Antarctica: Land of superlatives

Trip of a lifetime reveals Antarctica’s spectacular nature

Story by Katharine Fletcher; images by Eric Fletcher

“Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. … This is your Captain speaking. We are incredibly fortunate because today is a beautiful day…”

According to Norwegian Captain Arild Hårvik of Hurtigruten’s MV Fram, all 19 days of our Antarctic expedition were beautiful — including those 22 hours when swells exceeded seven metres...

Being hardy Canadians we concurred. After all, December to February is summertime in the southern hemisphere, where we enjoyed “balmy” temperatures of +5C to -5C.

Ice rules

Nonetheless, the trip is an “expedition” because in Antarctica, ice rules. We selected Hurtigruten’s 19-day adventure because we wanted to experience not “only” Antarctica but also the Sub-Antarctic Falkland, South Georgia, and South Orkney islands. And penguins.

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Published in Ottawa’s Young@Heart newspaper, January/February issue, 2014.
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