PLAN YOUR TRIP UNDERSTAND ANTARCTICA Ge Lo
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©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd “All you’ve got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!” TONY WHEELER, COFOUNDER – LONELY PLANET Get the right guides for your trip PAGE PLAN YOUR PLANNING TOOL KIT 2 Photos, itineraries, lists and suggestions YOUR TRIP to help you put together your perfect trip Welcome to Antarctica .. 2 Map .................................. 4 W elcome to 15 Top Experiences ........ 6 Antarctica Need to Know ................. 14 If You Like ........................ 16 Itineraries ........................ 18 Adventure kayak icy waters. But there is nothing quite Planning Your Antarctic like the craggy crevasses of a magniÀ cent Antarctica’s surreal remoteness, extreme glacier or the sheer expanse of the polar ice cold, enormous ice shelves and mountain cap. 14 ranges, and myriad exotic life forms in- variably challenge you to embrace life fully. Wildlife COUNTRYCOUNC TTRYY &&CI CITYCITY SHOESTRING Everyone – scientist, support worker, gov- ernment o cial and Visitors tourist alike – who This continent, preserved by the Antarctic Treaty, is home to some of the world’s most Adventure ..................... 21 Need to comes to this isolated» Tourists continent, (2011): 26,519 must extraordinary species, adapted to life in ‘earn’ it, whether by» sea-voyage Staff (2011): 2101or Á ight. Ice and weather, not clocks and calendars, their unique home. Some migrate far and The original orriginalrigin • Big trips, » Ship crew (2011): wide, like the enormous whales, others re- • determine the itinerary and the timetable Know Area 17,725 main close to the continent, like the Wed- of all travel here. Expect experiences unlike » 14.2any million other, sq whether km – whale-watching» Scientists & logistics across dell seal and the emperor penguin. Mil- lions of seabirds skim the Southern Ocean, almostthe doubleopen sea, the sizespying supporta penguin (summer): rookery, or small budgets the world’s most abundant ocean…species Comprehensive Regions at a Glance ....... 26 of Australiaframing that perfect 4500photograph of an awe- • inspiring ice-form. Today, it’s even possible like far-Á ung albatrosses and petrels circle for visitors to climb Antarctic peaks, or these waters. Antarctic wildlife is generally • Adventurous • Multicountry When to Go Your Budget Budget less than # Grytviken, South Georgia GO Oct–Mar US$10,000 » Cruises start at US$4500 for 10- day voyages (three South Shetland Islands GO Nov–Mar days for the sub- # Antarctic islands Antarctic Peninsula # GO Nov–Mar and the Antarctic Peninsula) with quad accommodations and South Pole GO Dec–Jan shared bathrooms # » Fly-overs start at AU$999 Midrange Ross Island # US$10,000 to GO Dec–Mar US$30,000 » 20-day voyages (Falklands, South Cold climate Georgia, sub-Antarctic Polar climate, below zero year-round islands, Antarctic Peninsula) start at US$12,750 Looking for other travel resources? » Higher-end cabins: 26 High Season Shoulder Low Season (Dec & Jan) (Nov & Feb-Mar) (Apr-Oct) from US$16,000 » Expect up to 20 » November: the » Continuous » Fly-cruises start at hours of sunlight ice breaks up and sunrise and sunset US$10,000 each day, and penguins court bring fantastic Top End more the main influx of » February and skies, bracketing than US$30,000 Antarctic visitors midwinter, when March: prime time » High-end tours 24-hour darkness regions » Days are the for whale-watching, include 20-day cruises reigns warmest the and penguin chicks with balcony suite continent will see are fledging » Winterovers find (US$32,995), inland » Penguins hatch aurora australis, flights to South Pole at a isolation and extreme eggs and feed chicks; (US$42,950), and seabirds soar temperatures guided climbs of Vinson glance Massif (US$38,000) S o u t h e r n O c e a n Antarctica’s various regions are Wildlife 333 History 333 surprisingly diverse. The encircling Adventure 333 Southern Ocean, with its rough- and-tumble sealing and whaling history, offers superb wildlife South Georgia & viewing, and the adventure of a Falkland Islands magnificent sail. The Antarctic Vast seasonal colonies of seals, penguins and seabirds Peninsula, with its warm climate cram the shores of these (for Antarctica!), combines super isolated, windswept islands. ice formations with the continent’s Some beaches are so packed you won’t even be able to most abundant seals, penguins, land…content yourself with seabirds and whales. Zodiac-cruising alongside, Those rare few who make it to as beachmaster seals defend the Ross Sea side encounter well- their turf. preserved history, and experience Southernmost dramatic land- and ice-scapes, like Outposts Imagine the early days of the towering Ross Ice Shelf, the southern exploration as you bizarre Dry Valleys and steaming visit museums in Ushuaia volcano Mt Erebus East Antarctica and Stanley before heading LONELYPLANET.COM APPS EBOOKS MAGAZINE GET MORE FROM YOUR TRIP PAGE For travel information, Location-based Guidebooks For travel stories, UNDERSTAND Learn about the big picture, so you advice, tips & digital guides for the street for your reader inspiration & ideas 137 chapters lonelyplanet.com/mobile lonelyplanet.com/ebooks lonelyplanet.com/magazine ANTARCTICA can make sense of what you see Antarctica Today ............ 138 History ............................. 140 Lonely Planet in numbers Environment ................... 158 History 70 12 100,000,000 190+ Antarctica, unlike any other continent, was postulated to exist long before it was actually discovered. The ancient Greeks, beginning with Pythago- languages spoken seconds pass Lonely Planet guidebooks countries covered Wildlife ............................. 168 ras, believed the earth to be round. Aristotle refined the idea, suggesting that the symmetry of a sphere demanded that the earth’s northern region The term should be balanced by a southern region – without it, the top-heavy globe ‘antarctica’ was might tumble over. This idea of earthly balance gave rise to the name used as a Latin by our writers between posts sold, and still counting by a Lonely Planet adjective, but we give the southern continent today: Antarktos, or ‘opposite Arktos,’ Antarctic Science ........... 193 the proper name the constellation in the northern sky. In Egypt, Ptolemy agreed that geo- ‘Antarctica’ can graphical equilibrium required an unknown southern continent; a map be traced to one he drew c AD 150 showed a large continent linking Africa and Asia. man. Edinburgh on our Thorn Tree guide mapmaker John Explorers from the 15th and 16th centuries, like Vasco da Gama and G Bartholomew Ferdinand Magellan, and James Cook in the 18th century, skirted the lands (1860–1920) first that rim the Southern Ocean, and slowly the peri-Antarctic archipelagos used the term to Wildlife were discovered. But it wasn’t until the 19th century with Fabian von Bell- label a map of travel forum ingshausen’s circumnavigation and the far-flung activities of sealers and The isolated, seemingly barren continent of Antarctica is home to ‘the unexplored whalers that the continent itself was sighted in 1820 with humans landin astounding variety of wildlife – including many species found nowh south polar continent’ that he on its shores in 1821. The race to find seals and whales heated up – and else on Earth. Many animals have evolved special characteristics that published in an ultimately to explore and map the new terrain. Antarctica’s heroic age of uniquely suited to life on and around the Ice, and fossil records sh 1890 atlas. explorers from the 1890s to the 1920s intensified the push for geogra hic bizarre extinct life forms and even dinosaurs (p 95 ). and scientific exploration, and encompassed Roald Amundse Today, the wild Southern Ocean contains blooms of zooplankton a ert Scott’s dramatic first and second attainments of the S uth P le phytoplankton which support a wealth of fish, crustaceans and squ In 1954, Australia established the first permanent science station on the continent and by 1957–58, during the International Geo hysical Year, This food chain, with its rich swarms of krill, leads to top predato i i46bThi di i i d h whales, seals and seabirds, and of course, those ever-fascinating p guins. Since the Southern Ocean encircles Antarctica, much of this STAY IN TOUCH ceptional wildlife lives around the entire continent. See also the full-color Wildlife Guide (p 185 ) for more on Antarc animals. lonelyplanet.com/contact Whales Whales (cetaceans) generally have long lifespans and are essentially vided into baleen whales (of which the blue whale is the largest a twitter.com/ toothed whales (dolphins, sperm whales and orcas). Baleen whales str AUSTRALIA Locked Bag 1, Footscray, Victoria 3011 out small crustaceans like krill through the fibrous a een ates th ine their jaws. ntarctica’s whale species typically migrate north to warm waters lonelyplanet ISCOVERY %03 8379 8000, fax 03 8379 8111 ISBN 978-1-74179-459-5 facebook.com/ 99825 Paper in this book is certified USA 150 Linden Street, Oakland, CA 94607 against the Forest Stewardship %510 250 6400, toll free 800 275 8555, fax 510 893 8572 lonelyplanet Council™ standards. FSC™ promotes environmentally responsible, socially lonelyplanet.com/ beneficial and economically viable UK Media Centre, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TQ 9 781741 794595 management of the world’s forests. %020 8433 1333, fax 020 8702 0112 newsletter antarctica-5-cover.indd 2 10/08/2012 11:20:07 AM PAGE ON THE YOUR COMPLETE DESTINATION GUIDE 28 In-depth reviews, detailed listings ROAD and insider tips Southern Ocean p30 Antarctic Peninsula p71 East Antarctica & the South Pole p107 Ross Sea p89 PAGE SURVIVAL VITAL PRACTICAL INFORMATION TO 203 GUIDE HELP YOU HAVE A SMOOTH TRIP prov governme private exped venture travelers Directory A–Z ................. 204 » Queen Maud Land Meet the emperors (10 days) from €23,000 Transportation ............... 207 Pole to coast (10 days) (www.white flies 12-pas- Transportation senger Gulfstream G-IV and Ilyushin IL76 aircraft from Glossary .........................