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“You’ll be tied to a rope and the doctor will be standing there with a defibrillator,” the information says, soothingly.
“Oh,” says Mandi, now completely terrified. “Great.”
Mandi is from Texas, and that is her first journey to Antarctica. In reality it’s her first time on something larger than a canoe – seems they don’t get many 137-metre polar cruise ships within the Lone Star State. It’s extra a ‘sunshine-and-Stetsons’ type of place.
“The idea of going to Antarctica was just outrageous,” Mandi says. “I’ve never been on a ship. I’ve never even been out to sea. I started panicking a bit, you know. What if I’m afraid on the boat? What if I get seasick? I had no idea what to expect.”
Mandi isn’t alone. Most first-time guests have solely a imprecise, Attenborough-ish psychological picture of Antarctica, fuelled by nature documentaries and shiny tour brochures (responsible as charged). Possibly penguins could be concerned. Bobbing icebergs… snow. That type of factor. Mandi is certainly one of about 50,000 travellers who go to the Antarctic Peninsula yearly, drawn by some deep, unshakable feeling that this could be the final place on Earth the place you’ll be able to expertise a correct journey.
“I came on this trip by myself,” she says. “People said, ‘you’re going on vacation by yourself, that’s weird’. But it hasn’t felt like I’ve gone by myself at all. I’ve made lots of friends. This whole trip, I’ve been completely engrossed in the lectures and talking to the scientists and all the people on board, but I think it’s the animals that are making me lose my mind.”
The selection and abundance of life in Antarctica does take folks without warning. Despite being the very best, driest and most distant continent on the planet, Antarctica is residence to over 235 marine species, 100 million nesting birds (largely albatross, petrels, skuas and terns), migrating whales, elephant seals, leopard seals and Weddell seals, purple blooms of polar krill, regal king penguins and toy-like Adélie penguins, waddling in squadrons throughout the ice.
“The first time I saw a whale was when I was sitting down to dinner,” Mandi says. “Just there he was, out the window.”
The factor that’s making Mandi nervous isn’t the wildlife, though she admits it’s been onerous to include her enthusiasm at instances. (“When I experience extreme joy and pleasure, it becomes part of the public record. I’ve been learning as I get older that I don’t have to say everything I think and feel, but yeah, it’s a process. No squealing in Antarctica.”)
The Polar Plunge has develop into an Antarctic ceremony of passage. It consists of turning into bathers – you remembered to pack a bikini in your Antarctic vacation, proper? – lassoing a stout rope round your waist, then leaping into the inky, freezing water. You’re not allowed to dip your toe or gingerly acclimatise inch-by-inch, both. This is all or nothing. A leap of religion. Think of it like skydiving from an altitude of three ft.
Antarctic waters, as you may think, are disagreeable for land mammals. Temperatures vary from 2°C to a blood-curdling -0.8°C, however if you’re paddling over a thousand ft of sub-zero blackness, residence to leopard seals, orca and different many-eyed terrors of the deep, the distinction feels fairly tutorial.
“My friends know how much I love the heat and the sun,” Mandi says, forward of the large day, “so the idea that I would jump into the Antarctic waters is ridiculous – like seriously ridiculous. It’s not me. I’m a definite maybe.”
Eventually, the ship drops anchor. It’s plunge time. Travellers hurry again to their cabins to alter, rising a couple of minutes later in bathers and nervous smiles. Everyone’s arm hair is already standing on finish. The remainder of the non-plunging passengers are watching from the higher rail, on the point of take pleasure in some mild Antarctic voyeurism, partial nudity, and the smug data that it’s not them within the water.
Mandi follows the opposite volunteers to the decrease deck, the place there’s a small, rubber-gripped dive platform. The water is completely flat and darkish, like liquid mercury. A platoon of medical employees is standing by with cocoa, blankets and defibrillators. Mandi’s expression appears to point that the presence of defibrillators is someway much less reassuring than no defibrillators in any respect.
She takes a deep breath, turns to smile that megawatt Texan smile, turns again, and jumps.
Interested in an Antarctic journey? Explore our full vary of excursions right here.
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