The next day it’s time for our first real flight: hurray! We cannot reach the colony of emperor penguins, because there is too little sea ice. We have to sit down, try out the seatbelts and practise to walk slowly towards and from the helicopters – running is never allowed. The practise round means: gathering your life vest (and camera) and going to the helicopter deck, where the crew hands out ear plugs and divides each group into two: one helicopter can carry four passengers, the other five. One of the members, Roëll Tessels (26), exclaims: ‘Go Team Delta!’ The team members don’t worry too much about that, however – they cheer themselves up by ordering drinks in the bar and playing cards. We draw straws and Echo is the first to go through the practise run. The passengers are split in twelve groups, each with a name according to the phonetic alphabet – Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima… I’m in group Juliet. Luckily, we have our first helicopter practise round as soon as we enter calmer waters! Team Delta Watching these birds increases my desire to fly even more. They have a natural ‘filter system’ in their beaks. The bird doesn’t have a cold: it’s just the albatross way to get rid of the salt in ocean water. One of the expedition guides, the Dutch biologist Arjen Drost, points out to the drop of water at the tip of a light-mantled albatross. After that, they pay a brief visit to land to find a partner and to care for their young. During their ‘puberty’ – the first five years of their lives – they explore the open water. The latter are the real ‘emperors of the ocean’: albatrosses fly thousands of kilometres every week and hardly ever visit land. Crossing the Drake Passage means: a lot of encounters with petrels and albatrosses. We’ll do our utmost, but every expedition is different.’ Emperors of the oceanĭuring the next days, the excitement grows. But it’s unclear yet if we will succeed – that depends on the weathers, the ice conditions and the exact location of the colony. ‘From there on, we will try to land on ice and approach them by foot. ‘We would like to approach the Emperor penguin colony by helicopter as close as possible without disturbing them’, he tells us. Our Argentinian expedition leader asks us to come to the lecture room to have our first helicopter briefing. We await them with applause.īecause it is still quite windy, we have to spend the night at anchor – crossing the Drake Passage is already heavy enough in quiet weather, let alone in stormy weather. But I don’t want to miss a single second – I feel I’m in some kind of superhero movie when I see the pilots climbing out of their cockpits. The noise is breathtaking, I cover my hands with my ears, and it is quite chilly on deck. We have to wait a few hours before the storm subdues, and the helicopters can fly toward the ship. It turns out to be quite windy in Puerto Williams. While we leave the Ushuaian port towards the real ‘fin del mundo’, through the Beagle Channel, a few southern giant petrels soar around the Ortelius to bid us their farewells. The helicopters are not on board yet, however – we will pick them (and their pilots) up in Puerto Williams, Chile. On this special trip, we will be able to experience the Antarctic not only from the ocean and the land, but also from the sky! Two helicopters will make this special journey even more unforgettable. And I will be on board! What’s more: a Chilean helicopter crew will be on board as well. In a few hours, the MV Ortelius will leave the shore, towards the Antarctic Peninsula. The city is nicknamed ‘el fin del mundo’: the end of the world. It is the Antarctic Summer of 2016/2017, and I’m standing on the dock of Ushuaia, Argentina. Sometimes I cried myself to sleep, realising I would never ever be able to fly like a bird. A little bit of orange juice, combined with some milk, Coca Cola, sandwich spread and yoghurt surely would help me to be able to fly?Īnd indeed, after taking a sip, I jumped off the couch and for a few fantastic seconds (before I landed on the carpet) it felt like I could fly.īefore I went to sleep, my mother read me a bed time story: a chapter of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which was my favourite book. Oh, how wonderful would it be to be able to fly!īack home, I tried to mix my own magic potions, including all the ingredients from my parent’s fridge. My parents and I lived near the coast, and I loved to go to the beach and watch the gulls soaring through the sky. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a seabird. Flying over the Antarctic Peninsula was a dream coming true. Dutch journalist Gemma Venhuizen embarked on the m/v Ortelius during the Weddell Sea cruise ‘In search of the emperor penguins – including helicopters’.
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