A Voyage to the AntarcticText and photos by Michael Aw Peninsula At 2:00 am, it is already daylight on Pléneau Island, a place where floating icebergs become grounded, a graveyard of diverse towering structures of ice articulated in extraordinary forms. In a quintessential snowy landscape, snowflakes of perfect shape fall over me, a moment of utter isolation. I am the only one awake among the few that have chosen to sleep on ice with a sleeping bag, our way of bonding with the final wilderness—Antarctica, the last of our planet’s pristine milieu. 26 X-RAY MAG : 37 : 2010 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED travel Antarctica Penguins head fo the water to feed; Expedition members spent the night in sleeping bags on solid ice; Chinstrap penguins keep close bonds with their young The mere mention of Antarctica to exploit the rich bounty of by fast Late triggers the imagination and its frigid waters, Antarctica flowing afternoon, the evokes stunning images of a continues to weave its magic, southern third day of majestic frozen continent laden profoundly alluring the modern ocean waters the voyage, with resident penguins, polar day adventurer to its freezing squeezed we made bears and whales. In the real shores. My journey began with between the landfall and world, there are no polar bears a three-day flight and transits land masses landed on in the Antarctic, and there are to Ushuaia, the southernmost of South Aitcho Island, no penguins in the north Arctic. city of the world, about 3,300km America and named for Though both the Antarctic and south of Buenos Aires. Antarctica. the British Arctic are high latitude, freezing Indeed, this picturesque Storms Admiralty’s polar regions, the similarities end town endowed with a unique frequently whip the ocean into Hydrographic Office, which there. The enormous Antarctic landscape of high snow- a gloomy gray tumultuous, I read was covered with is an un-colonized continent capped mountains, sea, heaving mass of water, extensive beds of moss and covered with ice, whereby the glaciers and forests is a fitting notorious for sinking many lichens. There was hardly north Arctic is comprised of a gateway for nature tourists on ships. My crossing with the any in sight. Instead, there frozen ocean at the North Pole, their way to Antarctica. From Polar Pioneer was to be a lucky was a Middle Kingdom-like surrounded by land masses to here, it is purported to be a one; riding with the southwest landscape with an expanse the south of which some are dreadful 50 hours crossing the wind of 24 knots, the vessel of ice inhabited by thousands heavily populated by humans. Drake Passage, which has averaging 12 knots, crossing the of Gentoo and Chinstrap Once the domain of explorers earned a place in history as Antarctic Convergence to see penguins. who had fallen under its mystical having some of the roughest the first icebergs on the second Much like the animals on enchantment and of appalling sea weather in the world. morning. We were in Antarctic Galapagos, these flightless whalers and sealers who came Drake Passage is dominated water. birds have no fear of human 27 X-RAY MAG : 37 : 2010 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED travel Antarctica THIS PAGE: Ice! Views of the ice structures and icebergs of Antarctica intrusion; they happily go about Antarctica squawking away and doing little Though there is lots of snow and penguin chores, from inflating ice around, Antarctica is really a their chest and pointing beaks desert environment with less than towards the sky, letting loose a 4mm of precipitation monthly huge lunch-whistle call to mates, making it the driest continent on to rearranging pebbly rocks for earth. The amount of moisture a brand new nest. Whilst we received by the polar continent is respectfully stayed at a distance, comparable to that falling on the at most times, it’s the birds that world’s hottest deserts. Antarctica approached us so close that we is also the coldest continent on could smell their fishy breath. Earth. The lowest temperature ever I walked right to the far side of recorded was minus 89.2°C at the island, up the saddle between Vostok, at the Australian Antarctic two hills to take in the panoramic Territory, in 1983. More than 98 view of Whalebone Beach in percent of Antarctica land mass the midst of a spectacular vista is covered with an enormous ice tainted with little gray blobs cap with an averaging thickness of elephant seals, sea lions of 2.2km deep. and penguins. A few of them, The continent itself, which is seemingly emerging from a snow the size of the United States and storm, were staggering up hill Europe combined, is comprised towards me. of 5.4 million sq miles, but in the 28 X-RAY MAG : 37 : 2010 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED Split view of iceberg above and below the water’s surface; Life on Antarctica—expedition member plays music for the locals; Territorial disputes are travel bound to erupt amongst close neighbors Antarctica backpack and dive gear from the dive dense expedition leader. deck to join the shore excursion group at Nevertheless I persevered, grasping the bow! I came to conclude that it was on every window of opportunity to not freezing water of the polar region encapsulate the splendor of Antarctica’s or the reptilian-like leopard seal that is magnificent wilderness. With an intensity dangerous, but the thoughtlessness of a unfelt since puberty, I fought to retain the infinite impressions that Austral winter of June to October, the an expedition leader who had flooded the senses. environ of surrounding heavy pack ice a mission in life to make sure I Towering mountains increases in area to more than seven failed. rose abruptly out of the million square miles. If these were to Shooting in Antarctica is a sea, shrouded with steep melt with the current trend of increasing challenge for the photographer glaciers plundering down global temperature, seven million cubic and equipment to survive the to deep freezing waters. square miles of water would be released, elements; sub-zero temperatures, Superlatives necessitate resulting in the ocean rising between 45 melting ice, powdery snow a new meaning. Sunsets to 60m! This catastrophic event would and volcanic ash don’t really expand the consciousness not only flood numerous coastal cities, go very well with cameras. To with colors that I have but the entire world’s weather would be pursue better quality time with never seen before, thrown into irreversible mayhem. the animals and a space to work bizarre and vivid, tinted in without the tourists, arrangements delicate shades of rose, Shooting in Antarctica were made for me to go off on orange, lavender and My personal objective for participating my own during shore excursions. gold that never seemed in a photography and dive expedition On every occasion, the to end. was to capture a sample of an above expedition leader-from-hell would Icebergs came in a and below portfolio of the Antarctica disrupt the plan, and in one myriad of sizes from the Peninsula. I soon realized that I was too instance, he had me scamper colossal to the petite ambitious. For the shoot, I had to carry a in icy conditions suited up in in fanciful shapes and 30kg backpack of cameras, a pole cam a dry suit, lugging a polecam, impossible hues of aqua, for each landing, and I had to fight with underwater housing, 30kg palest blue to mint green 29 X-RAY MAG : 37 : 2010 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED travel Antarctica Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) peeks into the camera; Common seal raises his head; Colony of Emperor Penguins floated on mirrored waters like rough- distance my lens, fell upon a leopard breed for the next generation. cut diamonds sculptured by artisans seal sun-basking on an ice flow right This proliferation of nature was from heaven. Antarctica fulfills the in the vicinity of the divers. That astonishing to watch as it took place childhood dream of adventure, would have made an awesome in the frozen, unforgiving landscape, exploration, and fantasy with its over-under picture. which harbors it. Yes, I did capture ethereal landscape. It shimmers with Despite the apparent hostility quite a few frames of mating Gentoo a savage beauty, unique wildlife of Antarctica, the coastal region, —my first of penguins doing naughty and raw power exceeding any especially at the peninsula, teems things. Along with the Adélies and expectations. The term, immense, with a profusion of wildlife. However, Chinstraps, Gentoos belong to the took on a new-found significance, as the animals are highly specialized, genus Pygoscelis, meaning “brush- I obstinately attempted to freeze the and whilst diversity is relatively low, tailed” and so-called because of moment onto film. I could only try. overall densities of individual species their long paint-brush shaped tails. are in astronomical numbers; there But really there are only two kinds Abundant life are tens of millions of penguins alone. of penguins in the Antarctica—the One morning at Charlotte Bay, while In this most fundamental of white ones walking towards you the divers got their first taste of diving environments, this sheer number of and the black ones walking away in sub-zero water temperature, I wildlife flourishes each spring and from you. Penguins are mostly white- managed to find a quiet locale to into the late summer as the Antarctic breasted with a black back! work on an over and under picture Peninsula “reawakens” from its cold Though I remember my fingers of an ice flow.