MyWestworld

South of Everywhere

Posted on 10. Sep, 2008 by Kerry Banks in Westworld Writer Interviews

When I was kid I didn’t know much, but I did know that Antarctica was one place that I definitely did not want to visit. I’d read about the horrors faced by the early 20th century explorers, and they scared me silly. British explorer Robert Scott and four of his comrades froze to death in their tents in their quest to become the first to reach the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the youngest member of Scott’s team and the sole survivor, later wrote a book about the ill-fated expedition, entitled The Worst Journey in the World. Although he did not perish, Cherry-Garrard did his share of suffering. He shattered most of his teeth due to chattering in the frigid temperatures. As you can imagine then, a trip to Antarctica has never been my idea of the ideal holiday.

Of course, when I was a kid very few people had ever visited Antarctica. That’s changing today. The Southern Continent has suddenly become a hot destination for intrepid travellers who have the cash to afford the high cost of getting there. Vancouver freelance writer Daniel Wood recently returned from a trip to Antarctica aboard a 117-metre Russian cruise ship. His feature story about his adventure can be found in the latest edition of Westworld magazine. Mr. Wood kindly agreed to answer a few questions about his exotic experience.

You encountered some very rough seas on your voyage to Antarctica. How severe were the conditions aboard the ship, and how did you cope?

We hit a full gale, common in the Drake Passage, on our second day southbound. Winds of 90 kilometres per hour and heavy eight to ten metre-high seas. Because we were headed south and the waves were coming from the west, it was a case of shipboard rock and roll. No one was allowed to go outside for an entire day. If you were properly medicated (scopolamine patches), everything was fine despite the pounding. You’d avoid moving around, stay in bed or in firmly attached chairs and enjoy the rather wild experience. The ship itself was fitted with stabilizers to minimize the rolling. But at the height of the storm, we were rolling 40 degrees to port, then to back to starboard every 15 seconds.

Most people perceive Antarctica to be a cold, bleak and desolate place. It’s a bit hard to imagine it as a tourist destination. Does the continent have any beauty?

Most people would be right: it is a cold, bleak and desolate place. And not an ordinary tourist destination. But if you’re tired of (or have seen) the ordinary–Maui, Tuscany, Bali, Disneyland–then you may want a challenge. Antarctic travel is booming because people have seen a lot of the famous places and want to experience things that are more challenging, more physically difficult than reaching for that next poolside margarita. You do not go to Antarctic for traditional “beauty.” We’ve come to associate beauty with comfort, and that is because most mass tourism is primarily about comfort, not about discovery. The world’s great frontiers are where real adventure exists, and most of these places are not beautiful. They are rugged, difficult, stark, untouristed, uncomfortable, and therefore thrilling. Adventure travel is about facing yourself, by facing–even vicariously–the elements. It is at these frontiers–as the old saying goes–”the fundamental things apply.”

What surprised you most about the Antarctic, or was it exactly as you expected?

The Antarctic Peninsula and its coastal islands, where all cruise ships go, is very mountainous–with a lot of 2500 metre peaks. That was a surprise. In places the effects of global warming has caused the coastal icefields to dump thousands of icebergs into the bays. These bergs were exquisite, often turquoise blue, huge, and–seen close at hand in the Zodiacs–clearly dangerous since they can turn over at a moment’s notice and propel a tsunami outward.

In your article, you mentioned seeing a lot of penguins. How did the birds behave around humans and what types of penguins were these? Did you see any of the large Emperor penguins?

I saw mostly Gentoo penguins, sometimes in colonies numbering in the thousands. They were very curious and unafraid, choosing to approach the human intruders to inspect shoelaces or velcro couplings with their beaks. Their goofy shambling walk, their insistence on peering upward from their two to three metre-high height, their squawking, their bickering with each other, made these daily meetings a highlight of the trip. (The Emperor penguins live in colonies on the distant mainland of Antarctica, not amid the peninsula islands and coast where we were. Few visitors to Antarctica see the Emperors).

There are a lot of whales in the waters around Antarctica, especially baleen species like minkes, fins and humpbacks. How close did you get to these leviathans when you were out in your Zodiacs?

We saw scores of humpbacks. They’d come up beside the Zodiacs, breaching, diving, raising their flukes, staring–sometimes from a distance of one to two metres. That is close! Remember these guys were three times longer than the Zodiacs. You’d think: Jeeeeeez! Everyone was laughing or swearing.

Did you feel connected to the rest of the world when you were in Antarctica, or did it make you feel like you were in a completely alien place?

Having been to Canada’s High Arctic, I have sensed the kind of existential bleakness the poles conjure up. We’re not use to  that kind of starkness. Since 95% of the land you see in Antarctic is buried in snow and massive, creviced glaciers–with only low promontories ice/snow free–it doesn’t feel much like the earth. Plus, there is little sun. The days are typically gloomy. That is probably the biggest thrill: being somewhere uniquely unearthly.

Did your Antarctica experience give you a greater appreciation of the challenges faced by Amundsen and Scott and the other early explorers who were seeking to reach the South Pole?No, not really. We were cocooned in a first-class modern ship with wonderful food, showers, warm beds, skilled expedition guides, layers of clothing, etc. You’d have to be pretty romantic to think that a trip like that would put you, in any way whatsoever, in touch with the tremendous challenges faced by Amundsen and Scott. Remember: we were there in the late Austral summer (February/March) which meant the air temperatures were typically plus 5 C., not winter’s minus 50 C. What I did sense was how inhospitable the place is. Other than the penguins, coastal birds and sea mammals, there is no life to speak of there. It is BARREN.

Why is Antarctica considered to be such an important place by scientists?

It’s a relatively pristine environment with very little human intrusion so it makes a good laboratory for scientists-–little pollution, contamination, etc. Since the poles are the first regions to be radically affected by global warming, the science that is going on at those places is seen as bellwether, canary-in-the-coal-mine discoveries. Much of Antarctica–just as in the High Arctic–is clearly melting, scientists observe.  Also, it is the earth’s last continental frontier, so a lot has simply not been learned about the place.