: www.iaato.org

Getting there: Aerolineas Argentinas or Lan Chile fly via Auckland to Buenos Aires and Santiago respectively or on a non-stop Qantas flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires.

For more information: Jeff Rubin’s Lonely Planet Guide: Antarctica is good. David McGonigal is the co-author (with Dr Lynn Woodworth) of Antarctica – the Complete Story, Antarctic – the Blue Continent and Antarctica – Secrets of the Southern Continent.