DEPARTURES TRAVEL SHIP TALK 24 Antarctica, Here We Come The new Silver Endeavour has set sail, offering passengers a rarefied adventure with peerless comfort and finesse on a journey to the Great White Continent. THE ECSTASY IS palpable as you glide through a labyrinth of flattopped pillars of ice illuminated from within by vivid shades of cerulean blue. Born of glaciers and sculpted by nature, these vertiginous monoliths languidly sidle past like ethereal galleons. Weddell seals lying on rafts of ice are awakened from their slumber and slither back into the inky sea. The surface of the ice-strewn ocean suddenly erupts as the flukes of humpbacks rise in a fan-dance pageant. Such spinetingling moments are the essence of these esoteric voyages – which in the cruising world have no equal. Sequestered at the bottom of the planet is the elusive Sixth Continent. Once the sole preserve of intrepid adventurers pushing human endurance to the limit, this far-flung dominion is the ultimate bucketlist cruise ambition. In the wake of wandering albatrosses soaring on the wind, expedition ships visit unsullied islands that resemble a string of glistening pearls along the northwestern coastlines of the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. Travellers cruising A hike across ethereal Antarctic landscapes with Silversea in Antarctica don’t just observe this enthralling spectacle from the promenade deck; they climb aboard fleets of jaunty Zodiacs to participate in rapturous encounters with nature at its most candid. Many islands are colonised by Adélie, gentoo and chinstrap penguins whose vast rookeries stretch to infinity. On the beach of Cuverville Island, fleeting interlopers clad in bright-red thermal parkas keep their distance from these dapper black and white birds. It’s impossible to ignore their grace; for in spite of such a comic, officious waddle on land, in their natural habitat, their agility is outstanding. An epic landscape of glaciers and wind-carved snowy peaks is a Navigating a labyrinth of icebergs on a Zodiac excursion KRIS MARKOVSKA
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