Comparison of Arctic and Antarctic

The black Adventure Canada Ocean Endeavour...

and the blue voyage jacket.

The red GAdventure Expedition...

and the red voyage jacket.

In the north the animals...

were scarce and wary.

In the south the animals were curious...

and abundant.

We were mere curiosities.

An unfortunate chick whose feathers are not yet waterproof and who is obviously chilled through.

The rusting rotting whale processing station of Grytvikin.

The barren remote Elephant Island where Shackleton left 22 men who weren't sure he'd ever be able to return.

A model of the Cairn, the lifeboat that Shackleton and 5 others rowed for 1330 kilometres from Elephant to South Georgia Island.

Shackleton's grave on South Georgia, and our guide Skobie who'd spent several decades in the Antarctic region.

A map of Antarctica with the flags of all the countries who signed the treaty of 1959.

Comparison of the Arctic Voyage and the Antarctic Expedition.

GAdventure’s ‘Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica’ 
October 23rd – November 12^th, 2019.

Adventure Canada’s ‘Out of the Northwest Passage’
September 1-17, 2023.

John, Bruce and I have been lucky enough to travel to the north and the south and can now say we are ‘bipolar’. Both regions are obviously cold, remote, barren, bleak, and treeless, but they have their own natural beauty with the seemingly pristine environment, sea ice, glaciers, icebergs, snow covered mountains and incredible rock formations. I say seemingly pristine because of the unseen chemical pollutants and plastics that are migrating north. One of the attractions for people like me, is the remoteness, lack of traffic, congestion, and everything that comes with our civilization. In both places we were there in the ‘summer’ months and the temperatures were doable, as long as you wore layers and dressed appropriately. The Arctic is more accessible than the Antarctic. We were able to penetrate further north well into the Arctic Circle, whereas we never actually reached the Antarctic Circle. That is because the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land and the Antarctic is a continent that fills most of the Antarctic Circle and is surrounded by sea and ice. We were able to land at many different places in Nunavut and in Greenland, whereas we only really landed on one small part of the Antarctic continent. We did however land at many sites on the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.

Both trips were on ships that were converted car ferries from the Baltic and had ice ratings for sailing into minor ice fields. Both trips were small group, in around 120-150 passengers, mostly of the retired, affluent variety who were accomplished world travellers in their own rights. Both trips had about a dozen zodiacs for transporting us from the ship to landing sites and both offered the option of sea kayaking, although we declined. It was both expensive, cold, and awkward for taking photos while paddling. Both trips had expedition staff with unbelievable experience and knowledge, most of whom led presentations on their fields of expertise ensuring that we had a solid grasp of the history, cultures, ecology, biology, geology, and human impact of the areas. I learned a ton on both trips.

In the Arctic you have to work hard to find wildlife and in Antarctica you have to work hard not to see wildlife. The animals of the north are wary because there are predators such as polar bears and human hunters, whereas in the south there are no land-based predators, the wildlife is protected and as a result the animals are not afraid of you. It was truly wonderful to wander around penguin colonies and be looked at with nothing but curiosity. If we stood still they would come up to us, or just walk past. In the south we were given guidelines about where we could or could not go on a landing but that was mostly to prevent us from infringing on the animal’s space and change there natural behaviour; whereas in the north we were not allowed to land in any wilderness area without a perimeter of rifle bearing bear-guards who remained vigilant during our landings. In a couple of places, we had our landings altered because either bears were sited or fog prevented sufficient visibility for the bear-guards.

During both voyages we learned a lot about the explorers of the 1800’s who discovered new lands and claimed them in the name of their colonial government regardless of the presence of aboriginal or native peoples. In the north we learned about the disastrous voyage of Sir John Franklin who lost two ships and 129 men while trying to find and navigate the Northwest Passage in an attempt to connect trade from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His ships, the Erebus and Terror, were recently found by Parks Canada. After a long search a breakthrough was made in September 2014 when an expedition located the wreck of HMS Erebus, 80 km south of King William Island in Nunavut. A second breakthrough happened in September 2016, when HMS Terror was found in the ironically named Terror Bay, a little further north. In the south we learned about Sir Ernest Shackelton’s failed expedition to first reach the south pole, and later to attempt the ‘Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition’ which was to be the first crossing of the continent of Antarctica. In the first voyage he got to 88 degrees south within 180 kilometres of the pole only to realize that he didn’t have enough supplies for him and his men to continue and then make it back alive. Therefore, he turned around short of his goal. In the second voyage he never set foot on the continent as his ship, the Endurance was trapped in the ice, drifted away from the continent, and then crushed and sunk by the ice in 1915. They endured a year and a half living on the ice before they had open water. Thereafter Shackleton and his 27 crew made a heroic trip, rowing in a lifeboats to first to Elephant Island where he left 22 men for 4 ½ months, who survived the cold by living under their overturned boat and eating penguins and fish. Shackleton and 5 others rowed 1330 kilometres in one lifeboat to South Georgia Island in order to contact whalers who came to the rescue of his entire crew. He lost no one. Truly an amazing story, but it’s ironic that what made him so famous was his remarkable survival after his ship sank. I have since read another book, ‘The Lost Men, The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party’ about the trials and tribulations of his other supply ship who were to seed the opposite side of Antarctica with supplies to ensure he had enough food to complete the crossing. That team also lost their ship and three men died, and the rest later learned that all of their efforts were for naught as Shackleton never made the crossing. It is very interesting and noteworthy that the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, was the first to complete the northwest passage through the Arctic from east to west, and the first to reach the actual south pole (beating Sir Robert Scott and his team of 4 who arrived 33 days later only to find the Norwegian flag already there, after which they all perished on the trip back). Yet, in school we learned about the heroic British explorers, although the two I’m referring to were both leaders of failed expeditions. Unlike Amundsen, the British in their superior and elitist way refused to learn from and adopt the Inuit methods of dog sledding and wearing the warmer animal skin clothing. As a result, they suffered and struggled unnecessarily.

In the Arctic we learned about the culture and history of the Inuit but in the south there never were any indigenous people. Antarctica is governed by a group of nations in a unique international partnership. The Antarctic Treaty, first signed on December 1, 1959, designates Antarctica as a continent devoted to peace and science. Many countries have scientific research stations there and people do overwinter, but they rotate in and out and there are no permanent residents. I met a young woman in Alaska who had worked as a labourer at McMurdo Station, the American research facility for a summer (when they have 24 hours of daylight) and was contemplating an offer to work there on a year long contract. She was waffling because of the thought of the long dark winter (when they have 24 hours of night) and the frigid temperatures. I told her as awful and hard as it might be, I’d still do it because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that very few people ever get the chance to experience. In the Antarctic we also learned about horrible history of whaling and the wholesale slaughter almost to the point of extinction of a number of species of whales. As a kid I knew about the blue whale, the sperm whale and the right whale, among others, but never understood that ‘right’ whale referred to it being the right whale to harpoon for its abundance of blubber and oil. European countries used whale oil for a number of things but importantly as a source of fuel to burn lights including street lights. They had over hunted the whales and seals in the Arctic and when early explorers went south they reported on the vast quantities of them in the southern oceans; hence the further exploration and exploitation of the area and its abundant wildlife.

Both poles are experiencing the effects of climate change more rapidly than any other parts of the planet. They are losing ice at an accelerating rate which is causing a whole range of problems from rising sea levels to less ice for phytoplankton to live under thus affecting the whole food chain, to less sea ice for polar bears who rely on the ice of the frozen sea for their habitat and where they are able to hunt for seals which rest on and give birth on the ice. They can catch seals at their breathing holes in the ice and narwal and beluga who swim in the leads (open cracks) of the ice. For the peoples of the north the warmer summers are causing the permafrost (the permanently frozen ground beneath the surface) to melt causing buildings to sink and roads to buckle and crack. Scientists are studying the wildlife of both regions and trying figure out who are adversely affected by the changes and who is benefitting. We all know that polar bears and penguins are being negatively affected, but in the Arctic, grizzly or brown bears and red foxes are making inroads to the north as it warms. This is causing brown and polar bears of cohabitate, compete and perhaps interbreed in the same area. There was recently a report of thousands of Emperor penguins (from ‘March of the Penguins’ fame) who died in 2022 because the sea ice beneath their colonies melted soaking the chicks who had yet to develop their waterproof feathers. The chicks either froze to death or drowned.

Which did I prefer? That’s a good question and one which Bruce answered for all three of us: the Arctic trip was 8 out of 10 and the Antarctic was 11. Both companies are exemplary and I'd happily travel again with either. Would I go back to either pole? Both trips are understandably expensive, but I think if given the chance I’d go back to the Antarctic later in the season to see the rearing of the Adele, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins. If I went north again it would be to see the huge bird colonies that were mostly empty when we went later in the season. Speaking of birds, they were more abundant, larger and more interesting in the south with the albatross, giant petrels and all the different penguin species.

I have since bought a couple of books about the Shackleton expedition: in addition to ‘The Lost Men, The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party’ I purchased ‘The Ship Beneath the Ice’, about the discovery of Shackleton's sunken ship, the Endurance, found in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica in 2022.

A big thank you to our travel agent Denise, who booked John and my trip, flights and hotels on the Antarctic trip, where we met Bruce, and then our trip, flights and hotels for all three of us in the Arctic. When things like bushfires threaten the trip, it is very handy to have assistance from back home. (That in fact reminds me of my only real disappointment: since we could not fly to Yellowknife, I have not yet been to the Northwest Territories…). And a big shout out to my family, friends and you, who have read and/or followed my blog, especially John Mahaffy, who met me in Vancouver and started my North American journey is such great fashion and has made innumerable insightful comments on my posts. Thanks to All!

That completes all the posts for the North American trip, the question now is 'where to next?' Israel has been ruled out for now... perhaps Japan, Croatia... time will tell...