Bransfield Strait, Antarctica
22 Novermber 2007
“Background”
On 11 November 2007 Sola, my daughter and I departed from Ushuaia, Argentina aboard the M/S Explorer on a cruise meant to follow in the wake of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endeavor. Little did we know how closely we would follow Sir Ernest.
The M/S Explorer, nicknamed “The Little Red Ship”, formerly MS Lindblad Explorer (1985) and MS Society Explorer (1992), was purpose built in 1969 for Arctic and Antarctic cruises. The MS Explorer was originally commissioned and operated by the Swedish explorer Lars-Eric Lindblad. G.A.P. Adventures, a Canadian based travel company, acquired the ship in 2004.
The first time I went to Antarctica was in 2004. I had a few free days before I was returning to Bangkok after being in Bariloche, Argentina to celebrate Simon Bonython’s sixtieth birthday with Jon Olson. Simon, Jon and I have been making annual trips together for over the past ten years usually mountain treks. Prior to leaving Bangkok, Gary Heager, a well-traveled friend, had suggested I visit Ushuaia to earn “visited the southernmost city in the world” bragging rights.
While in Ushuaia I took a guided tour to see a beaver lodge. Beavers, in Ushuaia? Yes, but introduced from Canada by enterprising Argentines after World War II for their pelts. The Predator-less beavers being left unchecked have become an environmental disaster as evidenced by large sections of felled trees. The beavers are felling trees on large tracks of land for material to build their dams; dams to create ponds enabling them to isolate their lodges from nonexistent predator bears. Entire hillsides have been denuded of trees resulting in erosion and loss of habitat for indigenous species.
At the end of the beaver hike, Alicia Petit, a local tour agent offered me a cruise on an icebreaker sailing to Antarctica but I had to be able to leave in two days. I explained to her I had left all my belongings in Buenos Aires and I had reservations to return to Bangkok with stopovers in Santiago, San Francisco and Tokyo as part of my return. I said if she could change all my reservations and secure my things in BA I’d go. She called me fifteen minutes later and it was all done. (I had a cell phone then.) Alicia became the link to sailing on the M/S Explorer.
I’ve stayed in touch with Alicia and each year she contacts me with Antarctic cruise offers. Simon, Jon and I were first offered an Antarctic trip while touring Bhutan in 2002. We all agreed it was something we wanted to do. Unfortunately for them, by the time Alicia told me about this trip in 2004 they had both left Buenos Aires.
Every year since then, Jon, Simon and I have discussed contacting Alicia to plan an Antarctic cruise. It wasn’t surprising In October, when Alicia contacted me to offer space on the first cruise of the 2007 season, that we all decided to go. It wasn’t too long after this that Jon remembered he had a prior commitment and could not go. Simon, a fellow avid photographer, really wanted to go on this adventure and said he would make every effort to be there.
Alicia reached me while I was photographing the Colorado fall color. Later that month I met up with Sola, in San Francisco for dinner. I mentioned to her I could not find anyone to go with me to Antarctica and asked if she would be interested. She had recently started working for Architecture for Humanity and wasn’t sure it was good timing, but thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She would check with her employer.
Sola and I discussed including visits to impoverished areas around South America that would tie into her work. The two of us have traveled together before in Europe, Morocco, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Japan; she is a wonderful travel companion. Kaze, my son, was in the process of getting advanced pilot training, so he couldn’t go.
Simon was able to get away just days before the M/S Explorer (not a Microsoft product) departed from Ushuaia. The M/S Explorer is owned and operated by GAP Adventures. GAP is an acronym for Great Adventure People, no connection to the jeans.
© Copyright Michael Morrissey, All Rights Reserved.
Article by Michael Morrissey is considered one of the new generation of adventure and travel photographers. Based in Bangkok, Thailand with a passion for travel, Michael got hooked on photography while driving a bus from Istanbul to Katmandu in the 70’s; an obsession briefly interrupted with a twenty year career in business. You can view his photography at: www.mjmorrissey.com
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