Antarctica

Overview

Antarctica is the world's southernmost continent, and the highest, driest, windiest and coldest one too. At about 14 million km² it's bigger than Europe, and around 98% of it is covered in ice that's almost 2 km thick on average. That ice holds roughly 70% of the world's fresh water.

Nobody lives here permanently. A few thousand scientists work at research stations in summer, far fewer through the winter, and no country owns it: the continent is shared under the Antarctic Treaty. Almost every visitor arrives by expedition ship to the Antarctic Peninsula, the long arm that reaches up towards South America.

History

People argued about whether a southern continent existed for centuries before anyone saw it. Captain Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle in the 1770s without spotting land, and the first confirmed sightings came in 1820. Sealers and whalers followed, and the hunting around South Georgia and the Peninsula was brutal: around 175,000 whales were processed at Grytviken alone.

The "heroic age" of exploration brought the race to the South Pole. Roald Amundsen got there first, on 14 December 1911, and Robert Falcon Scott's team arrived a month later and died on the way back. Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance was crushed by sea ice in 1915. He left 22 men on Elephant Island, sailed a lifeboat 800 miles to South Georgia and crossed its mountains to get help, and every one of them survived.

In 1959, twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty, which keeps the continent for peace and science, bans military activity and mining, and freezes territorial claims. Many more countries have joined since.

Wildlife

The land is almost lifeless, but the sea around it is one of the richest on Earth, all thanks to krill. On the Peninsula you'll see gentoo, Adélie and chinstrap penguins, Weddell, crabeater and leopard seals, and in summer humpback, minke and fin whales, plus orcas if you're lucky. Emperor penguins breed deep in the south on the sea ice and are rarely seen on Peninsula trips.

Most trips also stop at the sub-Antarctic islands on the way. South Georgia has some of the biggest king penguin colonies in the world, along with fur seals and enormous elephant seals, and the Falklands have rockhopper, Magellanic and gentoo penguins. Wandering albatrosses follow the ships for days.

Things to see

• The Lemaire Channel: a narrow passage between towering, snow-covered peaks, often so still the cliffs reflect perfectly in the water.
• Deception Island: a flooded volcanic caldera you sail into through a narrow gap called Neptune's Bellows, with old whaling ruins on the beach. It's the classic spot for a polar plunge.
• Elephant Island and Point Wild: the bleak spit of rock where Shackleton's men waited four and a half months to be rescued.
• The Antarctic mainland: landings like Cape Tuxen and Neko Harbour let you stand on the continent itself, not just its islands.
• Port Lockroy: a restored British base with a museum and a post office for sending postcards home.
• Icebergs: tabular bergs the size of cities break off the ice shelves and drift north. A23a, one of the biggest in the world, started drifting again in 2020 after decades stuck on the seabed.
• South Georgia: not technically Antarctica, but on the way on longer trips: Grytviken whaling station, Shackleton's grave and the king penguins of St Andrews Bay and Gold Harbour.

Trips run from November to March, the southern summer. Most leave from Ushuaia in Argentina and take around 10 days for the Peninsula, or about three weeks with the Falklands and South Georgia. Expect the Drake Passage to be rough: it's the price of admission.

My trip

I went in December 2024 on the Hondius, an expedition of almost three weeks from Ushuaia via the Falklands and South Georgia. It ticked off continent number seven, and it was an absolute pleasure and a privilege.

In the Falklands there were rockhoppers on New Island and gift shops in Stanley. South Georgia was something else: king penguins and their fluffy brown chicks at Fortuna Bay, around half a million kings at St Andrews Bay, a white Christmas at Gold Harbour, and chinstraps and macaronis at Cooper Bay. We also paid our respects at Shackleton's grave in Grytviken.

We couldn't get to the South Orkneys because of sea ice, so instead we sailed past A23a, an iceberg around 35 miles long, and crossed 60 degrees south to Elephant Island and Point Wild. At Deception Island I enjoyed the hike so much I ran a lap in my wellies, then did the polar plunge. On New Year's Eve we sailed the Lemaire Channel (wow), watched whales at Cape Tuxen and stepped onto the Antarctic mainland itself. New Year's Day meant humpbacks, leopard seals and penguin chicks just a day old.

The Drake Passage home had swells of up to 8 metres. I also won the ship's photo competition in the landscape category with a sunset shot, so I'll take that.

Interesting facts

• The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth, −89.2°C, was measured at Russia's Vostok Station in 1983.
• The highest point is Mount Vinson, at 4,892 m.
• Parts of the interior are technically a desert, with less precipitation than the Sahara.
• If all of Antarctica's ice melted, sea levels would rise by about 58 metres.
• There are no time zones as such: research stations usually keep the time of the country that supplies them.

Run a marathon in Antarctica

Antarctica Marathon

King George Island · usually March

Reached by expedition ship from Argentina, with places booked years ahead. For something even more extreme, the Antarctic Ice Marathon is run in December near the South Pole.

It's on my bucket list

Dates move from year to year, so check the race website before you book.

My videos from Antarctica

• Penguins of Antarctica and South Georgia (sound on)
  South Georgia, the Falklands and Antarctica

• Fluffy king penguin chicks in South Georgia
  South Georgia

• Sailing the Lemaire Channel, Antarctica
  Lemaire Channel, Antarctica

• Elephant seals play-fighting in South Georgia (sound on)
  South Georgia

• Crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica
  Drake Passage

• Antarctica from the deck of an expedition ship
  Antarctica

• King penguin chicks in South Georgia
  South Georgia

• Whales feeding in Antarctica
  Antarctic Peninsula

• Icebergs in the Lemaire Channel
  Lemaire Channel, Antarctica

• Seals of South Georgia (sound on)
  South Georgia and the Falklands

• Rockhopper penguins and albatrosses, Falklands
  New Island, Falklands

• Penguin and chick, Antarctica
  Petermann Island, Antarctica

• Fur seal pup, South Georgia
  South Georgia

• Furness Glacier, Elephant Island
  Elephant Island, Antarctica

• King penguins crossing a stream
  South Georgia

• Elephant seals at Gold Harbour
  Gold Harbour, South Georgia

• Penguins coming ashore, Falklands
  Falkland Islands

• Sunset in the Southern Ocean
  Southern Ocean

• South Georgia wildlife (sound on)
  South Georgia

My films from Antarctica

• Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands: my expedition on the HondiusWatch on my YouTube channel

My photos from Antarctica

Close

Plan your trip to Antarctica

• Antarctic and Arctic expeditionsOceanwide ExpeditionsThe small expedition ships I sailed to Antarctica with, including the Hondius.

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Neighbours

No land borders with other countries.