Diary of a Journey under the World – Part 4 – Stonington Island
David travelled aboard the magnificent Le Commandant Charcot by PONANT Cruises earlier this year on a half circumnavigation trip from Ushuaia, Argentina to New Zealand and what follows are his notes and highlights of a once in a lifetime trip to Antarctica in 2023.
David Heydon has been many things, nominated for Australian of the Year in 2016, the 2012 recipient of the Moore Medal, and a deep seabed mining pioneer. Most days David would be one of the expert naturalist guides aboard a ship, but today he is a guest on the Le Commandant Charcot.
David is an expedition cruising veteran, one who is uniquely specialized in the Polar. His extensive geological knowledge provides welcome insight into these regions’ many fjords and glaciers.
Day 6
The first stop on David’s journey is Stonington Island, a small US base used from 1938-1949. Later, a British base would also be built here, that one was used a little more recently from 1946-1975. This would have been used as a sort of base camp, inland dog sledding expeditions would have started here to map out Antarctica. The view greeting David in the morning betrayed no hint of any base camp, instead it was of teal icebergs and snow-capped peninsulas.
David and Jan confirmed the temperature on the balcony, before deciding on the amount of layers to wear (spoilers, it was a lot).
They navigated through the brash ice (scattered shards of small pieces of floating ice, usually no larger than 2-metres), towards the coast.
Where they were met by a landing team to help them ashore, you may not this pier is a little more natural than ones you might be used to!
They set off towards the base, stopping for a brief rest where needed, all the while admiring the Antarctic scenery.
The first part of the base they spotted was the dog’s accommodation, cages designed for the sled dogs.
The next part was the rather rundown base.
But after seeing the supplies, everyone is definitely better off dining aboard the ship.
continued in Part 5 coming soon…