Category: Epic Adventures

One of the great attractions of an Antarctic cruise is experiencing the White Continent at its most intimate. You see it from the waterline in a zodiac cruise or paddling in a kayak, and you hear the crunch of the snow underfoot as you step onto its shores. But how does it look when you […]

Few travel destinations can have such charismatic ambassadors as Antarctica and its penguins. They’re a highlight of any Antarctic cruise. But there’s one iconic species that’s always high on the wishlist and yet very few travellers ever get to see them. So, just how do you get to see emperor penguins in Antarctica? Head south […]

The Antarctic Peninsula is a frozen finger pointing towards the far tip of South America. This is the Antarctica that most travellers are familiar with, cruising up and down its western coastline from the South Shetland Islands towards the Antarctic Circle. Far fewer visitors make it to the Weddell Sea.  Last season I joined Swoop’s […]

Tales from the heroic era of polar exploration have inspired travellers to Antarctica for a century. The names of Captain Robert Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton remain talismans for many people planning their trips today.  The huts that these early explorers used as bases for their attempts to reach the South Pole still stand today, […]

There are a few places in the world where you feel like you’re stepping into a BBC or National Geographic wildlife film, but South Georgia is one of these. Its enormous king penguin colonies are a photographer’s dream. In November 2022 I was lucky enough to make my first trip to South Georgia and fell […]

South Georgia is often described as the Serengeti of the Southern Ocean. It’s a title that speaks of the outsized attractions of this thin speck of an island, because when it comes to wildlife, South Georgia truly is the real deal. If you’ve ever considered the Galapagos Islands, the mountain gorillas of East Africa or […]

No figure towers over the history of polar exploration than that of Sir Ernest Shackleton. On polar expedition cruises, it’s a rare voyage there that doesn’t include a lecture about Shackleton’s life and the epic survival story of his Endurance expedition. It’s a story in which South Georgia plays a central role, and many visitors […]

Heralded as the ‘Galapagos of the Southern Ocean’, the stunning island of South Georgia is packed with both history and wildlife. For anyone who has ever watched a David Attenborough series on heaving king penguin colonies or battling elephant seals, it is likely to have been filmed on this remote island. My first trip to […]