| How about taking an Antarctic summer cruise during a | | | | concerns. |
| northern hemisphere winter? After flying for a whole | | | | The Landing Among the Wildlife |
| day or more you start your cruise from Ushuaia, the | | | | Twice a day zodiac boats take passengers to |
| southernmost South American city. Once on board, the | | | | Antarctic landing sites. Cameras start recording as |
| hundred or so passengers having done their lifeboat | | | | soon as the life-jacketed visitors descend the stairs |
| drill on the ice-strengthened cruise ship, head south. | | | | into the bouncing boats. The zodiacs flit past icebergs |
| The ship takes two days to cross the Drake Passage, | | | | and swimming penguins and seals. |
| followed closely by albatrosses and petrels. Seasick | | | | The visitors wade ashore in their rubber boots onto a |
| remedies are recommended. | | | | shingled, generally seaweed free, beach. Trying to |
| The Antarctic Peninsula | | | | keep the required 5 metres away from inquisitiive |
| Like most Antarctic visitors you sail along the Antarctic | | | | penguins, the tourists record every move and antic of |
| Peninsula. The peninsula is the part of the Antarctic | | | | the penguins whether gentoo, chinstrap or Adelie. |
| nearest to the rest of the world, and is generally free | | | | Sleeping Weddell and crabeater seals are carefully |
| of sea ice from November to March. This most | | | | approached and "captured." The odd lonely leopard |
| northerly part of the Antarctic has the greatest variety | | | | seal patrols the penguin rookeries looking for lunch. The |
| and amount of wildlife. The wildlife, and the dramatic | | | | passengers are kept away from the fur seals; unlike |
| ice-clad and mountainous scenery makes the | | | | other seals they can move very quickly even on a |
| Antarctic Peninsula a tourist's paradise; the | | | | rocky beach, and they have a nasty bite. |
| temperature is only around 32 degrees F or 0 degrees | | | | The Antarctic Experience |
| C. | | | | Unclimbed black and white mountains rise from the |
| Antarctic Cruise | | | | sea. Around the landing sites the glaciers plunge into |
| A cruise to the Antarctic entails watching sea birds, | | | | the sea where white icebergs bob up and down in the |
| seals and whales from the deck of the ship. Staff | | | | cold blue water. Visiting the unusual landscape and |
| members give frequent lectures on bird life, sea | | | | wildlife is an experience that is never forgotten. |
| mammals, geology, Antarctic history, and environmental | | | | |