The trip begins – Antarctica here I come.

The joys of travel, leading moments are moments of stress, but somehow they temper and things move on as they should.  If you enjoy reading about calamities then read on for a a bit of a laugh or skip to the next real adventures on the ensuing days.
Why is it that the days that precede a trip are full of tension ? Work was supposed to finish on Wednesday to give me some time to prepare – it did not.  I had most gear sorted but there is always something to be done at the last moment.  The events leading up to departure were dogged with minor mishaps.

Caroline wanted me to stay in an airport hotel the night before so that we can avoid any traffic break downs, I agreed, even though I’ve travelled this early many a time. I chose Ciloms because it was close to the airport, reasonably priced and  quiet. We ate at the restaurant, I had a rather uninspiring meal of what I thought was powdered mash potato, grey broccoli and rather parched salmon – should of chosen the buffet. I have stayed here on two occasions previously but was on the ground floor, this time we were located on the 4th floor – all night there was a low frequency thrumming, whether it was some malfunctioning air conditioning unit or the airport or what it was annoying and did not allow for a peaceful night of sleep.

I had a TravelSim card, I am going away for a month and it is registered for a month, so it had to be activated on the night before I leave.  Caroline wanted me to take the spare Huawai phone as well as the Iphone 5s, I declined as I felt I already had too many gadgets. Mistake. The Iphone was locked ! %#%$&***    Call to Telstra after umpteen minutes of hand passing: supposedly not according to Telstra, and it’s not our problem according to Apple. 2nd or was it the 4th call, after a bit of diligent querying to Telstra to an ‘expert’ there were indeed some Iphones that were locked, but fortunately they were able to unlock it. However it could take up to 72 hours to clear the phone for use,  ‘so be it’.

Monday 27th  departure

Not wanting to be rushed into leaving without a proper goodbye, I said goodbye to Caroline at the hotel and caught the complementary shuttle.

At the gate barriers I attracted attention, must be the travel clothes or that sinister look. It is a full body scan for me at the check in point  in a big imposing cylinder with serious looking staff all round, with the instruction to remove all from my pockets. Oops;  I left a boarding pass in one of my pockets “I told you remove everything” says this officious and imposing person at the gate,  I quickly moved down to tail between my legs mode and squeaked out a compliant sorry.

OK, buster – you still look suspicious you have been selected for the drug and explosive random test.  Yeh – get on with it. At least I have allowed plenty of time to twiddle my thumbs before the plane leaves. This charade of border protection is almost fun.

That was Melbourne, now we have Sydney. I am the suspicious drug and explosives courier and subjected to yet another ‘random ‘ test.  The joys of air travel today, if only there was a subterranean high speed train around the world – but give it a year or two once one country breaks ranks they’ll all follow through with the same humiliating impediment to transit is it is by air.

The flight from Sydney to Santiago was full.  I travel by economy or cattle class as its colloquially known. No complaints. I saw one movie and  slept most of the way to make sure I have the best chance of arriving less tired.  There was very little air turbulence.

I suffered from a good dose of hay fever coming in to Santiago. My sinuses were pulsing heavily giving me a a great deal of pain. Compounding this was the late arrival of the flight from Sydney and the shortened layover from 3 hours to 1 hour. I was down the back of the plane and it was slow to unload. The queue was massive at the gates and being an Australian you have to pay a reciprocity fee.  One person was attending the fee booth and 2 people handling passport control.

I bypassed the reciprocity fee booth hoping I’ll get away with it and managed to talk my way to the front of the customs queue. I’m told by some fellow travellers that Chile will catch up to me on the flight home, let’s hope that the international flight  originating from Argentina is enough to skip that inconvenience even though my transit is via Santiago

Punta Arenas: Magic of time zones – tomorrow it is still 27 November !

The trip in all was 22 hours from Melbourne to Punta Arenas. I caught a shuttle from airport to my accommodation for $10 USD – they accepted the US currency in lieu of Chilean pesos.  I stayed at Hostel Patagonia, it is a placed used by the locals and substantially less than the hotel Cabo de Hornos designated as the meeting point in the morning . It is clean, quiet and met my requirements for a place to bunk.  As it was still fairly early in the evening I located Cabo de Hornos as had dinner there; the food and presentation was good. I met up with a fellow passenger, Lynn who also happened to the be the ship’s doctor’s wife so we ate together and had good conversation. 
After several clock checks I decided enough was enough and awoke, or should I say arose at 6:30 am ready for breakfast at 7:00am.  The breakfast was good, but perhaps a bit lonely as I was the only one who had conversation in English, or maybe my tiredness did not led itself for conversation anyway. Shortly after I trotted off a mere two blocks or so to the right and across the road, somewhat earlier than the rendezvous for all passengers at 10:00 am. It was seemingly an eon before the passengers gathered and we departed on the coaches for the airport.

It was an eternal time at the airport before flight to Port Williams at 12:15.  Smarter move I reckon is to get to the airport yourself at 11:30am and enjoy some sleep.  It is, however an kindling of excitement for me; the sign “Antarctic Airways” had something to do with it. The zips are zipped, buttons done up, shoe laces tied, on the bus, on the plane, woke to the alarm, had my passport in my pocket hey I’m off to Antarctica !!!!
Before I flew I popped a pill. Sea sickness is not something I want and I’m all for the drugs and ensuring they have time to work. After a very famous trip I had on a friend’s tugboat across the Bass Strait from Hobart to Melbourne, I do not want venture down the path of ‘let death take over now – oh is there no compassion ? – I am still alive feeling again.  Plan flight to Port Williams, I think I was teleported: Phenergan is working but making me sleepy, like those of the pre surgery drugs and I am out.  Somebody prods me to say I need to get off the plane.
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At Puerto Williams we have a very nice lunch at Lakutaia lodge and a pow wow about the embarkation procedures. I am meeting lots of people but it is a blur. After that we are shunted off to just outside town via mini bus. We walk up to a view point and into the business area: a laugh because at 3pm it’s siesta and no one is open for business. So it’s  short walk further down to the ship.
Puerto Williams is still very much a naval base and has a small naval vessel moored alongside our ship, and naval accommodation all round.  There are quite a few birds and other animals around, but I cannot say of its value as a tourist destination as it was only a few hours that I stayed there. From what I can see there is a lot of nature to be enjoyed and the lodge is very nice.
Aboard ship we are given our polar jackets, Zodiac vests and had to participate in an evacuation  life boat drill.
Lookout ship mates: there is a loon in the the life boat !
Two life boats to hold 53 passengers and 33 staff. We’ll all learn to love each other should something serious like an evacuation happens.

I invested in the kayaking option, so with 5 other kayaking buddies I scored a dry suit, another life jacket – or should I say personal flotation device  - for kayaking purposes and some wetsuit booties. The dry suit felt like it was going to asphyxiate me, but then there is no point in it leaking is there ? Over time I will get used to it. For the 15 minutes or so of wearing it I was cooking, so there is not going to be too much of an issue paddling on the icy waters methinks.
It’s 11:30 at night and still light, a last hoorah up on the top deck  and I’m off to bed.
Ship down, like aircraft we have a data recorder: it the vessel is located.  No fear, unlike the esteemed famous (mis)adventurer Ernest Shackleton, Aurora has not lost a boat yet and Polar Pioneer is not about to join the fate of the Endurance. Crazy thoughts though, somehow I wouldn’t mind some wild seas or getting trapped in the pack ice so long as I was able to regale the story to my friends and the world as Shackleton managed to. (without the loss of our ship of course) 
More pictures and a map presentation:

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