Ukrainians blaze a trail to Antarctica

It is believed that most Ukrainians’ dream is to spend their vacations in sunnier climates. That is quite understandable. However, there are people who prefer extreme travelling in clean, untouched by civilization places that hardly ever saw humans to relaxing on a beach. “Two decades ago, Antarctica was quite difficult to get to, it was visited by scientific expeditions only,” Dnipropetrovsk traveler Anatolii Aleksieiev says. “By now, it has become available to everyone.”

 Tourists come to the sixth continent on board of former research vessels – Russian, American, Australian, Chilean or Brazilian. In this way, their crews and owners make a living. As much as 30,000 to 40,000 tourists from all over the world visited Antarctica just in 2012, and the sixth continent is growing in popularity.

 “I have been travelling for a living since 2006. For some years, I had a desire to go to Antarctica, and in 2012 I was finally able to realize my dream. We assembled an all-Ukrainian seven people-strong team and set out for Antarctica,” Aleksieiev recalls. “There we scaled mountains, kayaked, visited research bases, and spent nights on the mainland. It was in February, fall in the Southern hemisphere, so it was relatively warm there. Daytime temperatures rose to 10 degrees Celsius, dropping to minus 10 degrees at night. We slept in large four-layered sleeping bags outdoors. We saw a variety of penguin species, both large and small, kayaked in the sea for six hours at a time, sailing between icebergs and landing on islands, watching whales, sea lions, and sea elephants and photographing them to bring home uniquely beautiful shots.”

 The Dnipropetrovsk traveler was impressed especially strongly by Antarctic’s natural colors, those of sunsets and sunrises, water and ice. “I have never seen anything like that elsewhere,” he admits. Getting to Antarctica is quite easy, in his experience. The plane, departing from Kyiv in the evening, arrives in Buenos Aires the following morning. The next stage is sea voyage by tourist boat, bringing one to the Drake Passage in a day and allowing them to land in Antarctica the following morning. Aleksieiev believes that physical hardiness is not a prerequisite for such a trip and a stay on the coast of the sixth continent. “A 92-year-old Belgian was on board of our boat. His father participated in the Amundsen Antarctic expedition and he wanted to visit these places at any cost. The elderly man survived the voyage quite well.” Still, wildlife encounters can be dangerous. “We felt uneasy when a sea lion swam under our kayak, as the beast can devour a penguin in a few seconds. It is scary to be close to a whale, too. Although whales do not attack people, they are just huge and easily able to flip the boat over,” the traveler shares his thrilling experiences.

 The Antarctic trip itself, according to Aleksieiev, takes about two weeks and costs about 9,500 to 10,000 dollars. Even so, the number of tourists is increasing with every year. Tour organizers have taken stringent measures to prevent disturbing the Antarctic environment and preserve its primordial purity. “I think there will be restrictions on visiting this continent in a decade,” the traveler says. According to his observations, global warming has not significantly affected Antarctica as of yet, although he did see an amazing view of a collapsing glacier falling to the sea in Greenland.

 Aleksieiev and his friends have decided to visit Antarctica again in 2013, this time in early spring, when penguin chicks are born.