Antarctica has been my dream since I was in my twenties. What started it? I have no idea. Probably I read something in a book and was entranced by the adventure of it.
Not that I was adventurous then – I was quite the opposite. But underneath it all perhaps an adventurous spirit was budding.
It’s now bloomed – I love adventure and have much less fear of risk and for years I have known one day I would go to Antarctica.
I knew it was something I needed to do soon. A friend 20 years younger who had gone advised it. Right now I’m quite healthy, other than being overweight, out of-shape, and having bad knees. But if I waited until all those elements changed, possibly worse things could have sprung up. I decided December 2024 was my time.
I’d always thought the trip was too expensive for me. One thing I’ve learned about travel is that you can work to make things happen for you. As a single traveler, I decided I was fine rooming with strangers. This is common traveling to Antarctica. I also agreed to the worse class room available. Who cared where I stayed? I’d be on that ship going where I wanted to go.
I ended up getting upgraded – only one “stranger roommate” and we got a balcony room. This had been an option to me at the first, but it cost $5,000 more – and I can do a lot of traveling for $5,000. (In other words, it would have cost $10,000 more for the two of us.) It was amazing to get it for free!
That balcony room proved to be one of the best gifts I have ever received. I’d sometimes go to our room and lay on my bed and just watch the scenery we would be passing by.
My roommate was from Finland – a gorgeous young woman who inspires me. She was taking her “summer break“ and was gone for 5 1/2 weeks. She said while others took theirs in the summer, she always tried to save it all up until the end of the year. Before joining our cruise, she had already hiked 2 1/2 weeks in South American, sometimes alone but sometimes with other hikers she met along the way. She is brilliant and has so many skills and so much knowledge. Plus she’s an easy person to have as a roommate. I enjoyed our talks and the way she already walks through fears.
It’s summer in Antarctica, so temperatures are probably warmer than you would think. Typically we saw temps from 31-42 degrees F – though the winds could be biting and when we were on the water in Zodiacs (the small power boats that we used for sightseeing and for getting to land).
While most people talk about the rough seas of the Drake passage, probably the day at sea that impacted most people on our ship was early on. While I had plenty of motion sickness meds (I prefer Bonine), I figured I’d wait a few days before I took them. Since I have no adverse effects of Bonine, this makes no sense (take the meds!), but I was a bit cocky.
I woke up on Day 2 and realized quickly it had gotten me – I was nauseous and my energy zapped. My roommate always popped right up when they woke us up (yes, they did so every day except one on the trip) and was quickly dressed and ready for breakfast. I told her I’d be there in a bit. When she came back to the room I had dressed, but still was on my bed. No breakfast for me.
This was a “bio day” – all of our outer wear and any backpacks or such we planned to take into land was inspected by the expedition staff. Even a spec of sand trapped in Velcro on the bottom of your waterproof pants would mean you take something to scrape that out. I made a personal decision to avoid Velcro on my outdoor wear in the future.
Bio day actually taught me more. I never think about how we randomly track items from place to place. It also made we aware of all the other elements – my hotel when we got back to Ushuaia (Argentina) there was the typical “use your towels more than once” sign that reminded you their water came down from the mountains and was a limited resource. I liked that reminder of the life cycle of our natural resources.
At bio check I happened to be with an expedition guide who was also a nurse. She took one look at me and said, “You need to eat something.” When I’m not feeling well it shows on my face – I had told her nothing about feeling bad,
Speaking of that, there was a slight humor in how quickly people acclimated to the seasickness. Seasickness bags were everywhere and people would be standing next to you, vomiting in a bag. After bio check I went to get fitted for the muck boots to be issued to me. One guy sitting on the next bench next to me vomited into his bag and then in the next motion immediately asked for the next size up for his boots. It all appealed to my sense of humor.
In the Box, Out of the Box 