I traveled to Antarctica and nature was great – but the expensive £ 10k journey included a number of dangerous surprises

Antarctica, with its shiny icebergs, crystalline waters and amazing animals in the wild – from minums to Gentoo penguins – has become the adventurous destination for a choice for individuals with high wealth in recent years.

The average costs of a trip to this hard-to-reach corner of the world-two days through Boat from the tip of South America – sees little change of £ 10,000, but buys bragging that will last for decades.

Book on a trip to the ends of the earth and you will transcend from casual tourist to serious traveler, in the lead role in your own David Attenborough Documentary.

A word of warning from someone who has been; Note that a holiday is not – with horizontal ice, tumbling wine glasses and deadly seasickness on the menu for many who board the approximately 70 ‘luxury’ cruiseiners who leave the Argentinian port of Ushuaia every year.

In 2009 I landed a place on a cruise ship on the way to what remains one of the world’s most fascinating natural landscapes and, let’s be clear, I was very lucky to make this trip as a passenger – one of 1,000.

My first indication that this was not the journey I had in mind? When I was sought aside by a rogue selfie stick in a scrum of excited visitors at the first sight of a penguin.

In the late 1920s, a solid ship, the Fleurus, began to make an annual journey about turbulent Antarctic seas to deliver mail and supplies to remote control in South Georgia and the South Shetlands.

A few ‘tourist tickets’ were offered, so that people with the means could make an eye on the otherwise inaccessible banks of the Antarctic Peninsula.

These were the Blue Flights of the day, the Super Rich paid for travel with a touch of Derring-do, which had previously been the exclusive domain of competent explorers.

After that, 1969 saw the first tailor -made commercial tours to the region, and now even bunning arrivists such as I can stare at Antarctic miracles – and then all share it later on Tiktok (if you can get the WiFi, more of that later).

Tourism to the region exploded in the early 1990s and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) reported that around 100,000 people visited in the 2022-23 season – with around 70,000 of those people set foot.

How was my own experience? Sometimes it was sublime.

The perceptions of animals in the wild were Gentoo and Adelie Penguin kolonies, leopard seas that ran on stony bays, curious spinkwa fishing that go out of the waters.

Waking up to see virgin-white mountain-floes that stopped from Sapphire Waters is a lasting memory.

Knowing what I know now, would I do it again? That is an icy issue.

Let’s talk about the realities. Cruises usually sail from Ushuaia (on the southern point of Argentina) and spend a few days crossing the 600 nautical miles of the Drake passage.

Even at the height of the summer it is a gloomy, gray vastness, with temperatures around zero and horizontal black ice often greeting you on deck – no ideal conditions for shuffleboard.

And it can be a bumpy ride. Thin -similar wine glasses rattles over the dining table and sea bounds must be quickly developed to navigate through the corridors of the waving ship, so that you are not hunted in the course of the staff (sorry for that, captain Frank).

Internet was at its best spotty and outside a few presentations there is no huge see or do.

You get to know antibacterial hand wax, outbreaks of norovirus or even Legionnires disease are the worst nightmare of each cruise ship.

It is unmistakably exciting to arrive in your first port, usually research bases run by isolated scientists.

They are built around the more hospitable regions, where the local nature nest and breeding. Environmental treaties mean that a limited number of people can be ashore at any time, dozens of strong groups that have been brought to inflatable Zodiac Craft in strict rotation.

It is understandable that every landing guest must undergo the disinfection procedures to maintain the ecosystem. Clothing and boots are thoroughly disinfected, and fewer patients passengers quickly found an annoyance.

More than once, arguments broke out about who had to go on board the first zodiac – Cue some uncomfortable silences around the shared dinner tables of an evening.

Everyone has invested a considerable amount to be here, which leads to – and again, I am not unsympathetic – a sense of right to the optimum experience.

People want the best for their money, and for some that means elbows and passive aggression. Almost 50 percent of Antarctic cruisers are American (a statistics without comment).

Once on the peninsula, expeditions of half a day take place almost daily. People soon get into the process and start to turn off the lines, Jockeying for excellent places on the zodiac, waking up the equivalent of waking up 5 hours to put your towel on a sun’s radiation.

The excursions themselves swing between exciting and really shocking. This is nature, red in tooth and claw.

Paulet Island had 250,000 breeding pairs of penguins. Newborn chicks were raised while I walked between the nests. The parents do not move much and their bathroom facilities are very located with accompanying scents.

Food is a premium, so following amazingly bloody battles, and sea birds dive into to take smaller newborns and devour. PPP pick-up a penguin, indeed.

Photo possibilities are amazing, but with a limited time on the land everyone wants the same recordings, and so the aforementioned crowds Polar Paparazzi can become so good.

Statief was held as medieval weapons. The larger the camera lens, the more annoying the punter in my experience.

The animals in the wild here were about 30 million years undisturbed, so they are vulnerable to even small changes in the environment. Even with strict nature protection protocols, carbon from the ships ensures that ice gets darker and melt, and invasive species arrive, connecting a ride in clothing and food.

A cruise height of baths had to be cut in the thermal sources on Deception Island because extreme weather conditions may have grounded the ship.

The deflated, gray journey back to Ushuaia started early, the sleet felt even more rang.

Chunks of a travel schedule can be left spontaneously. For a 20-day holiday of £ 12,000 (including flights, meals and excursions), that is a risk that you want to invoice.

Again, I fully accept that I am very privileged that I had seen the Polar Coastlines that were once investigated by Hodson and Lindblad.

Now that the cozy parvenus such as Doris and Elmer from Iowa and people like, well, I, I, can damage this exceptional biosphere, it might be time to at least reconsider the figures.