All new vacation: Antarctica 2017

All new vacation: Antarctica 2017

Oceanwide Expeditions has announced its 2017 Antarctica adventure cruise, taking travellers to the Ross Sea in Antarctica. Only discovered in 1841, the Ross Sea is a deep bay in the Southern Ocean in Antarctica. The 116 passengers will be carried by the Ortelius, a Polish vessel that formerly served the Russian Academy of Science and is specially equipped to sail icy waters. The 32-day expedition would take a route across the polar circle, arriving at the west of Peter I island, before sailing through the ice to the Ross Ice Shelf and finally reaching the Ross Sea. The trip then heads to the sub-Antarctic Campbell Island and ends in New Zealand. Two helicopters will be allocated to accompany the amateur explorers, taking them to remote locations like the refuges used by the first explorers to discover the region. Oceanwide Expeditions warns that conditions at one of the cruise’s Antarctic destinations “are the closest you get to the conditions on Mars anywhere on Planet Earth.” Travellers will have plenty of fauna to discover too, from the royal albatross on Campbell Island to minke whales and killer whales in the Ross Sea. Head to the Oceanwide Expeditions website for a chance to win a free ticket for the Ross Sea Cruise, valued at over $25,000.