One of many greatest questions we’ve gotten is about how we travelled to Antarctica so I figured I would as nicely present you the total journey we took from London (our dwelling metropolis) to Antarctica. Plus, it takes me proper to the very begin of this journey so it’s a great way to begin this story, I suppose. 😁😁😁😁
Proper so from London we booked a direct flight to Buenos Aires in Argentina. There are oblique flight choices which join in different cities on the way in which to Buenos Aires however even a direct flight is like 14 hours so we determined to simply restrict journey instances by going direct.
Additionally, on the time after we travelled when you check optimistic for what, you may’t board the ship to Antarctica so we determined to restrict our publicity to individuals and figured ready round in a connection airport in all probability wasn’t one of the best thought for this journey.
So yeah, we booked British Airways flight direct to Buenos Aires for the January the 2nd however that flight truly bought cancelled by British Airways and our reserving bought moved to New Yr’s day as an alternative.
Factor is, we’d initially booked the journey on the 2nd of January as a result of we have been planning on nursing a New Yr’s Eve hangover on the New Yr’s day however due to our determination to isolate earlier than travelling we truly ended up doing nothing for New Yr’s Eve anyway.
To be sincere, we’d already began isolating even earlier than Christmas. We’d been planning this journey for years and it had truly been postponed a couple of instances already so now that we had confirmed plans in place, we needed to do our best possible from our finish to attempt to not check optimistic.
Oh, and we’d additionally made plans to reach in Argentina a couple of days early to discover the cities we’d be in earlier than boarding the ship to Antarctica however we’d completely forgotten that resulting from isolation, we wouldn’t be exploring these metropolis earlier than our journey both.
Anyway, so quick ahead – we arrived in Buenos Aires on the morning time and went over to our lodge – The Alvear Palace lodge.
Fortunately, although it might usually be too early to test in, we have been allowed to test in and with out skipping a beat, we promptly fell asleep for the subsequent 9 hours.
The remainder of the time in Buenos Aires was fairly chilled. Night drinks on the bar downstairs – extremely socially distanced, I would add.
Dinner of Argentine steaks and Malbec at an unbelievable restaurant subsequent door referred to as Fervor, which we have been advised by our lodge concierge that the Prince of Belgium completely loved earlier that week. She did like to call drop a bit.
There was one exception although. So, native flights in Argentina have a weight restrict of 15kg per suitcase (that’s 33 kilos when you’re not used to Kilograms). That may be prolonged to 23kg or 50 kilos however you do should pay additional for that.
We nevertheless arrived in Argentina with 1 suitcase every, each of which weighed at the very least 30kg every.
Oh and I virtually forgot to say, in case your suitcase is any greater than 23kg, it needs to be despatched by cargo which implies it should arrive many days after you arrive at your vacation spot.
So we determined we had to purchase additional suitcases and cut up our baggage between our previous and new suitcases. To purchase a brand new suitcase although we wanted to get some money out.
Seems you may’t simply take money out in Argentina simply. That’s a complete story for an additional day however after hours of attempting we managed to get simply £7/$10 out of a money machine, however that value is a £7/$10 cost for the withdrawal which means taking £7 out truly value us £14 in whole.
So, we have been introduced with another choice – sending money to ourselves by way of Western Union cash switch. The speed is definitely good – you get twice the quantity of native foreign money in alternate when you do this.
However to do the Western Union switch, we wanted to have a neighborhood cellphone quantity. So, we went out to search for a neighborhood sim automobile however that meant we wanted money to get one and so this cycle of continually searching for one thing new simply continued.
Ultimately, due to the £7 from earlier, we finally bought SIM playing cards however they wanted to get activated. The method is a complete dance through which we needed to ship messages on Fb or Twitter, sending passports over, then take images of ourselves with our passports and extra.
In spite of everything of that, the SIM playing cards then didn’t work and finally, whereas making our method by means of city in seek for suitcases, we made it to a cell phone store which is the place we have been advised that it might take at the very least 4 days for the SIM playing cards to be energetic so there was no level in anticipating that we’d be capable of use them at any level that day for the Western Union switch.
It was a complete ridiculous dance and that is genuinely how we spent the higher a part of a day in Buenos Aires. Ethical of the story – arrive in Buenos Aires with money.
And no, not Kilos, that gained’t be a lot use, Euros are barely higher however American {dollars} is vital! Take {dollars} with you. In the event you alternate money, you will get that unbelievable double alternate price I discussed earlier which means your cash is actually price twice as a lot as when you’d paid with a card.
The subsequent leg of the journey concerned a flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost metropolis on the earth… and the inspiration for the title of one of the vital well-known golf equipment in Ibiza. Once more, in Ushuaia, we determined to maintain very low key and follow our lodge (apart from a stint on the town to buy sea illness tablets).
For dinner and drinks, we caught to our lodge, the Wyndham Backyard Ushuaia Resort del Glaciar, which to be honest, had a fairly respectable wine listing… which we proceeded to work our method by means of.
From Ushuaia, we’d then should cross probably the most highly effective sea convergence on the earth and probably the most treacherous sea voyage on the earth – the Drakes passage. That is the place the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean and the waves right here will be as much as 12 metres / 40 toes excessive. And that’s earlier than winds of as much as 50 knots. (I don’t truly know what that basically means however I’m advised it’s loads).
Or you may have a relatively calm crossing – all of which is completely depending on the climate.
For that crossing, and the important thing purpose why we got here to Argentina to start with, we bought on board the Ocean Victory ship by Albatros Expeditions.
Ocean Victory is a model new luxurious ship and completely defies the expectations you have got of going to Antarctica. Years in the past after we began planning our journey, we have been anticipating to should do it in a tough core expedition kind vessel with restricted facilities.
We weren’t anticipating a ship with a spa, gymnasium, pool, unbelievable eating room, attractive social areas and delightful bedrooms. Suffice to say, the second we discovered about Ocean Victory, it was such a straightforward sure.
I’ll present you all about what that’s like within the subsequent episode however yeah, that’s how we bought to Antarctica.
When you’re carried out with the Drakes Passage, the subsequent cease is Antarctica – the place your cruise ship might be your house for nevertheless many days you’re selecting to spend there, with a number of alternatives to get off the boat and go cruising or go on land to fulfill the locals of Antarctica.
Catch you within the subsequent submit for all of that.
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