Heading south for Christmas

Our first day in Antarctica began with an early start. We were woken at 2.45am after our charter flight with DAP was cleared for departure at 6am. Why the early start? The weather is incredibly fickle in the polar regions and so pilots take advantage of any suitable four-hour flight window. Today our flight would take us from Punte Arenas to the South Shetland islands in less than two hours, literally skipping over the dreaded Drake Passage and thus avoiding two days of rough sailing.

It was a magic moment entering the Punta Arenas airport terminal and seeing one flight on the departure board with Antarctica listed as its final destination. The flight itself was uneventful.  We landed shortly before 8am on December Eve at Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin airport located on the western tip of King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands. 

We'd flown south in a BAE340 aircraft. This four-jet jet has a high wing design, making it ideal for short runways and airports lacking paved tarmac; which Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin offers in abundance. The runway consists of compressed gravel and is barely 1200 metres long. It a barren, desolate location surrounded by gravel, snow and ice.

Our cruise group consisted of 59 people; largely American, Australian and British folk. The group had met the previous evening for an initial orientation briefing and a welcome dinner at Palacio Sara Braun; one of Punta Arenas’ iconic hotel buildings. We dined on local lamb under the cover of an ornate glass atrium after enjoying a delicious King Crab appetizer.  The chef even brought one of these enormous crabs into the dining room for us to admire.

Landing on King George Island proved rather uneventful. The touchdown was no rougher than most commercial flights I’ve experienced. However, the scene outside was as barren and remote as any I’ve ever seen. Antarctica consists principally of rock, snow and ice; and very little else. We later learnt that our polar journey was taking us through the continent’s most scenic locations. Apparently, the further south you travel the more monotonous the scenery becomes as snow and ice progressively smother every geographic feature.

The airport on King George Island serves a large number of research bases scattered around Maxwell Bay. Within a few miles of each other can be found Russian, Chilean, Argentine and Chinese bases among others. Perhaps the most prominent feature in the area is a small wooden Russian Orthodox church sitting on the crest of a low hill overlooking Bellingshausen, the Russian Base; more about this building in a later post.

As we made our way down to the foreshore to meet the expedition team an unusual monument caught my eye. It's a copper globe inscribed with a map of the world, perched atop a flat-panelled cone. Each panel is inscribed with the name of signatories to the 1950 Antarctic treaty. This treaty suspended all sovereign territory claims to Antarctica, while later amendments control (or rather, ban) access to the continent's mineral resources. 

We heard a lot about the treaty during our cruise.  Its terms have dramatically influenced the character of human activity in the polar region; particularly activity associated with research and the strategic value of maintaining a continual presence.

We reached our ship by boarding inflatable zodiac boats beached on the shore of Maxwell Bay. In preparation for this wet transfer, we’d been instructed to board our flight wearing rubber boots supplied by the cruise company and our waterproof polar pants and jacket. The ship, Ocean Nova, was perfectly adequate for our cruise. It offered a panoramic lounge at the front of the ship, a library overlooking the back of the ship and a spacious dining room midship. Our cabin was simple but comfortable. We each had a single bunk and a small bathroom with plenty of hot water.

Click here for a post on our first two excursions; both of which took place in Maxwell Bay.  Then on to posts containing the most stunning images, I swear my camera will ever record. Oh yes, in case you're wondering, the time zone on board remained synchronised with Chile during our entire cruise.

Hola America del Sur!

Garry and I have arrived without incident in Santiago, Chile. We've now been travelling by train and plane for almost 30 hours since leaving Interlaken yesterday morning. Our flight from Frankfurt was eventually delayed almost four hours. This meant that the scheduled transit stop in Madrid occurred at the unholy hour of 1am.

We also had some sort of medical emergency on board shortly before landing in Spain. As a result, we were asked to remain seated at the gate until a team of medics boarded and made its way down the aisle. Soon after we deplaned an ambulance pulled up to the rear exit making for some rather morbid entertainment in the middle of the night. This incident also delayed our departure until after 3.30am.

These cascading delays meant that we arrived in Santiago too late to make our connecting flight to Punta Arenas. Fortunately LAN Chile automatically rebooked us on a mid-afternoon departure which has left us killing time for a couple of hours at the airport. We're now in the lounge making the most of its free wi-fi access.

There's also a small silver lining to this latest delay. Our original flight to Punta Arenas included a transit stop, adding at least an hour to the journey south. Our new connection is a direct flight. We'll finally arrive at the southern tip of Chile around 7pm this evening. How remarkable. In less than 48 hours we'll have travelled from the heart of the Swiss Alps to a town located a few hundred kilometres from Cape Horn. Two hundred years ago the same journey would have taken four months or more.

We've been checking the forecast for Esperanza Research Base on the Antarctic peninsula, located roughly 150km from King George's Island. We board our cruise from this island following a 2.5 hour flight from Punta Arenas. It seems that our luck with the weather may be about to run out. The forecast for the next ten days at Esperanza consists largely of overcast skies, light snow or rain. Our cruise may be rather damp. However I'm holding on to the naive notion that the weather will be a little better a few hundred kilometres west of Esperanza.

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• Location:Armando Cortinez,Santiago,Chile

UPDATE:

I've posted a few photos from Punta Arenas taken during our 36-hour stopover in Chile's southern-most city. We were surprised to discover just how large the city was despite its remote and foreboding location.  More than 155,000 people live in the city and its surrounding suburbs. We'd expected to encounter a small ramshackle town of 10-20,000.

We wandered through town checking out the local sights. This included an impressive statue of Ferdinand Magellan in the tree shrouded Plaza de Armas. The famous straits that bear his name are just a short walk away. While strolling along the waterfront Garry spotted a restaurant, Parrilla Los Ganaderos, grilling unbelievably tender Magellan Lamb on a charcoal spit. Naturally we stopped for lunch.

Our stopover in Punta Arenas wasn't without a few dramatic moments. Our luggage went missing between Santiago and Punta Arenas, no doubt caught up in transit delays we experienced while flying between Europe and South America. 

LAN Chile representatives at Punta Arenas airport gave us a number to call that was never answered and we began to despair that we'd have nothing to wear in Antarctica. However, the staff at Antarctica XXI, our cruise tour company, quickly came to the rescue. They had contacts at the airline who were able to track down and deliver our luggage less than ten hours before our flight to Antarctica departed. 

As the hours counted down, we were also reassured that if our luggage arrived too late, Antarctica XXI had backup plans in place to ensure we'd have suitable clothing for our cruise. This included a standing arrangement with a local retailer who was ready to open his doors at midnight if required. Thank goodness it never came to that.

The top of Europe

Another brief post to update you on our movements. Since leaving Liechtenstein we've travelled the length of the Swiss Alps on the aptly named Glacier Express train, stopped for a day in Bern and caught the world-famous Jungfraujoch cog railway up to a dazzling snow-covered observation platform 3,500 metres above sea level (both photos in this post were taken from my lunch-time restaurant seat at Jungfraujoch).

Thank goodness we left the UK when we did. As a result we've avoided the travel chaos that's swept across Northern Europe for the last four days thanks to unseasonably heavy snowfalls. Thousands of flights have been cancelled, stranding ten of thousands of passengers and transforming airport terminals into temporary camp sites.

Airport operators say that the sheer volume of snow - in some areas 12.7cm (five inches) fell in just one hour on Saturday - led to extensive ice build-up around aircraft on the ground trapping aircraft at their stands.

Fortunately, we've been far enough south to avoid the worst of the foul weather. Instead, we've been blessed with blue skies every day an alpine outing has been scheduled or have enjoyed a cheery dose of light, fluffy (romantic Christmas quality) snow on days where it made for an ideal backdrop.

I'm currently writing this post from the lounge at Frankfurt Airport where we've just checked in for our flight to Chile. We've checked in without a problem but have been told our flight will depart at least two hours late. The flight has been leaving late for the last four days (we've been checking online every night) so tonight's delay appears normal at this stage. The airline gave each of us a €10 voucher to spend at half a dozen restaurants in the terminal so we're happy.

On our way into the terminal, we did see the hall where hundreds of camp beds were set up on Sunday for stranded travellers. We saw this scene and other chaotic images on CNN last night and so we wondered what might greet us when we arrived this afternoon. Fortunately, most camp beds were empty today but there are plenty of queues at airline desks around the terminal. The departure board is also showing dozens of cancelled flights and plenty of lengthy delays.

Merry Christmas everyone. This may be my last post until we return from our cruise in Antarctica.

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Bern and bears

We kicked off our first night in Switzerland with an overnight stop in the city of Bern, or Berne as it’s sometimes known. I last visited the city in 1990. I recalled being enthralled by the grandeur of its cobblestone streets and the covered stone arcades of its old town. The city remained just as captivating two decades later. 

On this latest visit, we arrived in Bern shortly after dusk, following an eventful day traveling through the Alps on the Glacier Express. I booked us into the Hotel Continental, a highly-rated budget hotel located in the heart of the old city. We were determined to make the most of our brief overnight stop. So, after checking in, we ventured out to explore the old city after dark until the cold finally got the better of us.

Bern's old city is a scenic and compact district straddling the River Aare. Many of its earliest dwellings, built in 12th Century, have been carefully preserved. Their stone facades make for an impressive sight as they gracefully wrap around the river's steep, curving banks. We spent several hours the following morning wandering its streets, soaking up its enduring grace and charm before catching an early afternoon train to Interlaken. 

Bern is currently the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. It's home to more than 125,000 but still retains a village feel. It serves as a defacto capital for the federal alpine nation. Its name is derived from the German word for bear. In keeping with these origins the city has maintained a drab bear pit by the river Aare since the 16th Century. When I last visited several bored animals were restlessly wandering around a soulless, stark, concrete enclosure set well below street level.

I’m pleased to report that, two decades later, the bears have been relocated. They now reside in a spacious new park on a gentle slope overlooking the river. When we visited, two families of healthy-looking animals could be seen frolicking in the snow. The old bear pit is now completely abandoned.

According to local guidebooks, the most famous sight in Bern is the Zytglogge, or time bell. This is an elaborate medieval clock tower that displays a different collection of moving puppets each time a new hour is struck. We briefly stopped to watch it in action as we wandered the old town.

However, the most memorable sight during our visit was a display of Christmas candles we encountered outside Bern's imposing 15th Century town hall the night before. Hundreds of candles were set up in an impressive display on the plaza out the front of the building. It seems we timed our visit well as the entire installation was gone the following morning.

Perhaps one of the most surreal sights in Bern is the Kindlifresser, or “Child Eater” sculpture. This disturbing fountain towers above the street in the centre of town. It depicts a baby half stuffed into a giant’s mouth, with a sack full of three alarmed tots slung over his shoulder, no doubt for later snacking. 

Erected in 1546, it's one of the city's oldest fountains. Oddly, nobody's sure why it’s there. Currently, there are three popular theories as to its origins. However, I tend to support the view that it's a boogie man from Switzerland’s Fastnacht, or ”Night of Fasting” festival. I can just imagine harried parents deciding it would motivate children to behave themselves almost five centuries ago.

While wandering through town we were delighted to catch a glimpse of the city's recently restored steam tram. It was built in 1894 and remained in operation on the city network until it was replaced by electric trams in 1908. The tram was restored to working order in 2002. It currently operates regular tram tours through the old town and across the scenic Kirchenfeld Bridge. No doubt, if we’d planned our day a little better we’d have booked a ticket. 

UPDATE: May 2024
I’ve decided to date change this post so that it appears sequentially after our day trip on the spectacular Glacier Express..

The Glacier Express

The first anniversary of our departure from London is barely a week away. We cannot believe a year has passed. It feels like only yesterday that we were riding trains through the snow-clad Swiss Alps. As I look back through old blog posts I can see we never told you about our day trip on the stunning Glacier Express.

This is scenic tourist train that traverses the spine of Switzerland’s alpine region. It runs 291kms from the exclusive ski resort of St Moritz west towards Zermatt, nestled on the slopes of the Matterhorn. The route takes passengers through winding, picturesque river valleys, across plunging rocky gorges and over soaring, narrow mountain passes. The entire journey takes the better part of a day to complete.

Our itinerary didn’t allow for an end-to-end passage so we boarded the train at Chur, a town 65kms north of St Moritz, before leaving it at Brig, about 40km east of Zermatt. However, even this truncated four-hour route was worth every penny. The views were unbelievable and, as luck would have it, we travelled on a day filled with blue sky and sunshine for most our journey. In fact, the weather was nothing short of a miracle. At the time, Northern Europe was being smothered by the heaviest snowstorm in decades.

The train itself is designed to ensure the best possible view. Each carriage offer wide, panoramic windows that stretch the length of each carriage and up into the roof line. We booked seats that offered a hot lunch served in comfort at our table; a far cry from the arduous, bitterly cold trek endured by generations past. Our only tribulation was trying to take memorable photos without distracting glare and reflections.

From Chur we journeyed through the Rhine Gorge, where towering cliff faces follow the tracks for miles. The train then hooks on to a special cogwheel locomotive before making its way slowly up the Oberalppass. At 2033 metres, this is the highest point of the journey. Here the train glides past snow-capped mountains surrounded by undulating landscape of white in every direction. At times it was as if the train was travelling through the blank pages of an unfinished novel.

It then descends along a series of dramatic, twisting spirals and cliff-hugging ledges to the town of Andermatt, one the main north-south route across the Alps. The train then passes through the Furka Basis Tunnel for 15kms, a 20-minute journey in darkness before emerging in a completely different valley system; the Rhone, filled with tiny villages and rolling hills. Here the track also drops 150 metres down to the valley floor by lopping through a 270° spiral tunnel.

We left the train at Brig as our final destination was north to the city of Bern. However, we made the most of our Eurail ticket by catching the local train that deftly winds its way up the opposite side of the valley. Our train slowly wound its way ever higher through yet more stunning landscape and alpine vistas before plunging into the 14.5km long Lötschberg Tunnel. This was once the only way across the Alps in the immediate area until a new, even longer Lötschberg Base Tunnel was opened in 2007.

Garry and I were fascinated by the car shuttle service that takes accompanied vehicles through the tunnel. The main road literally ends in a rail siding where cars are driven onto open sided freight carriages and taken through the mountain. They then disembark 20 minutes later at the opposite end where the road begins again. At peak times, the car transport service operates every 7½ minutes in each direction. Gosh the Swiss are ingenious.

UPDATE: May 2024

I’ve decided to date change this post so that it appears sequentially after our overnight stop in Liechtenstein.