Beyond Blue at Cierva Cove & Spert Island, Antarctica

With our final full day in Antarctica dawning it was hard to believe that the scenery or atmosphere could get any more awesome.  But it did.  The day began with a zodiac cruise around Cierva Cove.  The bizarrely beautiful shapes and blueness of the icebergs seemed unreal.  How blue can you get here? No limit apparently.

We also spotted some great wildlife, particularly leopard seals lolling about on small icebergs.  They seemed to be a cross between a giant monitor lizard and a monstrous slug, the way they slithered about between shut-eye.  But in the water they’re no benign creature; countless smaller seals we saw bore deep welts from attacks by the leopards.  And they’d been the lucky ones.

We returned to the zodiacs after another great lunch on Sea Adventurer.  The quality and variety of the food throughout the voyage had been first-class; so much so that I was almost left wondering which was better – Antarctica or the food?  Our itinerary for the afternoon was to zodiac around the rocky shores of Spert Island.  The zodiac staff had become very excited when this was announced.  Why?  We soon found out.  The sea around Spert was covered in crushed ice and there was a high swell running as we darted in and out of rock caves and tiny coves, and rounded soaring icebergs.  The scraping and crunching of ice and surge of the sea complemented the eye popping scenery to create for many passengers the highlight of the whole trip.  The session ended with ‘wows’ from all directions as we rounded a headland and our eyes fell upon Sea Adventurer facing off a gargantuan iceberg.  We’d seen icebergs before but never one like this!  Time to turn Captain?           

With everyone back aboard Sea Adventurer the ship turned and headed north – we wouldn’t be going any further into Antarctica.  While we were enjoying the Captain’s farewell cocktail party, and then dinner, the ship was already steaming north, back up the Antarctica Peninsula towards the South Shetlands island chain where we had set foot several days earlier, on Half Moon Island. But this time our destination was King George Island where we arrived early the following morning.  And here our journey had an unusual twist.  Most voyages end with a 48 to 60 hour return crossing of Drake Passage to Ushuaia, Argentina.  But Sea Adventurer had a different itinerary.  At King George Island we were all transferred to shore by zodiac, and then single file, walked 1.4 km up a cold gravelly slope to an airfield of the Chilean Air Force.  Coming down in the other direction, also single file, was a similar line of identically garbed people.  They were Sea Adventurer’s next passengers, about to be transferred to the ship by zodiac, as we had been disembarked.  As the two lines passed one another a few metres apart, they excitedly shouted questions to us about how we’d found the trip, then they disappeared in the distance down by the shore to begin their own icy adventure.

We boarded the commercial aircraft they had just flown in on, and 2.5 hours later we landed in Punta Arenas, a small city in the far south of Chile.  This flight suited our next plans very nicely.  It also had the huge logistical advantage of avoiding the 60 hour return Drake Passage crossing by ship, an overnight stay in Ushuaia on arrival, and then a 12 hour bus trip to Punta Arenas!  It really highlighted the huge difference between a plane soaring in the sky, and a ship thrashing about in the ocean.         

Antarctica is awesome.  We may as well give up travelling now; nothing can ever equal that.  In fact the flight to Punta Arenas may just as well have been a spaceship returning us to earth.  Antarctica is not just another destination; it’s another world.  We feel very fortunate to have seen it.