One of many largest questions we’ve gotten is about how we travelled to Antarctica so I figured I’d as nicely present you the complete journey we took from London (our house metropolis) to Antarctica. Plus, it takes me proper to the very begin of this journey so it’s a great way to start out this story, I assume. 😁😁😁😁
Proper, so from London we booked a direct flight to Buenos Aires in Argentina. There are oblique flight choices which join through different cities on the way in which to Buenos Aires. That being mentioned, even a direct flight is like 14 hours so we determined to simply restrict journey instances by going direct.
Additionally, on the time once we travelled in case you take a look at constructive for you understand what, you’ll be able to’t board the ship to Antarctica so we determined to restrict our publicity to folks and figured ready round in a connection airport most likely wasn’t one of the best thought for this journey.
So yeah, we booked British Airways flight direct to Buenos Aires for January the 2nd however that flight truly received cancelled by British Airways and our reserving received moved to New 12 months’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 12 months’s Eve hangover on New 12 months’s day however due to our resolution to isolate earlier than travelling we truly ended up doing nothing for New 12 months’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 wished to do our best possible from our finish to attempt to not take a look at constructive.
Oh, and we’d additionally made plans to reach in Argentina a couple of days early to discover the cities we might be in earlier than boarding the ship to Antarctica however we’d completely forgotten that as a result of isolation, we wouldn’t be exploring these cities earlier than our journey both.
Anyway, so quick ahead – we arrived in Buenos Aires on the first light and went over to our resort – The Alvear Palace resort.
Fortunately, though 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 following 9 hours.
The remainder of the time in Buenos Aires was fairly chilled. Night drinks on the bar downstairs – extremely socially distanced, I’d add.
Dinner of Argentine steaks and Malbec at an unimaginable restaurant subsequent door known as Fervor, which we have been instructed by our resort concierge that the Prince of Belgium completely loved earlier that week. She did prefer to name-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 in case you’re not used to Kilograms). That may be prolonged to 23kg or 50 kilos however you do should pay further for that.
We nevertheless arrived in Argentina with 1 suitcase every, each of which weighed at the least 30kg.
Oh and I virtually forgot to say, in case your suitcase is any larger than 23kg, it needs to be despatched by cargo which implies it’s going to arrive many days after you arrive at your vacation spot.
So we determined we had to purchase further 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.
Seems you’ll be able to’t simply take money out in Argentina simply. That’s a complete story for an additional day however after hours of making an attempt we managed to get simply £7/$10 out of a money machine, however that value is a £7 ($10) cost for the withdrawal that means taking £7 out truly value us £14 in whole.
So, we have been introduced with another choice – sending money to ourselves through Western Union cash switch. The speed is definitely good – you get twice the quantity of native forex in trade in case you try this.
However to do the Western Union switch, we wanted to have an area cellphone quantity. So, we went out to search for an area sim card however that meant we wanted money to get one and so this cycle of continually in search of one thing new simply continued.
Ultimately, due to the £7 from earlier, we finally received SIM playing cards however they wanted to get activated.
The method is a complete dance wherein we needed to ship messages on Fb or Twitter, sending passports over, then take photographs 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 approach via city searching for suitcases, we made it to a cell phone store.
That is the place we have been instructed that it might take at the least 4 days for the SIM playing cards to be energetic so there was no level in anticipating that we might 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. The 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} are key!
Take {dollars} with you. Should you trade money, you will get that unimaginable double trade fee I discussed earlier that means your cash is actually price twice as a lot as in case you’d paid with a card.
The following leg of the journey concerned a flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost metropolis on this planet… and the inspiration for the identify of some of the well-known golf equipment in Ibiza.
Once more, in Ushuaia, we determined to maintain very lowkey and stick with our resort (apart from a stint on the town to buy sea illness tablets).
For dinner and drinks, we caught to our resort, the Wyndham Backyard Ushuaia Resort del Glaciar, which to be honest, had a reasonably first rate wine listing… which we proceeded to work our approach via.
From Ushuaia, we might then should cross essentially the most highly effective sea convergence on this planet and essentially the most treacherous sea voyage on this planet – the Drake Passage.
That is the place the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean and the waves right here might be as much as 12 metres (40 toes excessive).
Plus, that’s earlier than winds of as much as 50 knots. (I don’t truly know what that basically means however I’m instructed it’s quite a bit).
Or you’ll be able to have a fairly calm crossing – all of which is completely depending on the climate.
For that crossing, and the important thing motive why we got here to Argentina to start with, we received on board the Ocean Victory ship by Albatros Expeditions.
Ocean Victory is a model new luxurious ship and completely defies the expectations you’ve of going to Antarctica. Years in the past once we began planning our journey, we have been anticipating to should do it in a hardcore expedition-type vessel with restricted facilities.
We weren’t anticipating a ship with a spa, fitness center, pool, unimaginable 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 received to Antarctica.
When you’re carried out with the Drake Passage, the following cease is Antarctica – the place your cruise ship can be your own home for nevertheless many days you’re selecting to spend there, with a lot of alternatives to get off the boat and go cruising or go on land to satisfy the locals of Antarctica.
Catch you within the subsequent submit, under, once we boarded our ship and crossed the Drake Passage.
Crossing The Drake Passage To Antarctica – What Is It Actually Like?
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