Ushuaia-Antarctica-New Zealand

We rea­ched the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la after a rather calm crossing of the Dra­ke Pas­sa­ge and ven­tu­red on gathe­ring our first Ant­ar­c­tic impres­si­ons, which were, howe­ver, not real­ly the first ones for most of us on board. Some of the pas­sen­gers have got an ama­zing num­ber of trips to Ant­ar­c­ti­ca under their belts! We focus­sed on a small num­ber of sel­ec­ted high­lights, start­ing with an ear­ly-mor­ning pas­sa­ge of the Lemai­re Chan­nel, fol­lo­wed by two rather grey and wet landings south of it. The second day in the Pen­in­su­la saw us alre­a­dy south of the polar cir­cle; we mana­ged to land on Detail­le Island, visi­ting the beau­tiful, old Bri­tish rese­arch sta­ti­on despi­te rather mar­gi­nal wea­ther con­di­ti­ons.

The Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la (gal­lery)

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Pan­ora­ma: Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la – Ple­neau Island

Gen­too pen­gu­ins on Ple­neau Island. Booth Island and the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la, with the famous Lemai­re Chan­nel bet­ween them, in the back­ground.

Pan­ora­ma: Detail­le Island

Detail­le Island is near the coast of the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la, but south of the polar cir­cle and accor­din­gly off the (rela­tively) well-trod­den tou­rist path of the Ger­la­che Strait and Lemai­re Chan­nel are­as fur­ther north. Next the nice views to the pen­in­su­la and over stran­ded ice­bergs, the small island – it is only a few hundred met­res across – has the old Bri­tish “Base W”, built in 1956 and aban­do­ned alre­a­dy in 1959 becau­se of dif­fi­cul­ties to reach the island due to the often hea­vy ice situa­ti­on. Base W has recent­ly been reno­va­ted and offers some very nice insight of life of an old Ant­ar­c­tic base to the occa­sio­nal visi­tor.

To the gal­lery:
→ The Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la    → Peter I Island and the Amund­sen Sea    → The Ross Sea    → Scott Island – Mac­qua­rie Island

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