One of many largest questions we’ve gotten is about how we travelled to Antarctica so I figured I’d as effectively present you the total journey we took from London (our residence 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 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 occasions by going direct.
Additionally, on the time once we travelled in the event you take a look at optimistic for you understand what, you possibly can’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 the perfect thought for this journey.
So yeah, we booked British Airways flight direct to Buenos Aires for the January the 2nd however that flight really 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 because of our resolution to isolate earlier than travelling we really ended up doing nothing for New Yr’s Eve anyway.
To be trustworthy, we’d already began isolating even earlier than Christmas. We’d been planning this journey for years and it had really been postponed a couple of occasions already so now that we had confirmed plans in place, we wished to do our perfect from our finish to strive to not take a look at 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 on account of isolation, we wouldn’t be exploring these metropolis earlier than our journey both.
Anyway, so quick ahead – we arrived in Buenos Aires on the break of day and went over to our resort – The Alvear Palace resort.
Fortunately, regardless that it could 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’d add.
Dinner of Argentine steaks and Malbec at an unimaginable restaurant subsequent door known as Fervor, which we have been advised by our resort concierge that the Prince of Belgium totally 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 in the event 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 no less than 30kg every.
Oh and I nearly forgot to say, in case your suitcase is any increased than 23kg, it must be despatched by cargo which suggests it’ll 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 possibly can’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 price is a £7/$10 cost for the withdrawal that means taking £7 out really price us £14 in whole.
So, we have been introduced with an alternative choice – sending money to ourselves by way of Western Union cash switch. The speed is definitely good – you get twice the quantity of native forex in change in the event you do 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 automotive however that meant we wanted money to get one and so this cycle of continually on the lookout for one thing new simply continued.
Finally, because of the £7 from earlier, we finally bought 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 images of ourselves with our passports and extra.
In any case of that, the SIM playing cards then didn’t work and finally, whereas making our means by city in seek for suitcases, we made it to a cell phone store which is the place we have been advised that it could take no less than 4 days for the SIM playing cards to be lively 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 received’t be a lot use, Euros are barely higher however American {dollars} is vital! Take {dollars} with you. If you happen to change money, you will get that unimaginable double change fee I discussed earlier that means your cash is actually price twice as a lot as in the event 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 one of the crucial well-known golf equipment in Ibiza. Once more, in Ushuaia, we determined to maintain very low key and follow 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 Lodge del Glaciar, which to be honest, had a fairly respectable wine record… which we proceeded to work our means by.
From Ushuaia, we’d then should cross essentially the most highly effective sea convergence on this planet and essentially the most treacherous sea voyage on this planet – the Drakes passage. That is the place the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean and the waves right here may be as much as 12 metres / 40 toes excessive. And that’s earlier than winds of as much as 50 knots. (I don’t really know what that basically means however I’m advised it’s so much).
Or you possibly can have a fairly 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 will have of going to Antarctica. Years in the past once 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, unimaginable eating room, beautiful social areas and exquisite bedrooms. Suffice to say, the second we discovered about Ocean Victory, it was such a simple 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 finished with the Drakes Passage, the subsequent cease is Antarctica – the place your cruise ship might 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 fulfill the locals of Antarctica.
Catch you within the subsequent submit for all of that.
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