When, in 2005, March of the Penguins brought to the screen the charming antics and heroic fortitude of Antarctica’s emperor penguin, it captivated a global audience, creating an instant overnight demand to encounter these marvellous creatures in real life. There are over 60 colonies of emperors in Antarctica ranging in size from a few hundred individuals to around 30,000. The northernmost of these, Snow Hill Island, is a smallish colony at the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, and has become the de facto colony to visit, being just about accessible to cruise ships carrying helicopters for the final short hop to the colony. The main challenge in visiting Snow Hill is that ice and weather conditions have to be just right, meaning that you have somewhere between a 10% and 50% chance of reaching the colony. If seeing emperors is your main or only reason for travelling to Antarctica, this, in our books at least, does not constitute great odds.
"You’ll hear their loud, brash calls long before you see them, and then suddenly you’re there among thousands of emperors in the cold Antarctic sun."
A far more reliable, and downright more thrilling, way to see emperors is to visit the colony at Atka Bay–one of Antarctica’s largest–located in the Eastern Weddell Sea. Luxury Antarctica operator White Desert has run successful trips to Atka Bay every year since 2017 in combination with a stay at one of their extraordinary space-age pod camps, Whichaway or Echo. You can even tack on a visit to the South Pole if you wish. In Antarctica, nature is always boss, but flying to Atka Bay by ski-plane makes the mission inherently likelier to succeed, and there is greater flexibility within your overall itinerary to take advantage of weather windows should the need arise.
At the height of the season, in late November when the chicks have hatched, anywhere between 20,000 and 28,000 individuals can be encountered. At this time chicks are preparing for their first journey to the ocean, while mums and dads are taking it in turns to fish as they build their strength. This is when White Desert operates its Early Emperors Expedition. Beginning in Cape Town, you fly five hours south to Wolf Fang in the interior of Antarctica, before transferring by ski-plane to your chosen camp. Over the next six nights, you’ll stay in a stylish heated pod with a private bathroom and glacier view, and savour gourmet meals, fine South African wines and cocktails made with 10,000-year-old ice. Each day, you’ll explore your surroundings on foot, bike, ski or snowmobile with some of the best adventure guides in the business. Activities can be as relaxed or high-octane as you choose, and include ice climbs, abseiling off granite ledges, summiting nearby peaks and, back at camp, yoga or relaxing in the sauna.
Then it’s time for your audience with the emperors. It’s a beautiful two-hour flight to Atka Bay. As you approach from the air, you can make out enormous icebergs that have detached from their glaciers and remain encased in sea ice, and there are often opportunities for some aerial seal and whale spotting. On landing, awaiting vehicles take you closer to the colony, and then you approach the final few hundred metres on foot. Little can prepare you for what you are about to experience. You’ll hear their loud, brash calls long before you see them, and then suddenly you’re there among thousands of emperors in the cold Antarctic sun.
Despite the isolation, the colony is a hive of activity. Penguins chatter, skuas fly around looking for vulnerable chicks, and there is a continual back-and-forth movement between the colony and the sea. Reaching the colony early in the season means you can witness chicks stepping off their parents’ feet for the very first time after an unimaginably harsh winter – a wildlife photographer’s dream. And with no natural land predators, the penguins are completely fearless, with curious chicks often waddling by ready to face the camera, utterly unintimidated.
It’s hard to predict exactly how you’ll personally react, but it’s a truly overwhelming experience to be here with the emperors in such eerily beautiful surroundings. The opportunity to witness one of the planet’s most epic struggles for survival is both incredibly humbling, and an extraordinarily rare and special privilege.
