Page 83 - WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE DISCOVERING ENGLAND

Left: Chinstrap penguins are accustomed
to ignoring cruise ships Above: Penguins
have the right of way everywhere

creases, rising layer upon jagged lay- ness patch made my brain worthless. winds could have kept us constantly
er in a frilly skirt of ice shelves that My body felt as if it were constantly at sea.
harden and break apart with the sea- rotating 360 degrees on a rotisserie. We encountered just two of the five
sons. The deepest ice, smashed until I did, however, scribble one state-
penguin species found in Antarc-
all air has escaped, is the purest blue ment coherently. tica, missing the stately Emperors
you’ll ever see. Mountains are whiter “I didn’t know what to say or write and Kings. Lindblad Expeditions,
than snow with nothing, not even until I left Antarctica behind,” artist Abercrombie & Kent and Quark
bird droppings, to sully their crys- Noel Miller said during a dream-like Expeditions offer longer cruises
talline sheen. Bergy bits glide like slideshow on Antarctic art. “I could that include more wildlife. Holland
lacy origami swans on glassy water.
“Antarctica is a frozen desert in a fro- not really fathom what I was seeing America and other lines offer cruises
that include penguin colonies in the
or find words to describe it.”
zen sea,” Captain Cavaghan said dur- Falkland Islands and Argentina. Our
ing a lecture. “Why do we go there? Penguin Sightings cruise on the mv Discovery was the
Because it’s the last pristine place in Our voyage’s shore excursions took shortest I could find that included
the world.”
place only twice during the week- shore excursions within Antarctica.
It was all quite fascinating, though I long cruise. We spent maybe three Though our stops were brief, we did
have few notes from the many hours hours total on land, and considered encounter two-foot-tall gentoos
in the dark lecture hall. My seasick- ourselves lucky. Weather, ice, and with bright orange beaks and comi-

Winter 2014 winedineandtravel.com 83