Category: Stories & Inspiration

The best films about Antarctica It’s a challenge that any traveller to Antarctica knows well: conveying how extraordinary the White Continent is in real life. No camera lens ever truly seems to do its beauty justice. But what if you could travel there with a proper film crew? Antarctica has attracted its fair share of […]

Standing on the deck of an expedition cruise ship as you arrive at the Antarctic Peninsula, don’t look for any flag flying high over the territory. It doesn’t have one. Research bases fly the flags of their nations and when visitors arrive on expedition cruise ships they proudly wave banners to celebrate landing on the […]

It’s March on the Antarctic Peninsula, at the tail end of the expedition cruising season. Winter is in the air, with the days getting shorter in a blaze of terrific sunsets. On shore, the penguins are undergoing their annual moult in anticipation of spending the next few months at sea, and everywhere it seems, there […]

If there is one thing you can guarantee when you’re planning a trip to Antarctica, it’s that you’re going to take a lot of photos of penguins. Why would you not? For many people, seeing these endlessly charismatic little birds are a highlight of an expedition cruise to the White Continent.  But what if your […]

Three names dominate the public consciousness when it comes to famous Antarctic explorers, more than a century after they first stepped foot on the White Continent. ‘For scientific discovery give me Scott,’ wrote the old polar hand Raymond Priestley. ‘For speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope […]

In her new book A History of Polar Exploration in 50 Objects: From Cook’s Circumnavigations to the Aviation Age, polar historian Anne Strathie weaves the story of exploration in both the Antarctic and Arctic through a series of objects that often have surprising interconnections.  For Swoop, she has picked five of her favourites that help […]

Very few people get to go scuba diving in Antarctica. The extreme cold water conditions mean that it’s a location reserved for experienced divers, but for those who are able to meet the challenge, it can be like no diving location on earth.  For some divers however, the idea of diving in Antarctica isn’t enough. […]

If you take an ice cube out of your freezer, you’ll see that it’s full of tiny bubbles: microscopic pockets of air that were trapped in the water the last time you refilled the ice cube tray, a week or a few months ago. Pluck a piece of floating glacial ice out of the water […]