A trip to Antarctica aboard the Viking Octantis

After an hour of admiring football-shaped Gentoo penguins waddle around their nesting site, it’s time to get back on board the ship. 

That means a pass through the vessel’s biosecurity station, where a crewmember from the Viking Octantis power washes penguin poop off my rubber boots and I shuffle through a disinfecting scrubber. The routine, standard for anyone who sets foot on the Seventh Continent, stops the spread of avian flu and other diseases. 

This Antarctic cruise focuses on science 

I’m spending 11 nights aboard the 378-passenger Octantis, which emphasizes education and science as it glides among icebergs, whales and penguin colonies. Before my trip ends, I’ll see humpback whales and orcas dip and dive. I’ll plunge to the ocean floor in a mini-submersible. I’ll watch a leopard seal float past on a pod of ice. Thanks to a lineup of workshops and lectures, I’ll also understand why it’s so important to protect this pristine environment. 

“Antarctica just blows people away,” Judith Scott, a marine mammal specialist aboard the Octantis, tells me one night over dinner on the ship. “It’s the endlessness of it that I like the most. It just beautiful in every single direction.” 

She’s right.  

From Ushuaia, Argentina, it takes nearly two days to sail through the sometimes-rough Drake Passage and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. Once you’re there, though, the vast expanse of blue water and white ice swallows you whole. It feels otherworldly. 

“It’s different every time we go,” says Olivia Dellow, the Octantis’ expedition leader, who has a degree in zoology. “I came down for the wildlife, but I get more excited now watching the icebergs – it’s a whole story in one piece of water.” 

Read more: Mountains, glaciers and more on a Smithsonian Journeys trip to Patagonia 

Travel to Antarctica is growing 

Since 1991, the number of ships visiting Antarctica has increased from two to more than 80, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, or IAATO. The non-profit agency operates within the framework of the Antarctic Treaty. It doesn’t promote tourism but works to make sure that those who do visit do so responsibly. 

It’s important work. In 2014, about 26,312 people visited Antarctica. By last year, that number had jumped to about 120,000 – including nearly 80,000 who, like me, stepped on land to see the wildlife up close. Despite the general upward trend, visitation is expected to drop by about 5 percent this season due to economic uncertainty, says Lisa Kelley, executive director of IAATO. 

“If you look at other places, it’s not a huge number, but it’s an area that needs to be protected and travel there needs to be done correctly,” Kelley says.  

If done well, she says, travelers who visit Antarctica become ambassadors who want to protect it. IAATO works within the Antarctic Treaty to offer guidance on how to interact with wildlife and stay safe in such a remote corner of the planet. 

Where does an Antarctic cruise go? 

Most tourism takes place in a concentrated area along the Antarctic Peninsula, which curls up toward South America like a scorpion’s tail. We hop from island to island, setting foot on the continent just once. Everything is regulated – we’re divided into small groups to reduce impact, and our time on land is limited. Even our clothing has been inspected by crew members, who pluck off wayward threads and vacuum each item when the cruise begins.  

Our itinerary depends on the weather. Temperatures are warmer than I expected, hovering around freezing most days. But our attempt to sail through the scenic Lemaire Channel is thwarted by ice and fog. Still, we stop at seven sites, including Fournier Bay, Mikkelsen Harbour, Damoy Point and Half Moon Island.  

I learn that penguins always have the right of way. If one approaches, we back up. If one decides to nap in the middle of the snow-packed route, we wait for it to move. 

At Port Lockroy, which monitors and protects historic sites including the wreck of the Endurance, we meet the five-person staff. The station houses the southern-most post office in the world, and I pop a card in the mail. With a little luck, it’ll make its way back to Texas in three or four months. 

Another day we walk among piles of bleached bones at an old whaling station. It’s a stark reminder of how the industry nearly decimated the population of blue, fin and humpback whales in the early 1900s. In 1982, the International Whaling Commission enacted a global moratorium on commercial whaling, creating the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Since then, the humpbacks – and to a lesser extent the fin whales – have rebounded. The huge blue whales remain critically endangered.  

One day, we hop in kayaks and paddle past napping fur seals at Recess Cove. Another, I climb into a bright yellow, six-passenger submersible named Paul and plummet 450 feet to the bottom of the sea. There, I peer out curved glass windows at a surprising amount of life. Sea stars with legs like spaghetti cling to rocks; a pudgy octopus hunkers down on a rock. 

Read more: From tortoise to penguins, wildlife takes center stage on a Galapagos Islands cruise 

Viking’s Antarctic cruises focus on education 

Orca swim alongside the Viking Octantis in Antarctica. Pam LeBlanc photo

At night we attend lectures about krill, whales, seals and penguins. We learn about Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the first explorer to reach South Pole, and watch the documentary “March of the Penguins.” In the ship’s on-board science lab, we meet staff scientists who study phytoplankton. One morning, those scientists release a weather balloon.  

I wonder, the whole time, about the impact of tourism here. Am I contributing to a problem by making this trip? No one has done a significant study of the impact of tourism here, and the Antarctic Treaty doesn’t cap the number of ships that can visit Antarctica each season. Still, all vessels must get permits and authorization, which subjects them to an environmental impact assessment.  

Tips for choosing an Antarctic cruise 

If you’re considering a trip to Antarctica, IAATO recommends booking an experienced operator that emphasizes safety and environmental considerations.  

Not all do. A well-managed commercial ship can land up to 500 people at a site, rotating them so that no more than 100 are on ground at once, with minimal impact, Kelley says. But a handful of people from a small yacht who behave badly around a penguin colony can wreak havoc. 

I peer out my cabin window and watch another iceberg, this one the size of a two-story house, drift past. A dozen penguins zoom across the water, bounding like porpoises. I can’t believe I’m here. 

“It is an incredibly special environment and it’s a real privilege for anybody to travel there,” Kelly says. “We want to make sure we maintain that as much as possible for the next generations.”