We started the day with visit to Cape Bird. We went ashore on zodiacs and this was first time we were allowed to freely roam (almost as we did have restrictions to avoid skua chicks). We walked towards a Glacier. It was very interesting contrast with volcanic rock and gravel and the glacier. And of…

Before I write about our visit to these famous huts on Ross Islands, near McMurdo sound, let me just summarize in few lines my recollection of the history of these expedition heroes. After Ross explored the Antarctic waters and mapped out the land area in 1890s, people realized that the south pole is close from…

Shraddha: Our expedition team has been trying very hard to give us the best experiences and opportunities. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. We arrived to Possession Island early in the morning and the team sent out a scout boat to figure out best landing sites. The plan was to find a post mail…

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…

Author:Mayuresh Antartica is truly the 7th continent where this land mass is vast and packed with ice. Just happens to be far away at the south pole and so aptly named opposite of Arctic i.e. Antarctic. We reached 60 degree south latitude yesterday to enter in the Antarctic waters. However with crossing the 66 degree…

We left Mcquarie islands yesterday in the capable hands of the Australian park rangers to protect the Royal and King penguins. The rookery (penguin poop) smells are so strong that it just refuses to get out of your system. Day 7 and Day 8 were sea days and refreshingly nice. It gave us chance to…

Author: Shraddha Wow! What a place and what an abundance of penguins!! The day did not start on the most promising note as our landing at Isthmus Bay was cancelled as the only possible landing site got blocked by two giant seals. So, the expedition team made a call to move to the second landing…

After such a busy start to our cruise we finally had our first sea day. It was time to relax a bit and catch up on our sleep. We attended a few lectures, and the one I liked the most was about how they made the Macquarie island pest free (which we are hoping to…

Author: Mayuresh We visited Campbell Island today in sub-Antartic region of New Zealand. As we left Auckland island, our expedition leader announced that weather on the Campbell Island was not optimal for walk because of the 35-40 mile wind and gust of 49 miles. Still we decided to hike on boardwalk for 4 miles in…

Author: Shraddha Today we woke up to calm seas and great balmy weather. Perfect weather for a hike or a long walk. We had signed up for a long walk around the Enderby islands. During the briefing the expedition team mentioned that a 11-14 Km walk will take 5 hours, we were shocked. Especially since…