Antarctic Day 3 - Tabular Icebergs and Elephant Island - March 2

On the way to Elephant Island, Captain Gianluca brought us up close to a tabular iceberg to allow us a closer look. Most of the bergs we had seen until then were "Glacial Bergs", meaning they are a chunk of glacier that calved off, and they are usually irregular in shape. However Antarctica has several massive ice shelfs where ice builds up that is attached to land, but floating on the sea. These shelfs can grow very tall indeed, and when a chunk breaks off it is called a "Tabular Berg". Our ship has 10 stories above the waterline, and this berg was considerably taller ... despite 8/9ths being under the water!

For those unfamiliar with Shackleton's voyage on the Endurance, I would recommend the book "Endurance" by F. A. Worsley, which is the book which started my fascination with the history of Antarctic exploration. Spoiler Alert - the Endurance was lost in the pack ice, Shackleton and his crew made it to Elephant Island in boats ... and for the rest of the story you just have to read it. Many of us on this cruise were self described "Shackleton Nuts" and so we were all super happy to have Elephant Island as our last area to visit before heading north.

Elephant island is bleak, forbidding and of course ice-clad. Not a place you would choose to spend the best part of a year, waiting for a rescue that might not come. Here is how it looked from the comfort of our cruise ship.

That is it for our Antarctic adventure. Headed north now but still another week of voyage to go!