Chapter 327: A Trip to Antarctica
As the plane flew from Buenos, Argentina, to Ushuaia, SC Johnson sighed that he had finally reached the end of the world. With a small airport in front of you, clean air and snow in the distance, you feel like you've come to a peaceful paradise.
The first hurdle you have to pass on a luxury cruise ship to Antarctica is to cross the Drake Passage, known as the Devil's Strait, located in the death corridor between the southern tip of South America and the South Shetland Islands.
With a length of 300 km, a width of 900-950 km, an average water depth of 3,400 meters and a maximum depth of 4,750 meters, it is the widest and deepest strait in the world. It is said that if two Huashan Mountains and one Hengshan Mountain are stacked in the strait, even the top of the mountain will not be exposed to the sea.
After dozens of hours of turbulence, the first sight of the Antarctic continent is breathtaking: countless snow-capped mountains, shining blue under the reflection of the sea, and glaciers piling up indescribable crystal and pure.......
I've been to the glacier before, but that feeling is completely different. In front of you is the most beautiful scenery in the world, the wind blows a little pain on the face, there is only the occasional sound of melting glaciers in your ears, you don't need to scale the time, just open all your senses, listen attentively, and feel the beauty of nature with your heart, so free and happy at the moment.
Finally set foot on the last continent in the wind and snow, the snow fell very heavily, you have to walk along the path of the expedition members, otherwise you will sink into the snow nearly one meter deep, at the commanding heights you can overlook the two bays surrounded by the pure white world, breathing the air from the southernmost point of the world, the South Pole is not as cold as imagined, the snowflakes drifting, the ice floes on the sea, the albatross flying over the sea.
Whales, which were originally unwanted, can be seen everywhere here. Breathing, hunting, diving, suddenly jumping out of the water less than 100 meters away from the boat, turning over beautifully, the splash brought out by the huge body is very exciting, it is really enjoyable.
Not far away, we found a leopard seal sleeping, chubby with left hand holding right hand, like a big doll, and Jintu penguin also jumped up from the sea to approach us, very cute.
In the distance, the mountains were like different animals, hugging the bay, but unfortunately the sea ice suddenly cracked, and we had to quickly retreat to the boat, which was a wonderful ice adventure.
Every landing site in Antarctica may be random, and after continuing on the Remeri Strait, the icebreaker docked at the hidden bay at the entrance to the Lima waterway due to the thick ice, and everyone cruised in the bay in rubber boats, looking at the icebergs, and also saw the roar of the sudden collapse of the icebergs.
Walking on the blue ice floating on the surface of the sea, with Antarctic terns and penguins on the ice, tying up a few rubber boats, and steaming hot with coffee chocolate and a little Baileys, this ritual is amazing, like a carnival of queuing on the Antarctic ice.
From landing to climbing the snowy mountain, you can smell the foul smell of penguin poop, and there are a large number of penguins on the bare stone slope on the top of the mountain, which is a gathering place for Jintu penguins.
There is a kind of beauty called slightly fat, they walk and sway, black and white with orange lipstick, very eye-catching, round and bulging figure makes people inexplicably like, every day diligently move stones to build nests and hatch eggs, go to the sea to fish, and are also lazy to nap in the snow, sell cute, pretend to be handsome.
In the ice and snow, a cloud of black and white staggered to you, easily sprouting your heart. Finally, arrive at the penguin's large colony, from the huge Adélie penguins, to the Gentoo penguins, to the cap-banded penguin.
From the initial freshness to visual fatigue, they may be chasing courtship, building a nest with a rock, hatching a calf, a little penguin breaking out of its shell, feeding, hunting on the way to the beach......
This is the penguin, compared to the ones in South Africa, it is simply ......
Here you can see the glaciers, the white world of the mountains covered by ice and snow, the calm wind and waves on the sea, this time it is almost dark, and the light shines on the snow-capped mountains before the sun sets, with a warm yellow.
Blue ice floes are scattered in the sea, with a lonely romance, the ice and snow begin to melt, penguins begin to nest and hatch eggs, and the warming of the sea brings a large number of krill and fish to attract whales.
I waited on the aft deck until 12 o'clock in the evening until the sun set, and the cold wind blew, and the warm yellow brought by the sun before it reached the distant ground level was a wonderful memory that people will never forget.
The next day, I met humpback whales up close again, the second largest in the ocean, huge in size, although the face was full of pimples, but the personality is gentle and well-behaved, often haunted by the sea, and the wonderful performance is pleasing to people.
Standing on the deck, a whole group of humpback whales surrounded the side of the ship, as if to say goodbye to everyone, reluctant to linger. Even if he was confused by the whale, he was still excited like a child who was like Santa Claus candy.
In the distance, there is a large yellow patch of krill that the tour guide estimates to weigh 10 million tons, equivalent to about 143 million people, more than the entire population of Britain and Germany combined.
A mature humpback whale can eat 4 million krill per day and weighs about four tons. Overeating every day for 6 months, putting on a thick layer of fat, and then starving for months, eating the same amount of food a day as a person has for 4 years.
Being watched by them, there is a kind of "Getaway" at the beginning of the north of the fish, its name is Kun, the Kun is so big, I don't know its thousands of miles of magic.
The behemoth flips its tail gorgeously in front of you, raises a curtain of rain, or spews out a rainbow from the probe. Whales frolic in the sea, full of curiosity about humans, not afraid at all, not even knowing that it was the whalers of the 20th century who searched all the way south to discover this continent.
May these sea spirits always be in the blue depths, and be treated gently by nature.
I went ashore at noon, and I was tired of walking, and the craziest thing was to sleep directly in the snow. , a person digs an 8cm deep camping hole and burrows into a sleeping bag. Cold, the first feeling is cold with a capital letter!
Wrapped in thousands of years of glacial ice caps, transparent ice floes and iceberg crystal worlds, SC Johnson is asleep, too beautiful to be true. Just a nap, of course, otherwise......
Pack your bags, I heard that this area is prone to ice avalanches, and the tour guide warned everyone not to stay too long. Just when everyone was walking forward, there was a sudden rumbling behind them, without warning, and when they turned back, the collapsed ice had fallen into the water, leaving only layers of waves, so sorry!
Then stop and wait, and with a loud muffled sound, the glacier cliff wall collapses, and the waves are all on this side of the fjord. Later, large and Xiaoice crashes occurred several times one after another, this shock is related to time and space, no one can say how long the ice and snow accumulated in the flood time, instantly fell into the sea, returned to calm, and awe.
There are no people, no roads and railways, no hotels and restaurants, no hustle and bustle, but there is the purest and most shocking scenery in the world, and the existence that is most unlike the earth.