Date of Entry: February 21st 2016
Date of Writing: April 10th, Hostal Viajeros, El Chalten, Argentina.
We wake up early and set straight to work pulling up the anchor and unhooking the shore lines as we set off under cloudy but beautiful blue skies.. We’re leaving Brown station behind and heading towards our southernmost point of the trip. Vernadsky Station.
Vernadsky has become a near mythological name throughout the journey. It’s a former British base purchased by Ukraine for 1 pound back when england consolidated its antarctica program. It’s now a year round scientific base responsible for tons of important science, including a ton of research into the ozone whole. Darrel has prepped us for this place and it’s crazy Ukrainian scientists who spend so much of their lives in Antarctica. He’s friends with many of them and we have some special gifts loaded on board. As we head out from the bay behind Brown station, we know were in for some trouble.
The scenery is stunning as we sail south because, well it’s Antarctica and the scenery always seems stunning, especially when we’re lucky enough to have interesting clouds or better yet blue skies, which are still to come today. We may not have seen many whales so far, but the weather has been pretty damn kind to us.
As we continue sailing south the layered clouds start to recede revealing a pure blue and adding a certain dazzle to the ice all around us. Seals linger on ice bergs and watch us sailing by as the ocean around us narrows and we reach the beginning of the Lemaire channel, a beautiful and narrow passage that is clogged with ice too thick to penetrate all but a few months of the year. We’re going to try to pick our path through, as it’s beautiful and cuts hours off our trip down to Vernadsky.
The mountains tower all around us and we just hope there’s not a major avalanche from the imposing ice caps at the various summits, if there’s a big one we might be in some legitimate trouble. Eventually we open up into a slightly wider bay, the sun now dominating the clouds, there’s not a breath of wind meaning the water is like a mirror. A mirror covered in giant chunks of ice,but still it makes for some impressive reflections.
As we continue along through this blindingly beautiful place more and more seals start to appeal, mostly crabeaters lounging on top of bright blue ice, the mountains in the background. It’s cold today, but I spend most of the time out on deck, watching for seals, trying to spot some whales, and of course watching for ice as we navigate our way through
As we continue south the sky just keeps getting bluer and bluer and it even warms up a bit as we come out of the channel and start passing by the argentine islands archipelago drifting past more seals and just endless walls of glaciers glowing brightly under the perfect sky. We eventually duck into a maze of channels between the islands and pass by Vernadsky base, anchoring in a very sheltered little bay behind it and running out shore lines while dropping the anchor, which has become a much easier process as we’ve all gotten some practice at it by now. It’s amazing when you immerse yourself in something how quickly you can learn things, be it language, sailing, or anything else.
Once we’re anchored Darrel wastes no time getting in contact with the Ukrainians calling up on the radio and informing them he has come bearing gifts. Then it’s our turn to do some work, forming an assembly line and pulling the gifts out of the bottom of the boat. I end up on deck tossing the gifts to Darrel in the zodiac and soon enough we’ve got a boat full of booze. (Note this is not advocating drinking and boating) 48 litres of chateau collapsible (boxed) wine and 18 litres of whiskey. I find myself feeling quite sure we’ll be very popular here with the Ukrainians.
Darrel and James waste no time delivering the gift and organizing a visit for us later in the night, and, according to them, they are immediately greeted by a naked Bogdan emerging from the sauna, very happy to see Darrel and the alcohol alike. I feel unsure about the authenticity of this tory though as both Darrel and James are very good liars.
Back on the boat we’re offered a chance to go ashore, though only half of the group opts to do so, so soon enough Darrel takes a zodiac filled by myself, Tash, Josh, ulises and MAriana to shore close by and we go climbing up a big snow covered hill, careful not to stray too far to our right where Darrel has warned us of a large crevace hidden under the snow.
The clouds have rolled back in now but we’re heading up in the hopes of getting a view of the light on the distant mountains which Darrel has said was very impressive from the base itself. Of course it’s Antarctica, so pretty much no matter what it’s worth going ashore.
the climb is short but somewhat difficult in the near knee deep snow, still as we crest the big white hill we’re rewarded with a partial view of the light of the sun on distant cloudy peaks, and just an all around awesome view of the southern most seas I’m ever likely to see.
Now everybody knows that every australian loves beaches, and that if they do not get to visit one regularly they start hallucinating and believing they are on the beach regardless of where they actually are. At least for me that’s the only explanation for what happens next, Tash allowing us to make a snow penguin of her, burying every part of her save the face (You should have let us bury your face too!). We then make a penguin outline around her and boom, you have the rarest penguin of them all, the 6 foot tall Australian white snow penguin!
We watch the light on the mountains for a good while longer before heading back down towards the boat, and inspired by Tash and our experience at brown base we decide to build our own minuatare snow slide. After all it does get you down the hill much more quickly than walking
Once we’re down at the bottom I learn something that instantly doubles my respect for Australia and Australians alike, a simple but genius game called stacks on, where you say stacks on (insert name here) and then everyone viciously tackles this person. As a teacher this game would be a nightmare, but as a backpacker, here in a good cushion of snow, it’s perfect and we start tackling each other before getting into a full on snowball fight. I didn’t bring gloves, but gloves just reduce accuracy, even if the cold does get to your fingers eventually.
Once we’re done with our all out war we head back to the spirit of sydney and enjoy a nice dinner. The others then go ashore to Vernadsky, but I’m exhausted and don’t feel up to a 4 am night which seems like a very real possibility so instead I volunteer to stay aboard and make sure the ship doesn’t shift anchors and enjoy a quiet night reading and enjoying being alone on the boat. I love each and every one of the people who I shared this Antarctica adventure with, but I’ll admit that it was nice to get some alone time to think and chill, and clean a bit. The others make it back before 1 am and had I known that would have been the case I probably would have gone, but there’s plenty of time left for more adventures at Vernadsky.
I do however send some various coins and bills from around South America with Josh to one of the Ukrainians who collects such things and in the morning I get a lovely and unexpected gifts of a few patches bearing the Vernadsky name. a lovely way to wake up. Stay tuned for more of our Ukrainian Antartica adventures.
