We Survived the Drake Pa.ssage to Antarctica (The Most Extreme Place on Earth)
In a land of crumbling ice, where the wind scours your face with ice pellets and wafts the breath of elusive giants, our adventure takes us past frozen moments in time, through ancient colonies of iconic clowns, and under heavy skies as we explore the indomitable continent known as the frozen desert.
I think I have to pinch myself. I’m in southern Argentina in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, the gateway to the Antarctic. It’s a really important port town. Before the construction of the Panama Canal, the only way to get between the Atlantic and the Pacific was to sail around Cape Horn just south of here.
And tomorrow, Mark and I are going to get on one of these expedition vessels and head south all the way to Antarctica. Well, this is it. No turning back now. Next stop, the frozen continent of Antarctica. Oh, yes. Very much looking forward to this. Antarctica is one of the most difficult places to get to in the world.
That made it one of the places I wanted to see. Had to get to Antarctica and I had a unique opportunity to do so, and so nothing was going to stop me. It’s hard to believe I’m actually traveling along the Drake Pa.ssage itself. I’ve been hearing about this place for so long from George, and all kinds of other Antarctic explorers.
And supposedly this is one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Pretty much the Drake Lake right now. Big swells, but not a lot of chop. The ship’s just rolling through this. Mark has never experienced anything quite like the Drake Pa.ssage. Of course, he was looking to me for advice and guidance because I’ve done it several times, and I know for a fact there was a little piece of him that really wanted the conditions to be bad because he was gleefully looking forward to getting photos and
video of me being completely seasick because I’m very prone to that. And I thought I was the one that didn’t get seasick. Here we are in the Drake Pa.ssage, the roughest seas in the world, and it’s pretty calm for the Drake. And I’m not feeling as good as I’d like to be. Oh. This is actually very calm for the Drake Pa.ssage.
Usually it’s much much rougher than this. Every time that I’ve taken this journey before it has been significantly rougher than this. So, I’m pretty happy. I don’t know what’s up with him. The way seasickness works is that you get a discrepancy between what your eyes are seeing and what your inner ear, your vestibular system, is perceiving.
And when you get those mismatched sort of lines of communication, your brain interprets that as you having been poisoned. And in order to save your life and get rid of that poison, your body wants you to upchuck. And that is sort of how seasickness happens. At least that’s the current sort of theory as to why.
We never really evolved to be living out at sea, so it’s an odd thing for humans to do. And that’s why so many people get seasick. Like Mark. Luckily, I get my sea legs without losing my lunch. Just in time, too, as we start to see hints of what’s to come. Approaching the frozen continent and our first Antarctic iceberg is right there. These icebergs just drift through the mist like snowy ghosts.
This one had a nice cave. Constant wave action shapes these formations, but you never know when it all might collapse. George notices another local phenomenon. We’re getting a bit of grease ice now on the water, and that’s snow that falls, lands on the water, but the water is very, very cold. It might actually be colder than 0° C, and therefore the snow doesn’t really fully melt.
It’ll land on the snow and form this greasy sort of film on top of the seawater, and that’s what we’re starting to see right now. The fog adds to our anticipation. We have no idea what’s beyond our limited view. Our excitement builds, and then things get really interesting. It’s amazing. Earlier today it was pretty calm, but foggy. And now we’ve got an Antarctic gale blowing.
I’ll give you an idea of how changeable the Antarctic environment actually is, a couple of hours ago we had almost no wind, a little bit foggy, we were watching icebergs. Now, as we get closer to about 9:00 or 10:00 at night, the wind has picked up considerably, the snow is flying, and the decks have become quite quite slippery.
So, when you get a storm in Antarctica in the summertime, it can be a real mess. It can be a combination of wet snow and rain and high wind. You get these low pressure systems that circle around the entire continent of Antarctica pretty much unimpeded by land because it’s all ocean. The storms there can be quite dramatic, but also d4ngerous.
All right, the storm’s getting a little bit more serious. I’m actually having to be in this lee protected area just so I’m not getting washed overboard or even blown overboard. Fastest wind speeds I’ve measured 74 km an hour. That was in a gust, but things have definitely ramped up since then. So, I’m going to be very very careful as I’m moving around here, but I did want to show you what it’s like to be in a summer Antarctic storm.
Gnarly. George and I go to great lengths to capture wild weather on camera. Sometimes we really suffer because of it. In three, two, one. Okay. Ow. Ow. Ah. It’s stinging my face. Every single piece of ice, little pellets, ah. Oh my god. That is nasty. Ah. Woo. In the Antarctic, just getting a wind reading is an extreme sport. Ow.
Oh. Talked out at 62 there. Let me just check it. 64.3 km an hour. Just in that little spot. We’re getting a lot of spray coming up there, so we’re going to be a little bit careful. Oh, man. That is painful. Truth be told, living a storm like this is a thrill, and we’re not the only ones who think so. We got some new co hosts.
A journey to the Southern Seas is no pleasure cruise, but what we see makes it all worthwhile. Antarctica is a land of legend. Everybody knows about it, but very few people have actually got a chance to see it. And I think in my own head, I had a certain idea of what it was going to be like.
I woke up, took a look at the window, not sure what I was expecting, but then I saw this. With much anticipation, we leave the ship to explore the landscape. Well, the native population of this frozen continent is exactly zero. We encounter lots of wildlife, like this guy. Even though he looks innocent lounging around, he’s actually one of the fiercest animals in Antarctica.
Gotten off the ship onto the zodiacs, and Andrew’s gotten us a very, very close through the pack ice, very, very close to leopard seal. You can see him right behind me. Now, this is one of the big ones. This is the ones that predate on penguins. We’ve got a very large penguin colony off to the side.
He’s not doing too much at the moment. He’s kind of relaxing, just hauled himself out on the ice. He’s taking a break for a little while. But, it’s sort of a unique opportunity to get this close to one of the larger predators in Antarctica. The leopard seal has a black spotted coat, powerful jaws, and long teeth, similar to its feline namesake.
These fearsome h.unters go after seabirds, squid, and even other seals. Penguins are their favorite prey. They’ll hide in the water under ice shelves waiting for the unsuspecting birds to jump in. We also spot crabeater seals stretched out on the ice. Seals can hold their breath for 20 minutes or more while diving down thousands of feet.
Their underwater vision is superior to humans, essential for finding food in dim, murky water. Seals have fairly long lifespans. Most live into their 20s and sometimes even decades longer. They’re big, too. Most are much longer than I am tall, and I’m 6 ft. Our guide navigates us through sea ice while glaciers come at us from every direction.
We discover an architectural masterpiece, but instead of stone, this arch was pure ice. And then we found out that 5 minutes after we stopped filming it, it collapsed. It was gone. So, those pictures I had have now That’s it. It was just a record of a brief moment in time while this iceberg existed. And now, it’s gone.
As we get closer to land, I can barely contain my excitement. I’m about to cross something big off my bucket list. So, this is it for me. I finally get to set foot on the driest, the wind1est, and the coldest continent on the planet. It’s Antarctica. The biggest misconception about the Arctic and the Antarctic is that they’re completely desolate places that are boring to visit and there’s nothing there.
Literally could not be farther from the truth. Many of my friends said, “Hey, why on earth would you want to go to Antarctica? It’s cold there, there’s nothing to see.” But, oh boy, are they wrong. It is a spectacular place. It is a wonderful place. I’ve been to Antarctica now three times, and it’s one of my favorite places on Earth.
You can literally close your eyes, lift up your camera, take a few pictures, and each one comes out like a postcard. We’re at Neko Harbor right now. This is a very popular place for people visiting the Antarctic Peninsula. It’s a beautiful, beautiful spot, and it’s very calm here. Unfortunately, the rain continues. For being the driest continent, well, it’s not so dry this week.
That’s for sure. But, we did see some big chunks of ice coming down off in the distance. So, we’re hoping for some more of that a little bit closer. It’s going to take a bit of patience. The one advantage is that the rain may add enough weight to the top to push it a little bit. Heard a crack. Yeah, nothing now.
The glacier was making noise. And as we sat there just hearing the this creaking and groaning, kind of like a slow opening door in a horror film. The advantage of tornado chasing is you can actually forecast it. This you just don’t know where it’s going to go, which one’s going to snap off and and crash down into the water.
There’s Mark. He decided to climb way up there. Now, this is a heck of a view from up top this mountain. You can see our ship down below. More importantly, you can see the dynamics of the glacier there. You can actually see where it surges near the bottom. That’s that cracked area.
And that is where icebergs are come from. The sound of a glacial calving event is like nothing I’ve ever heard. There is this cracking noise. At first, you’ll hear this crack, snap. And then all of a sudden, you’ll hear this booming rumble. And finally, as it hits the water, there’s just this huge boom and this low rumble of noise.
Wow, that was very dramatic. I’m up here on the shore and I hear this crack and I just have the chance to jam my camera into record and this big piece of ice comes off the front of the glacier creating this tsunami that comes crashing in. Oh, more ice. Here it goes. Funniest part was watching the penguins scramble for their lives.
They’re smart, they knew what was coming. They’ve experienced this many times before, but to witness it was just it it put a grin on my face not only from being able to witness the glacier calving, but seeing these guys trying to scramble up the beach. Life is harsh for the animals that live in Antarctica.
They have a hard enough time as it is, on a good day. The animals that live down there are so special. They’ve adapted perfectly to their environment. They They thrive in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth, and I have to give them credit for that. One of my favorite things to see in the Antarctic were the penguins.
They were everywhere, especially the gentoo penguins. This is what’s known as an Antarctic traffic jam. I’m going to wait for the penguins to get out of the way so I can walk past. They’re not very fast moving. Penguins are the comedians of the Antarctic. They have a They’re good at um physical comedy.
A lot of sl4pstick going on with penguins. They tr.i.p. They tumble. They slip and fall, and they’re hilarious. But once they get into the water, they are lightning fast. They’re like a fish. Penguins build nests on land using little pebbles, but even those are in short supply. It results in neighborly skirmishes as everyone borrows from each other.
One gentoo would come up to another one and sort of sneak up and grab a pebble and run for it. And the penguin that was sitting on there would start screaming at that penguin, and then another penguin would start screaming, and this became this raucous riot of everybody stealing each other’s pebbles and yelling at each other.
Stolen pebbles are the least of their worries, though. Penguins have about a 90% mortality rate in their first year. Young chicks are prime targets for skuas, a large brown bird that’s waiting for distracted parents. Leopard seals come next. They prey on the young chicks learning to swim and chase fish. So not a lot of little penguins survive the first year.
As we soon discover, there’s another major discomfort within a penguin colony. All right, folks. Time to set the record straight. Penguins? Yeah, they might be cute, but really they’re filthy, disgusting creatures. When you’re downwind of one of these penguin colonies, it stinks. A lot. And I tell you, when they come out of the water, they look all beautiful and pristine like they’re wearing a tuxedo, but when they’re up in the nesting site, they’re literally covered in their own excrement, and they don’t seem to mind.
While the gentoo seem to prefer waterfront properties, chinstrap penguins prefer an aerial view. As ornithologist Noah Strycker explains, this species isn’t any cleaner than the gentoos, thanks to their d1et. Chinstrap penguins are krill specialists, so they eat almost 100% krill during the summer down here.
And it’s a hard d1et to eat krill all the time, every day. That’s just hard on your system. So, every now and then, chinstrap penguins regurgitate the lining of their stomach. They just vomit it up, and it looks like this kind of greenish, yellowish, gelatinous substance. And then, there is another bird called the snowy sheathbill, and they are a ultimate scavenger, and they will eat those regurgitated stomach linings and get some nutrition from them themselves.
So, it’s all one big circle out here. We gladly trade a snowy mountain for a sunny beach. We’ve been waiting on this for days. The elephant seals are also soaking up the warmth, but they don’t seem too concerned about manners, grace, or dignity. These creatures were once h.unted to the brink of extinction, but their population has since recovered.
When we got up to the elephant seals, I realized how ma.ssive these creatures are. They’re they’re longer than I am tall, and some of them must have weighed like as much as a small car. They may look ridiculous to us and they may look like these giant tubes of fat. And yet that fat is a very, very important part of their physiology.
Without that fat, their organs would freeze up quite quickly. So, a skinny seal is probably going to be a de@d seal. We see evidence Antarctic conditions are harsh for even the largest of creatures. We cross our fingers the skies stay clear as we journey on. But, true to Antarctic form, the weather changes drastically again, bringing us snow and fog as we approach a known feeding ground for the curious, once endangered and gigantic, humpback whale.
It’s a bit of a cat and mouse game right now. We can see a couple of whales in Wilhelmina Bay here, but we’ve got to move very slowly and carefully to get them. So, uh we’ve got to They’re right ahead of us. Oh, there we go. Right right ahead right now. You see him? You see him? Yeah, he’s still right there.
Oh my god. Can you give me a word with the camera here? Yeah. That was the closest encounter I’ve ever had with a whale. He must have been 15, 20 ft off the bow. He’s right there. There is an a very eerie feeling that you get when there is a gigantic animal very close to view underwater moving uh in your direction.
Is this thing going to come up right underneath us? I don’t know. It’s right in here. He’s coming at us. All of the sudden, the whale popped up just about 4 ft off the back of the boat and exhaled a big breath. I jumped a foot in the air because it scared the p4nts off of all of us, and down he went again.
It’s magical to make eye contact with a 45 ft whale. And it’s such a fleeting encounter. You get a brief moment of observation, and then they vanish. I wish the tr.i.p was longer. It was such an amazing, unique place to see. I could not get enough. I keep going back to Antarctica just because it is so remote and so desolate, and so extreme.
And every time I go, it’s different. We can’t help but wonder if these views are for a limited time only. We’re honored Antarctica revealed even this tiny glimpse of her majesty and her mystery on our journey through the frozen desert.
