Last Stop, Antarctica!
By Roberta Brashear-Kaulfers, Hawaiʻi Island Group member | Reading time: 10.5 minutes
Although Earth Month is officially over, it's always a good time to reflect on our amazing planet throughout the year. I have always believed that the only way to truly protect our environment is to experience it. My lifelong goal has been to visit all seven continents by the age of seventy, and I am excited to share that I have finally accomplished it.
As a former chair of the Hawaiʻi Chapter, Hawaiʻi Island (formerly Moku Loa) Group, chair and delegate of the Council of Club Leaders, liaison to the Sierra Club Board of Directors, member of the Rachel Carson Society, and outings leader for over thirty-five years, my personal mission has always been to explore, enjoy, and protect the environment.
Antarctica, my “bucket list trip,” had always eluded me due to the cost, time required, and the detrimental environmental impact of many large cruise ships. After searching for several months, I found a sustainable expedition through Hurtigruten and booked through Sisterhood Travels, a company started by my friend Stacey Robertson Ray. It was wonderful to reconnect with her after forty years. As a retired professor, I always told my students that learning is a lifelong process. Travel, photography, and cultural exchanges are integral parts of that process, ensuring we never stop learning.
My journey began with a flight from Hilo, Hawaiʻi. After two stops, I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I met up with my friend Stacey after forty years. We explored some cultural sites, including a short hike to the Cementerio de la Recoleta to see the Duarte family mausoleum where Eva Duarte Perón is buried. We also visited the Casa Rosada and the palace where the Perón family delivered many speeches to the masses. Lastly, we ventured around the Plaza de Mayo to see the statues and the famous San Ignacio Catholic Church, which dates back to 1675. Buenos Aires, the tango capital of the world, offered us the unique experience of tango lessons and a fabulous tango and dance dinner show.
After a late evening, we had to depart extremely early for our flight to Ushuaia, the Indigenous term for the end of the world. Our group traveled by bus to Tierra del Fuego National Park, where our local guide from the Indigenous Yahgan (Yámana) tribe showed us the wildlife, led us on a hike through the lush wetlands, drove us through the dense forest, and shared his knowledge with stories about this beautiful Patagonia area of the southernmost Andes. He explained that the region was named Tierra del Fuego, meaning the land of fire, by Spanish explorers because the Indigenous tribes would start fires at night to keep the sailors aboard the tall ships from coming ashore. This area overlooks the Beagle Channel, and Tierra del Fuego was later uniquely divided between Chile and Argentina, with the area above the tree line given to Chile.
Our Hurtigruten Expedition vessel was named the Fridtjof Nansen, after one of the early Antarctic explorers. The ship, a hybrid vessel with state-of-the-art technology, was 100% sustainable. Everything was recycled, and no plastic bottles were allowed. Once on board, we underwent safety training, were assigned boots, and received our expedition jackets. The vessel was small enough to allow zodiac landings, giving us numerous opportunities to see wildlife up close. Many of the larger cruise ships cannot navigate these passages, and their passengers do not get to land on the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship required us to follow a mandatory protocol each time we returned from a landing. A disinfectant boot scrub was required prior to re-boarding to prevent the transfer of any seeds, spores, or alien species from one site to another.
Leaving from Ushuaia at 6pm, the ship traveled through the Beagle Channel, guided by a tugboat to navigate the many small islets on our way to the Drake Passage. Everyone witnessed a beautiful sunset over the Chilean Andes while traversing these narrow channels. The Drake Passage, a 750-mile-long crossing, is perhaps the most dangerous waterway on our planet. This is where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans converge, and I had been dreading this crossing for several weeks before the trip. The expedition crew informed us that the group before us had to endure 18-meter-high swells…not what I wanted to hear. Luckily, our wave forecast was about 15-18 feet, still a “Drake Shake.”
I vividly remember being awakened at 4:50am by a large wave hitting the side of the boat. It actually felt like a Big Island earthquake. The swells continued, but after a few hours, I finally felt well enough to try and stand up to get something to eat. Even with a Scopolamine patch, I felt the ship rocking and lunging for the next two days. The expedition staff had many wonderful presentations planned on board to help pass the time, including educational slideshows and a science center. The ship was well-equipped with a library, microscopes for examining plankton, and numerous maps, posters, and displays about the wildlife we hoped to see when we finally arrived at the Antarctic island and peninsula.
On the second morning, I woke up very early to catch sight of the first icebergs floating on the pristine water. The shapes and forms were so intricate, a crystal blue color with perfect symmetry. It was so quiet, serene, and peaceful—a truly spiritual experience. I find it difficult to describe the sound of absolute silence. You can almost hear your heartbeat. The cold air was incredibly fresh, and we occasionally had snowflakes falling on board.
Our first entrance to Antarctica was through the Lemaire Channel and on to Pleneau Bay, known as the Garden of Ice and Rock. This area has been described as one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Majestic icebergs towered higher than our ship, with many smaller blue and black ice floaters. The tranquil waters were mesmerizing. As I prepared for our first landing to see gentoo penguins, I was physically overwhelmed by the sight of these small creatures in their tuxedos standing on the rocks. We had already been instructed to adhere to strict rules to avoid disturbing the penguins and other wildlife in their native habitat. Penguin trails or highways were well-marked so we could see them up close, though not within the 15 feet distance of the rookery and colonies.
The expedition zodiac took us to see the gentoo penguins, leopard seals, and fur seals on the rocky outcropping near our landing site. The colonies were very large, with a mix of adults, molting chicks, downy chicks, and recent hatches. Two leopard seals were also very close to the rookery, blending in well with the black and gray volcanic rocky coastline. The aggressive brown skua bird, known for invading gentoo penguin nests, was also present. These skuas were visibly swooping down to attack the nests, threatening the penguins. Many of the chicks I saw were already adult size but still had their downy coats and were being protected by the adult penguins. Other birds were molting in preparation for their new feathers needed for the winter season. The skuas tried to attack them as well but mostly went after the eggs in the nests or newly hatched chicks.
The next landing site was on a cobble beach at Neko Harbor Island. We could not leave our zodiac until we learned about the penguin slides and the potential for glacial calving. The penguin trails were off-limits because the animals travel these same paths daily to go down to the water to feed or clean themselves and then travel back up to the ice to nest and rest. My hiking path was very close to one of the slides, so I was able to take some great videos of the penguins sliding down and then trudging back up the same path. The gentoo penguins are pretty amazing and quite comical to watch.
Gentoo penguin slides/highways
Gentoo with newly hatched chicks
7 Continents Club: Elizabeth, Mary, Sue & Roberta
There was a special celebration on Neko Island. I was finally able to complete this part of my “bucket list” and become a member of the 7 Continents Club. Four women from my Sisterhood Travel group joined this elite group today: myself, Roberta Brashear-Kaulfers from Kurtistown, Hawaiʻi; Mary Hobson from Richmond, Virginia; Sue Parker from Copley, Ohio; and Elizabeth Hobson from Nyack, New York. What an exhilarating feeling! We did it! We asked someone to take our group photo carrying our handmade signs, and just as our picture was taken, a large section of the glacier behind us calved, causing a landslide that generated a small tsunami. We had been warned about this heavily crevassed glacier, and many from our group had to scurry back up the ice, carefully avoiding the penguin highways. The wave came in very quickly.
There were several extra activities that we could sign up for, but the kayaking and whale-watching excursions filled up very quickly. I participated in the science boat, where we used Secchi disks to determine water clarity, took temperatures of the water at different depths to observe the thermocline, and collected both vertical and towed plankton samples. Unfortunately, my sampling area did not have a lot of biomass; I only found a few krill, which I examined under the microscope. Diversity was not very high in this area compared to the tropics. The humpback whales and other baleen whales use this area for their summer feeding grounds. I noticed that the humpbacks here were more docile and rested more than those in Hawaiian waters. There were a few tail flips and instances of whales breaching.
Some of the other seabirds of Antarctica I saw included the wandering albatross, which has a wingspan of 3.1 meters, and the snowy albatross. I also observed the petrels, nicknamed the St. Peter or Jesus Bird because they appear to walk or run on the water when they take off.
At Damoy Point and Port Lockroy, there is a current scientific research station. Some of the scientists from the station came aboard our ship to give a presentation about their research. The research station was not very large, but there were colonies of gentoo and chinstrap penguins living on the rocky outcropping outside the station.
Gentoo penguins with downy fur
Chinstrap penguin
When we anchored at Orne Island, our expedition leaders took us around Wilhelmina Bay to look for whales. The ice here was very tall and thick, and the bay was filled with various-sized chunks of blue and black ice. The expedition team took us out in zodiacs, slowly navigating and dodging the floating ice blocks. Our guide explained that black ice is the purest and densest, with no air bubbles. We slowly approached a sleeping humpback we had been watching for over an hour, and I was lucky to see a few pods of humpback whales with their young. Humpbacks use this area to forage for nutrient-rich krill during the summer months before starting their migration back to Colombia and Mexico. I also saw several minke whales and an orca, though they were difficult to photograph.
Fur seal
Humpback whale tail fin
The last stop was Deception Island, a restless volcanic cone in the South Shetland Islands. I landed at Whaler’s Bay, a cove that was once a whaling processing station and the last outpost for whaling ships. Whale oil was processed there and stored in large holding tanks to be shipped back to Europe. The tanks were eventually abandoned and are now rusted, but there is a memorial for the British scientific research residents who died when the volcano erupted in 1968 and 1969.
Some of our group hiked up to the top of the cinder cone along a zigzag path, while I chose to learn about the island's history and visit with a large group of fur seals resting and fighting on the shoreline near our zodiac launch site. A few chinstrap penguin colonies were also present. Four brave women from our group did the polar plunge, but I opted out of going into the 37-degree water. Deception Island is one of the only places where ships can sail directly into the center of a submerged caldera. I was amazed at how close we were to the sides when we entered the passage. When we left after 10pm that evening, everyone could feel the ship's movement as we exited the sheltered cove and ventured into the open ocean for our return through the Drake Passage.
Arriving back in Ushuaia, we were greeted by an amazing rainbow at sunrise, welcoming us back to the Beagle Channel. The Drake Passage crossing was a "Drake Lake" with minimal swells, beautiful clear sunny skies, and stunning sunsets. The weather was perfect, providing a wonderful farewell to our Antarctic adventure.
Next stop, Rapa Nui (Easter Island)! Let the adventures continue...