A year ago we were preparing to depart on our Antarctic adventure and now, having relived the expedition through the blog, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on Antarctica and the experience we had. It was so much more than I had anticipated that I found myself lost for words when trying to answer the “how was the trip” questions. I felt as though I just couldn’t adequately communicate the feelings with pictures or words. The scale was massive and the wildness complete. For someone who loves wilderness it was heaven. I am lucky to have been  born and grown up in South Africa and experienced the amazing diversity of life and landscape that it offers but, to me, the amazingness was always tainted by the hand of man. A degree of tunnel vision was needed to exclude the ugliness of the population pressure, greed, violence and exploitation so clearly visible in the landscape. The beautiful wild places were islands within this and you could not travel to them without seeing the other elements. Many can limit their field of vision but as photographers we tend to see more rather than less and turning a blind eye isn’t possible. Being well distanced, though not entirely immune from man’s influence, made Antarctica seem pristine and it was possible to marvel at every enormous landscape and the seething wildlife with no need for selective vision. It was a feeling I wanted to share but it seemed impossible. I have recently had an opportunity to give a presentation to a local Rotary Club and spent a bit of time putting together some images for this. It was well received so I may have been able to convey at least a little of what we experienced and hopefully encouraged others that may be tempted to head south.

Departing Antarctica gave me a feeling I have never before experienced. It was a sadness and deep longing to return that I have never felt for a piece of land before. The closest analogy was the feeling when leaving a person that you love. By all accounts, I am not unique in this regard, as many experience a strong desire to return to polar regions once they have experienced them. The net result was that I soon began researching options for heading south again.

When planning our trip I had initially wanted to travel south from New Zealand to see our Subantarctic Islands (Snares, Auckland Islands and Campbell Island) en route but cost and availability had made this impossible. On reflection this was fortunate as travelling to the Ross Sea is a lot further and we would have missed the dramatic landscapes of the Antarctic Peninsula. The logical plan was to look for a trip south the the Subantarctics as this would be more affordable.  I found a photographic trip for early 2016 but the cost in US dollars was out of reach so I put it out of mind. Edin was obviously just as keen to return south as I was and found a scholarship that she could apply for to go on a similar trip with the same expedition company. Her application was successful but the trip she had applied for was full so they offered her a place on the next 2 trips, the second of which was the trip I had already been interested in. To cut the story short, I was offered a very generous deal to accompany her on the second trip so we will be heading south together again. Edin’s blog post has details and it will be great to have a chance at more penguin and albatross images. This group of islands is a unique and extremely rich environment and I look forward to sharing the experience in future blog posts.