A brisk following wind sent us across the Scotia Sea at a good rate of knots, and morning found us winding our way through a field of spectacular icebergs along the southern flanks of the South Orkney Islands, one of the world’s more remote archipelagos. The frozen, windswept islands were discovered by British and American sealers in the 1820s and look as wild and forbidding today as they did back then. But it was the amazing field of icebergs – a sort of ‘Iceberg Alley’ – that gripped our imaginations as we approached the islands. These massive bergs were the remains of the break-up of the Larsen Ice Shelf, far to the south, looking wild and aloof with the big green rollers crashing against their flanks. They came in all shapes and sizes, including one towering giant which the National Geographic Endeavour’s First Officer measured by sextant and found to be 330 feet high.
We navigated our way to Laurie Island and paid a visit to the remote Argentine base, Orcadas, which sits on a low windswept neck of land at the head of Scotia Bay. This is the longest continuously occupied base anywhere in Antarctica, having originally been founded by the Scottish expedition led by William Bruce in 1902 and handed over to the Argentines in 1904. They’ve never left. About forty naval personnel and scientists reside here during the summer months, with the population dipping to about a dozen over the winter – but always outnumbered many times over by the hundreds of Antarctic fur seals who also call the base home.
While the seals regarded us with aloof curiosity, the Argentines greeted us all with the easy grace of true locals. We spent a couple of hours touring the old base, including paying a visit to the ruins of the stone hut built by the Bruce expedition.
The hospitality was warm, but the day itself was bitterly cold, a true Antarctic day with biting winds and stinging pellet-like bits of snow. After dropping off some thank-you gifts to our Argentine hosts, we boarded the ship again, grateful for its warmth and hot chocolate, and set off once more through Iceberg Alley, this time bearing north by east and on course for the magical island of South Georgia.
We navigated our way to Laurie Island and paid a visit to the remote Argentine base, Orcadas, which sits on a low windswept neck of land at the head of Scotia Bay. This is the longest continuously occupied base anywhere in Antarctica, having originally been founded by the Scottish expedition led by William Bruce in 1902 and handed over to the Argentines in 1904. They’ve never left. About forty naval personnel and scientists reside here during the summer months, with the population dipping to about a dozen over the winter – but always outnumbered many times over by the hundreds of Antarctic fur seals who also call the base home.
While the seals regarded us with aloof curiosity, the Argentines greeted us all with the easy grace of true locals. We spent a couple of hours touring the old base, including paying a visit to the ruins of the stone hut built by the Bruce expedition.
The hospitality was warm, but the day itself was bitterly cold, a true Antarctic day with biting winds and stinging pellet-like bits of snow. After dropping off some thank-you gifts to our Argentine hosts, we boarded the ship again, grateful for its warmth and hot chocolate, and set off once more through Iceberg Alley, this time bearing north by east and on course for the magical island of South Georgia.
