Port Lockroy is a British base that is occupied several months of the year in the summer by a few staff and is managed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. We visited as part of an Antarctica cruise on Oceanwide Expeditions. Space here is extremely limited as the the base is located on Goudier Island – which doesn’t appear to be much larger than a small parking lot. And once the staff are on the base they are not allowed to travel off the island on there own due to […]

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“Do not start climbing over there – that seal is in the way”. Were we mountain climbing or clambering over cliffs at some sunny beach in California somewhere? I’ve done a bit of mountain climbing around the world but have never heard a seal referenced as we are about to start a climb! The reason for this, is we are mountaineering in Antarctica as part of an Oceanwide Expedition Antarctica cruise. Climbing here is surreal – the amount of ice and glacier walls that one can climb is overwhelming – […]

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The cruise director on the Basecamp Ortelius on our Antarctica cruise with Oceanwide Expeditions said something that perked my interest, “Antarctica is a feeling” and I immediately wondered what type of feeling it would induce in me once I arrived. It turns out it is not just one feeling but rather many. What you see in front of you evokes numerous feelings and reactions including awe, the grandeur and magnitude of your surroundings gives you perspective on just how small you are and at times you simply want to be […]

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Upon boarding the Basecamp Ortelius in anticipation of our Antarctica cruise (the ice breaker ship we will be on for the next 13 days) I immediately noticed a few of the staff wearing shorts. Remarking to one of them that it is awfully cold for that kind of apparel, they quickly replied with, “if you think it is cold now, just wait until we get to Antarctica!” Nonetheless, the wind was bone chilling as we pulled out of lovely Ushuaia – the buildings in town were shaded by the mountains […]

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Antarctica has been on my list of remote places to visit for years – I never have done so because of a variety of reasons, one has to cross the Drake Passage (supposedly one of the world’s most treacherous waters – I get very bad sea sickness at times) and the cost of getting there – which as demand grows to visit the costs seem to have gone down (just a cursory observation). I randomly met Dan and Audrey of the travel site, Uncornered Market in tiny Saba in the […]

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I recently started working with Oceanwide Expeditions, a Netherlands based cruise company focusing on the planet’s remote extreme north and south destinations (the Arctic and Antarctica). Founded in 1996, they are a pioneering company in the exploration of these parts of the world via cruise ships. Today they offer 25 cruises to Antarctica alone using small ice-hardened expedition vessels. Their ships are the ‘basecamp’ anchored off shore for a period of time with a variety of on shore experiences and activities then offered. Depending on the cruise and location some […]

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