Off to Antarctica!

We're getting ready for our next expedition, this time to Antartica. The only practical way to get there is by cruise ship, so we've had to deviate, just this once mind you, from our traditional view of cruises, i.e. only for the newly wed and nearly dead. Oh well, we are all getting older, so maybe it's time anyway to try this sort of travel!

The National Geographic Orion

We'll be travelling on the MV National Geographic Orion, which, according to its owner's website, was built in Germany in 2003 "specifically for expedition travel". It's a small and luxurious vessel, holding only 102 passengers. Our cruise starts from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and returns there. When we first envisaged an Antarctica visit, there were itineraries from Hobart and New Zealand, which would have been very convenient, but by the time we actually booked, the ones that appealed to us (i.e. comfortable) seem to have disappeared. There are still some Research Vessel cruises available, but the sea passage is twice as far, at about 2500km. See Cool Antarctica. To get to the Antarctic Pensinsula, which conveniently pokes up towards South America, it's a mere 1200km from Ushuaia!

We'll be flying into Ushuaia from Santiago, Chile, and international flight in its own right. Ushuaia is barely over the border in this Cape Horn part of South America, but far enough to ensure we have to pay a hefty reciprocity fee as a probably justified retribution for the visa fees that Australia levies on Argentine visitors!

The Antarctic Peninsula points towards Tierra del Fuego and makes for a shorter passage.

The maps show the general territory of our cruise. The Orion's plan is to spend about a week at the Antarctic Peninsula. We are really only skirting the northernmost extreme of the Antarctic continent! And we will also visit the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. No doubt the actual track we will follow will depend on weather and sea ice.

Our anticipated cruise grounds

Lots of photos will be taken on this cruise, but we are not expecting to be able to update this blog real-time. We'll just have to see what internet access is availablke, and what it costs!