Antarctica: The Adventure of a Lifetime - Part 2: Sunset Dreams - Camping in Paradise Bay

After the fantastic sightings of abundant wildlife in the South Shetland Islands, it certainly felt like the rainbow I had seen at Ushuaia had served like a gateway to another dimension. But it turned out that the rainbow was to have a second meaning for the next part of my adventure, camping in a tent overnight on Antarctica.

According to certain folklore, especially regarding the Irish stories of the one lucky enough to find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow guarded by a Leprechaun, rainbows have also been known to bring luck. Being able to go on Zodiac landings and do activities such as camping in Antarctica during a cruise are weather dependent. Just like it is said that Everest decides who succeeds in reaching its summit and who doesn’t, Antarctica has the last word on what activities are possible on the day. As seen when crossing the Drake Passage and visiting the South Shetland Islands, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current together with the continent’s southernly latitude means that the Antarctic peninsula effectively creates its own weather, which is both highly variable and unpredictable.

An aspect of wild camping that I especially enjoy, as well as being out of my comfort zone, is how close that it brings one to nature, including the conditions that they bring. Such experience helps us to see ourselves in relation to the elements that we come from. Whereas most of the time while living within conveniences such as electricity, running water and being able to get what we need in shops, when camping out in the wild, especially on an uninhabited continent, all of this is suddenly absent. To help minimize the impact of tourism on the Antarctic eco-system and to keep the continent, no packaged food can be taken onshore, other than a water bottle and any necessary medications.

Spending the night outside of your comfort zone also often means having to dress outside our comforts and preferences of how we may normally dress in everyday life, but rather in materials that can cope with the cold and wet of camping on snow. For instance, it was strongly recommended not to wear cotton as when it get wet it doesn’t dry. As I found when trekking Kilimanjaro back in 2013 and during a bush in the Okavango Delta in Botswana two years ago, in the absence of any commercial activity, one must make the best use of resources at their disposal, as solutions to any potential problems can’t be bought. In such circumstances, one is dependent on good preparation and being able to acclimatize effectively to the conditions. This was a lesson tragically learned in Antarctica 106 years ago when Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) and his team perished during their trek back from the South Pole in March 1912, after finding that a Norwegian expedition team led by Roald Amunsden (1872-1928) had got there over a month previously. Scott attained hero status in the UK after the news of his death was made known worldwide a year later, but in more recent times, it has been suggested that ill-preparation on his part led to both his and his expedition companion’s tragic end. I will leave it up to the reader to decide whether Scott was either a hero, incompetent or perhaps neither. One thing that is for sure though is that the romantic appeal of the quest for the South Pole resulting largely from various tales of the ‘heroism’ of Scott and his men continues to keep polar historians arguing to this day and possibly for quite some time yet.

My home for the night on Leith Island

Arriving on Leith Island in Paradise Bay, a very curious lone Gentoo penguin had swum across to the landing site to see what was coming ashore. The night that the expedition team had selected for the camping experience was incredibly calm, with very little wind. Quite often, hazards that campers can face in Antarctica are winds over 30mph, strong enough to blow tents away, which can make putting up a tent a nightmare, as well as the obvious drop in temperature through the night. To cope with temperatures of up to -20 degrees, campers were issued with ‘mummy’ sleeping bags. Much tighter than a conventional sleeping bag, together with a hood and down filling, the mummy bag, I was to find, is very effective in retaining heat. Putting up a tent in extreme conditions is often a challenge, but when camping on snow, it is also quite a task to find a suitable space. To make as even a surface as possible to sleep on and to secure steel tent pegs into the ground, I found that I needed to clear quite a lot of thick now. The snow that I managed to clear then became very effective at helping to reinforce the foundations of the tent once I had pitched it. What was to be my home for one of the most memorable, and certainly unusual, nights of my life was now ready!

Sunset over Paradise Bay

The rainbow’s symbolism of luck I felt had certainly become reality with the conditions for the camp, as it was such a calm night. But the biggest stroke of luck I felt was to have for the whole trip was soon to appear. Lighting at polar latitudes can often create very beautiful effects, that night, those camping on Leith island were treated to an incredible red sky sunset as a backdrop to the Antarctic Peninsula’s mountains and glaciers. The rays of light were, which were almost like the reflection off a large amount of gold at the end of the rainbow, made it look as if the sky was on fire! The camp went still with silence admiring such a beautiful sight. Remembering Major Tim Peake’s advice during the virtual descent to Earth experience when seeing the Sun rise above the atmosphere, seeing the Sun set in Antarctica, with even the sea reflecting the reds in the sky, was truly a moment to savour, as it is not one I am likely to see again soon, if ever in my lifetime.

Truly a moment to savour

As it turned out, the symbolism from the rainbow had become true in being lucky enough to see such a beautiful sight. But was the red sky seen over Paradise Bay was to be a sign for the following day, relating to a certain age-old weather saying? What I was sure about though was that the peacefulness and serenity on Leith Island helped me to sleep more soundly than I had in a while, which enabled me to feel wide awake for what was to be another sight of wonder, which will be described in the next part of my Antarctic Odyssey.