Our Travel Stories

Author: Shraddha

The day started with absolutely stunning sunrise. A beautiful day to welcome us to the great white continent of Antartica.

We reached Cape Adare (it is a pointy tip on the Antartica continent) that has lot of history of past expeditions. It was appropriate that we placed our feet on this continent where so many explorers started their epic journeys across this continent.

We visited the Borchgrevink’s hut that has still stood intact after so many years of facing this harsh environment.

We also saw remains of another that was not so well built and falling down.

We also saw Adélie penguins from close up. We are not supposed to get any closer than 5m to any penguins, but good luck with these. They are curious and feisty and come right up to you.

We also saw seals lazing about both on land and on ice.

After the hut visit, we went around for a zodiac cruise and had our expedition team lead Howard as our zodiac driver. This was lot of fun as Howard embodies spirit of exploration and was willing to go longer and further.

But the day was not over. While we lunched, the ship moved on to Coldbeck Bay for another scenic zodiac cruising. I signed up for photography cruise with the ship photographer Adrian while Mayuresh signed up for a zen ride with Jane

I explored taking pictures in a wobbly zodiac.

Our ride was interrupted soon for an impromptu landing for a surprise. While we were zodiac cruising, Howard and a small team went exploring in search of Emperor Penguin and they found one. So we landed on a very difficult spot and climbed a ridge with tricky footing, snow and no trekking poles to see this lone Emperor Penguin waiting to complete his/her catastrophic molting.

That was pretty much the end to my photography ride however as by the time we got back, Adrian was called on to take another person back to the ship as this person had a fall in the water while getting on the zodiac. Reminded all of us of the tricky landing we had done.

Mayuresh: Zen Zodiac ride

Expedition team also arranges a Zen zodiac primarily designed for keeping silence and meditation on the zodiac in the middle of Ross Sea. We were 7 on the zodiac ride but 4-5 members were more interested in the photography than meditation. I did get my quiet time for meditation and chanted (in my mind) Gayathri mantra and Ganesh Stuti. I was very happy with this ride.