Ocean Endeavour

Elephant Island is where Ernst Shackleton's second-in-command, Frank Wild, sheltered together with 21 men for 105 days while Shackleton and five others sailed off to look for help after their ship "The Endurance" was crushed by ice. They had landed on the part of the island, which did not get swept by the waves and therefore hosted also a penguin community, so they were able to store food for the forthcoming wait. They were eventually rescued by a Chilean ship and there is a bust erected to its captain, Luis Pardo, at Point Wild (named after Frank), which is where they sheltered. It is difficult to land here but from the boats you can get a perspective of how tiny this island was, which saved the men's lives, and you might get closer via Zodiac boats, weather permitting. Possibly, the odd glimpse of a Macaroni penguin nesting among Chinstraps or of Weddell seals that you initially mistake for rocks! Weddell seal pups are born late September to early November.

This volcanic island in the northern Weddell Sea is home to a huge Adelie penguin rookery and the pink guano stains feature widely in the landscape. You will also find an Antarctic shag colony and skuas also nest here. Leopard seal also visit as there are plenty of penguins for dinner! This island is also home to another dramatic escape, this time for a Norwegian crew from the vessel supporting Swedish geologist Otto Nordenskjold’s 1901-03 expedition. The Antarctic was crushed in the pack ice while trying to pick up various members in different places. Fortunately, they managed to make their way across the ice floes to Paulet Island, where they wintered in a stone hut and fed off seals. Sadly, one young sailor, Ole Wennersgaard, did not survive and is buried here.

On the fast ice about 400m from the low ice cliffs on the aptly named Snow Hill Island’s south coast is Antarctica’s northernmost (and most accessible) Emperor penguin colony. This is where you also find the Antarctic Peninsular’s oldest building, Nordenskjold Hut, now listed as a protected historic site and where 5 Swedish scientists and an Argentinean scientist unintentionally spent 2 years together. The perfect place also for fossil hunters.

Brown Bluff is on the mainland of the Antarctic peninsula and takes its name from its imposing brown cliffs - part of an ancient volcano.

The cliffs and the narrow beach below are covered in wildlife. If you land you may be able to walk (carefully) on the beach amid large numbers of nesting Gentoo and Adelie penguins. There is also a nesting kelp gull colony.

Other birds usually seen at Brown Bluff include nesting Cape and Snow petrels on the cliffs.

Leopard seals may be on patrol in the waters close to the beach.

Wilhelmina Bay, discovered and named after the Queen of the Netherlands by Adrien de Gerlache’s Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897 -99, when the latter made a valuable contribution to understanding the geography of the northwest coast of Graham Land. De Gerlache named the whole area Palmer Archipelago after the pioneering sealer and he himself was honoured with Gerlache Strait at the request of other expedition members. After sighting Alexander Island in February 1898 their ship became stuck in ice and they were forced to overwinter with great difficulty in the Bellingshausen Sea – the first men to do so in Antarctica. They eventually returned to Chile.

Orne Harbour is a cove one mile wide, indenting the west coast of Graham Land two miles southwest of Cape Anna along the Danco Coast on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Gerlache in 1898, the name Orne Harbour was probably in use by Norwegian whalers, because it was used by Scottish geologist David Ferguson following his reconnaissance of this area aboard the whaler Hanka in 1913. The harbour is a popular excursion site for tourist expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula. Activities including kayaking in the harbour and visiting a nearby chinstrap penguin colony, weather conditions permitting. Antarctic shags and Chinstrap penguins nest not far above the waterline and can be observed quite closely from zodiacs. The harbour offers some excellent views of mountains and glaciers from cruising zodiacs.

One of the more popular islands to visit and named after a French Admiral, Cuverville Island's northern shore hosts large colonies of gentoo penguins. The eastern coast hosts breeding kelp gulls and Antarctic shags. Look out for mosses and lichens growing in the cliffs and from a Zodiac you may well see leopard or crabeater seals in the water or on the icebergs. Look out also for Skua and Antarctic tern.

Half Moon Island palls into insignificance against the glaciated shores of Livingstone Island, that is…until you reach its shore, where its peaks and ramparts of volcanic rock stand out clearly against the icy cliffs or low lying cloud. Wildlife is mainly found to the southern part of the crescent and consists mainly of Chinstrap penguins or Antarctic terns, Skuas and Kelp gulls nesting on the more prominent ramparts. Wilson’s storm petrels nest at the highest points as do black bellied storm petrels and cape petrels. Weddell seals are on the beaches and by late January Antarctic fur seals start to arrive, gradually taking over the beach area. There is also an Argentinian station here, open just in the summer months. More recently Camara Station has been used for research by ornithologists and geomorphologists.

Livingstone Island is the second largest of the South Shetland Islands and is rich in wildlife. The island also featured on the sealers' route but due to its tricky shape including 6 important peninsulas it was only finally mapped and surveyed in 2005. Tourists mainly visit the southern safer side of the island. Southern elephant seals - the largest seals in the world- reside/visit here, huddling together against the cold as do Antarctic fur seals. Gentoo, Chinstrap and Macaroni penguins nest here. Birds include Snowy sheathbill, Skua, Kelp gull, Cape Petrel, Southern giant petrel, Antarctic shag and Antarctic tern.

Deception Island is one of the most incredible islands on the planet. It is an active volcano in the South Shetland Islands, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Its unique landscape comprises barren volcanic slopes, steaming beaches and ash-layered glaciers. It has a distinctive horse-shoe shape with a large flooded caldera. This opens to the sea through a narrow channel at Neptune's Bellows, forming a natural sheltered harbour. It is one of the only places in the world where vessels can sail directly into the centre of a restless volcano.

It earned the name of 'Deception' from the concealed horsehoe-shaped harbour. The volcano beneath it was formed 10,000 years ago but erupts still in modern times, with fissures and cones in the late 60s and in 1970 that destroyed UK and Chilean scientific bases. Seismic activity was also detected in 1992 but no eruption occurred. This volcanic activity probably accounts for fewer glaciers on the island than on other islands in the area.

Telefon Bay is a small bay on the north-west coast of Port Foster, Deception Island, in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It is surmounted by Telefon Ridge. The name appears on the chart of the French Antarctic Expedition under Charcot, 1908–10, and derives from the ship SS Telefon, which sat here awaiting repairs.

Points of interest include volcanic caldera, geothermal hot springs, scientific bases, extensive moss beds with the additional wildlife: Chinstrap penguin, Cape petrel, Antarctic fur seal, and Weddell seal, which is the most southerly of the Antarctic seals and lives mostly on fast ice.