Ever since Amundsen pipped Scott to the South Pole in 1911, Antarctica has exerted a magnetic pull on explorers and daydreamers alike.
Earth’s last great wilderness has become, at least in the public imagination, a tabula rasa on which dreams of heroism and new discoveries have been written. Its vast ice shelves, tabular icebergs, storm-swept plateaux, savagely beautiful mountains and–at its fringes and on outlying islands–profuse wildlife offer a humbling yet empowering sense of reconnection with nature at its wildest. Make no mistake, though. Antarctica has real teeth and any journey to the White Continent deserves the utmost respect.
As the UK’s foremost expeditionary specialist to Antarctica, we at Explorations Company have decades of experience converting your Antarctic dreams into reality, from a week-long fly cruise to a trans-continental crossing of a month or more. If it’s Antarctica’s amazing wildlife that inhabits your dreams–imagine 100,000-strong penguin colonies, leopard and Weddell seals cruising through brash ice, humpbacks and minke whales feeding on krill blooms and orcas spy-hopping in the pack ice leads–then we normally recommend an expedition cruise. We work only with charter yachts and a small handful of carefully vetted scheduled small-ship operators with strong environmental credentials and who employ the finest naturalist guides–probably the single most important factor in determining how enjoyable your overall experience is.
"If the heart of an adventurer beats within you, then Explorations is perfectly placed to assist."
Cruises typically run from weeklong explorations of the Antarctic Peninsula to voyages of around three weeks following the footsteps of Shackleton or visiting the spellbinding wildlife colonies of the Falklands and South Georgia. Add-on activities such as kayaking, trekking and even overnight ice camps can usually be included. Those slow to gain their sea legs can opt to fly to King George Island to avoid the sometimes fearsome conditions of the Drake Passage. If you wish to explore privately, we can provision your yacht with helicopters and submersibles, allowing you to explore realms never before seen by human eyes.
If the heart of an adventurer beats within you, then Explorations is perfectly placed to assist. Ultra-remote luxury glamping operations, in Queen Maud Land especially, and in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica’s interior can be reached by chartered jet or ski plane. These allow you to experience some of the sense of awe felt by the continent’s early explorers while cosseting you in outlandish comfort. Here you can ski, climb, abseil, fat bike, trek, and go on snowmobile or kitesurfing expeditions, often a thousand or miles from the nearest other person, and celebrate your achievements with Michelin-quality cuisine and vintage champagne. Satellite camps and plane charters also afford access to the South Pole and the emperor penguin colonies of the Weddell Sea.
The most extraordinary adventures of all are the bespoke and often ‘world-first’ expeditions we design thanks to our unique partnership with Arctic Trucks. Deploying highly advanced logistics including the use of six-wheel-drive low-emission trucks, our private expeditions dovetail as resupply trips for science teams working deep in the field. As well as experiencing unimaginable landscapes, you’ll get the latest thinking from the polar experts and scientists we can arrange for you to meet. If you commission us to design such an expedition, anything from making a historic trans-Antarctica crossing to visiting a completely unexplored territory becomes possible. In an age of hyperbole, it is no exaggeration to say that such an adventure is truly life-changing.
