For many years I had to satisfy myself with being content to have traveled to 6 of the 7 continents. I was not going to risk getting seasick for 10 days on a Russian icebreaker to add the 7th. However, when Viking designed and built ships specificially for Antarctica I signed on. We had a lot of experience with that cruise line, all of it favorable. We were not disappointed (and I never approached being ill!). It's hard to adequately put in to words what this experience is like. Even photos can't convey the vastness of this land of ice, snow and quiet. Even our ship was dwarfed by the massive mountains we passed.
It's not akin to an African safari but it was very exciting, searching in Zodiacs for what we could see. This fur seal was majestically surveying his rock haven.
Bright blue skies laced with white clouds served as a gorgeous backdrop for the glaciers and snow-covered mountains we passed.
We lucked out and saw 3 leopard seals which, despite their friendly appearance, are vicious predators of penguins in the water.
The penguin colonies we visited gave us some insight to their life. Here a parent was not eating their young, but was feeding it.
