The frozen continent, once only the domain of valorous explorers like Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen, has seen a rise in visitors over the past decade thanks to a spate of new expedition vessels.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
An increasingly fragile place of barren shores lapped by bone-chilling waters, Antarctica is home to every form of ice — in snow, glaciers and bergs — and a surprising amount of wildlife.
Story and photographs byMatt Dutile
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
Travellers come to explore both the fragility and endurance of life in this inhospitable region at the southern end of the world.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
It’s possible to lose hours on deck, watching the passing of giant icebergs or glancing down to find a view of penguin prints on the sea ice. There’s a chance to get closer, too — to kayak amid chunks of ice in places like Neko Harbour or to take an inflatable Zodiac boat to shore, watching as Adélie penguins waddle between the water and their rookeries.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
Birds have perhaps adapted to and persevered in Antarctica better than any other animal: breeding, nesting and rearing their young on pockets of barren rock. Some, like the blue-eyed shag, never migrate and can dive to extreme depths in search of food. There are skua, gulls, albatross, petrels and more here but no bird is more famous than the penguin.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
Short hikes over expansive ice fields allow visitors to admire their rookeries, such as those in Neko Harbour, built out of rocks by hundreds of gentoo penguins. While one penguin guards the nest, the others head out to sea to fish, pausing on bits of ice to rest or to escape predators.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
Brown Bluff, at the very tip of the Tabarin Peninsula, is where most travellers take their first steps on the Antarctic continent. Around 20,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins make their nests on the rocky scree under the imposing tuff cliffs, along with several hundred gentoo.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
Individual penguins will often hop to the top of larger rocks to survey the colony, and trumpet out calls soon picked up in a waving chorus by their peers. They make incredible leaps from the rocks back into the colony, before waddling off to their nearby mates.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
Deep in the continent, at the height of the Antarctic midsummer between December and February, the sun never sets. It will crest below the horizon for a few hours as the day ends, casting golden and pink light across expanses of ice, illuminating them in warm colours.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
The outline of other visitors to the region might appear between distant icebergs — perhaps an expedition vessel of between 150 to 200 passengers or a masted sailing boat of a few dozen.
Photograph by Matt Dutile
Published in the May 2024 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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