Before travelling to Antarctica many people asked me why I would want to go there. Was it to see polar bears or the northern lights? Did I want to freeze to death No, that’s not why I wanted to go. Antarctica is the southernmost continent and has no bears, no igloos or Eskimos, and the weather is reasonable in the Antarctic summer.
I went for some of the following reasons, but perhaps some of them may also apply to you if you are interested in heading all the way south:
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- For the same response that Edward Mallory provided a NYT reporter in 1924 when asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest: “Because it’s there”
- To visit the 7th continent which remained undiscovered until the 18th century, and still has remained largely unexplored to this day.
- To visit the “coldest, windiest, driest, highest, quietest. most remote, and least understood continent on Earth” (Martin Glassner)
- To navigate by ice, glaciers and massive blue and white icebergs – the continent holds 90% of Earth’s ice, 70% of Earth’s fresh water
- To use that serene, beautiful, peaceful and quiet place for personal discovery and reflection
- To fulfill my curiosity of this majestic, white continent
- To visit the last greatest wilderness on Earth
- To see penguins. Thousands of penguins
- And have a first hand account of what Guano is all about…
- See seals and with any luck humpback whales
- Do the Polar Plunge – if you dare!
- See the midnight lit-up sky in summer
- Camp on the ice
- Ski, climb, kayak, snow-shoe or take part in other activities that your expedition vessel offers
- To perform or learn about the great research others are doing on climate change, the wildlife, impact of whalers and fisheries, geology and other scientific fields
- And more reasons which we can discuss over coffee…
If you’d like to visit Antarctica you can book from a range of itineraries from various suppliers like G Adventures. Check them out here.
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