Antarctica – 2022

Traveling to Antarctica is not easy at the best of times, but during Covid it has been a bridge too far for most sensible people; the 2020 season was impossible and 2021 was extremely challenging. In the last 24 months there have been very few visitors, but even that did not stop Covid infections at some of the scientific bases. Visitors have been unable to get in and some have been unable to get out. It’s been the perfect storm.

We finally made it there last week after our plans in late November were scuppered due to Omicron concerns. My son and I camped for four nights in a modest tent near the German research base at Atka Bay, but the sizeable 25,000 strong Emperor Penguin colony near the base had dissipated with the majority of the adult penguins returning to fish the open sea. The remainder of the colony had moved to the sea ice and unfortunately to a place inaccessible without ropes and harnesses. This would have been a long way to go for nothing.

Fortunately, we had been made aware of this development by the wonderful team at White Desert, so at their recommendation we were joined in Atka by Chamonix mountaineering legend – Sam Beauguy – who would keep us safe on the hazardous treks to the colony. To be fair he “base jumps” for fun, so this was never going to be a challenge for him.